Mircea Lucescu

Octavian Popescu, the FCSB midfielder, is on the 13th place in the rankings of the players under 20, made up by the CIES Football Observatory (International Centre for Sports Studies - CIES), on the first position being Pedri, the revelation of FC Barcelona and the national team of Spain. The issue no.

Turkey's national football team has carried its hopes of claiming a berth in the next year's World Cup to the last two qualification games by beating Croatia 1-0 at home on Sept. 5.

Turkish national football team, under a new coach amid debate over the squad selection, visits Ukraine on Sept. 2 to keep its slim chances of advancing to the 2018 World Cup alive.

Romanian coach Mircea Lucescu took helm of the national team following Fatih Terim's departure last month, and his player choices have been the top subject heading to his debut match.

Turkey and Barcelona midfielder Arda Turan on Aug. 11 said he was ready to return to national team duty, two months after announcing his retirement from international football following a bust-up with former coach Fatih Terim.

Turan, Turkey's captain, had in June been thrown out of a training camp by Terim following a fracas with a reporter on a plane.

Romanian coach Mircea Lucescu took over as the Turkish national team head coach on Aug. 2, three days after Fatih Terim's departure. 

He is expected to meet with Turkish Football Federation (TFF) head Yıldırım Demirören in Istanbul.  

Lucesu was previously appointed as the coach of Galatasaray in 2000 and Beşiktaş in 2002. 

Turkey's Beşiktaş will put its unbeaten record in the Champions League on the line on Nov. 23 when it hosts Portugal's Benfica at its Vodafone Arena Stadium.

Beşiktaş is just a point adrift of the top pair, Benfica and Napoli, heading into the last two matchdays in the group.

Fenerbahçe, the Turkish giant that has undergone a facelift this summer by picking up Portuguese international Nani and Dutch star Robin van Persie from Manchester United, will return to the Champions League with a third qualifying round game against Ukraine?s Shakhtar Donetsk, after the draw was made on July 17. 

Retired gymnast Nadia Comaneci, active tennis player Simona Halep and retired association football player Gheorghe Hagi are topping the rankings of Romanian sport personalities, while association football and tennis are the favourite sports of Romanians, according to the findings of an INSCOP study released on Tuesday.

Source: inscop.ro

Nicknamed the 'King of Romanian soccer' and the 'Maradona of the Carpathians', retired football ace Gheorghe Hagi was born on February 5, 1965, in the commune of Sacele, located 35 km from the eastern city of Constanta.

Gheorghe Hagi, October 25, 2014
Photo credit: (c) Mircea ROSCA / AGERPRES ARCHIVE