Gheorghe "Gică" Popescu (Romanian pronunciation:[ˈɡe̯orɡeˈd͡ʒikəpoˈpesku]; born 9 October 1967) is a Romanian former professional football player who played as a defender.
Gheorghe Popescu, nicknamed Baciul (The Shepherd) because he was known for his leadership skills was born on 9 October 1967 in Calafat, Romania, starting to play junior level football in 1975 at local club, Dunărea.[1][2][3][4][5] During his childhood years, his father would take him to Universitatea Craiova's matches during their "Craiova Maxima" period, at one point Popescu telling him:"Father, the day will come when I will be in Ștefănescu's place. And the people will love me more than him!"[4] He started to play in the Romanian lower leagues for Dunărea's senior squad in 1982.[3][4] His first coach, Valentin Ghiță praised Popescu's ambition and passion from those years giving an example of a moment from the hard winter from 1983 when Popescu came to his house to ask him to go to the field and train him.[6][7] Ghiță accepted and trained Popescu even do the snow was up to his waist and the weather was frosty.[7][8]
He returned in 1988 at "U" Craiova where in the following two seasons he showed an appetite for goal, scoring 15 goals, managing a personal record of eight goals in the 1988–89 season.[1]
PSV Eindhoven
In the summer of 1990, Popescu was transferred from Craiova to PSV Eindhoven, coach Bobby Robson talked about the transfer 10 years later in an interview for The Guardian:"To bring him from Romania, we sent two washing machines, three televisions and other Philips technology to the club (n.r. Universitatea Craiova)".[2][8][10] He made his Eredivisie debut on 28 August, Robson using him all the minutes in a 5–0 home win with FC Utrecht.[11][12] He scored his first goal on 8 September, closing the score in a 3–0 with MVV Maastricht.[11][13] In his first two seasons, Popescu won two league titles under the guidance of Robson, afterwards winning the 1992 Dutch Supercup, being used all the minutes by coach Hans Westerhof in the 1–0 win against Feyenoord.[1][4][10][14] In his years spent at PSV, Popescu was a constant appearance for the team, also developing a good friendship with Brazilians Romário and Ronaldo.[8][15][16]
Tottenham Hotspur
He was transferred to Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on 9 September 1994 for a fee of £2.9million, being teammate with fellow Romanian Ilie Dumitrescu.[17][18][19] He played 23 times in the Premier League and scored three goals, including the only one in a home win with Arsenal when he defeated goalkeeper David Seaman after a counter-attack, helping Spurs (who changed manager from Ossie Ardiles to Gerry Francis a few weeks after Popescu arrived) finish seventh in the league – their highest finish for five years.[1][8][18][20] He also helped them reach the FA Cup semi-finals, where they lost 4–1 to eventual cup winners Everton.[21][22]
Barcelona
"What Gică Popescu did for Romania no politician did, so much publicity, so many good things."
