Rangers: Top European clubs want Ianis Hagi amid furious public Romania row caused by potential Ibrox exit
Interest in Rangers winger Ianis Hagi from “top clubs in Europe” is behind his father Gheorghe’s furious public reaction to him being left out of the national team, Pro Sport in Romania reports.
The Ibrox ace has only made five brief appearances this season after a year out with a major knee injury, and was left out of the Romania squad by coach Edi Iordanescu for their upcoming Euro 2024 qualifiers against Andorra and Belarus, prompting an angry response from his legendary father, calling it “serious” and “inexplicable”.
Iordanescu has been moved to respond to the criticism, claiming that “no one gets special treatment”, but the reason for the outrage over the omission is reportedly down to the chance of a potential departure from Ibrox.
The report from Romania says: “ProSport tried to find out what is behind this gesture of the “King” [Hagi Sr.], and our authorized sources talk about the real reason for the slightly uncontrolled [outburst] of the coach of the Superliga leader [Farul]: the interest of some top clubs in Europe for Hagi Jr.”
Brewing
Ianis has had a miserable time at Ibrox over the past 18-months because of knee surgery and he has only recently started to get back into the first team under Michael Beale.
He is a quality player when at his best and even though it has been impossible to see that for so long it appears clubs are gathering for a potential move.
Gheorghe certainly seems to see the possible opportunity for a Rangers exit as important, and the chance to put himself in the shop window with the national team would have helped demonstrate his qualities to potential suitors, so the loss of that stage and potentially a move that comes with it has sparked a major reaction.
Iordanescu’s reasoning that it is difficult to call up a player who has had so little action in months is hard to argue with, and is the same reason why Beale is only gradually reintroducing him.
With little to play for outside of the Scottish Cup for the rest of the season, barring a huge collapse from Celtic in the SPFL, there will surely be more chances for Hagi to get game time.
But that obviously isn’t coming quickly enough for his father who it appears has his eye on a departure from Glasgow to one of the interested parties.
In other Rangers news, Kenny Dalglish has dropped an “unfair” verdict on the Ibrox boss and asked “what’s he done?”