However, after less than a year in England, he left Tottenham to sign for the Spanish club Barcelona for £3million, succeeding Ronald Koeman in the team.[15][23] In his first season he was teammate with compatriot Gheorghe Hagi and was coached by Johann Cruyff, about whom he said after his death in 2016:"He is the coach I loved the most! He was the greatest trainer I worked with in my career! For me, in a ranking of coaches, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd places are occupied by him. The rest, from 4th down...".[2][15] He made his La Liga debut on 2 September 1995, opening the score in a 2–0 away win with Real Valladolid.[5][24][25] He scored a total of five goals in his first season spent with the Catalans, including a brace in a 4–1 victory against UD Salamanca.[5][24] Popescu also scored once in a 3–1 over Sevilla from the eight-finals of the 1995–96 UEFA Cup as Barça reached the semi-finals where the campaign ended in front of Bayern Munich.[5][8][26]
In 2001 he went to play for Serie A club Lecce, saying in an interview for la Repubblica:"I think of Lecce as something romantic. It is the only team in Italy that comes from the south of the country. I am fascinated by the battle with the troops of the North. I would like to complete my two year contract".[8] He made his league debut on 26 August when coach Alberto Cavasin used him all the minutes in a 1–1 with Parma.[35][36] He wore the number 10 shirt, scoring a brace in a 4–3 loss with Bologna and one in his last appearance for I Lupi, a 1–1 with Torino.[8][35]
Dinamo București
After 12 years, Popescu returned to his native Romania in 2002, signing with Dinamo București, wearing the captain armband from his first game, a 5–0 win over Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț on 17 August.[8] The following games were not so successful, Popescu's play and the team's results being disappointing in the eyes of the fans as he committed a handball after which a penalty was given in a loss with rivals Rapid București and in his last game that was a 2–0 loss with Oțelul Galați he had problems facing Mihai Guriță who scored the goals.[1][8][37] After the game, the fans were chanting for Popescu to leave, telling Giani Kiriță who was the team's captain before Popescu's arrival to tell him to leave the club.[37] Kiriță applauded the supporters, a gesture that did not go well with Popescu who said:"In his place, I would have done it differently".[37] The next day, Popescu terminated his contract with Dinamo, saying:"I had to come to see for myself what is in Romanian football".[37] He would describe his transfer to Dinamo as:"The mistake of my life".[8]
Hannover 96
His final team of his career was Hannover 96 from Germany, making his Bundesliga debut on 8 February 2003 when coach Ralf Rangnick sent him on the field at half-time in order to replace Kostas Konstantinidis in a 4–2 victory against FC Nürnberg.[38][39] He scored his only goal in the league when he opened the score in a 2–1 loss with Bayer Leverkusen.[38][40] The last game of his career took place on 17 May which was a 2–2 with Borussia Mönchengladbach, that earned Hannover the point that mathematically saved them from relegation, announcing his retirement afterwards by saying:"I feel tired, there is no point in taking money without working for it until 2004".[8][38]
Gheorghe Popescu played 115 matches and scored 16 goals at international level for Romania, making his debut on 20 September 1988 at age 20 under coach Emerich Jenei in a friendly which ended with a 3–0 win against Albania.[4][42][43][44]
At the 1998 World Cup qualifiers he made eight appearances, scoring one goal with Iceland, a hat-trick with Macedonia and four goals with Liechtenstein.[42] Popescu was used as a starter by Iordănescu in all four games at the final tournament as they passed the group stage where they earned victories with Colombia and England, being defeated with 1–0 by Croatia in the eight-finals after a goal scored from a penalty by Davor Šuker which was awarded after a duel between Aljoša Asanović and Popescu.[42][50]
Euro 2000
Popescu played nine games and scored one goal in a 7–0 over Liechtenstein at the Euro 2000 qualifiers.[42] Jenei used him as a starter in all three group stage matches, in the last one he was captain as Hagi was suspended but he got injured after the first 30 minutes, being replaced with Miodrag Belodedici as The Tricolours defeated England with 3–2 and qualified to the quarter-finals where they lost with 2–0 in front of Italy, without Popescu playing.[42][51]
Final years
In his final years of activity at the national team, Popescu played four games and netted once in a 1–1 with Georgia at the 2002 World Cup qualifiers, playing in both legs of the play-off with Slovenia which was lost 3–2 on aggregate.[42] He played four matches at the Euro 2004 qualifiers, the last one, a 5–2 home loss with Denmark on 29 March 2003 was his final appearance for Romania.[42]
For representing his country at five final tournaments, Popescu was decorated by President of RomaniaTraian Băsescu on 25 March 2008 with the Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" – (The Medal "The Sportive Merit") class III.[52]
On 4 March 2014, Popescu and seven others, among them Mihai Stoica, were convicted by a Romanian appeals court of money laundering and tax evasion in connection with the transfer of football players from Romania to other countries. Popescu was sentenced to a jail term of three years and one month.[60][61] He was released for good conduct on 4 November 2015, after serving half of his sentence, the books he wrote and published during his imprisonment also helping towards his reduced sentence as customary for Romanian law.[62]
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