Hagi takes out 4m euros from BRD for Football Academy

Gheorghe Hagi, the former captain of Romania's national football team and player of Steaua Bucureşti, Barcelona or Galatasaray teams, took out two loans totally worth over 4m euros from BRD to fund investments in the Football Academy carrying his name, with the funding maybe as the first one released by a bank for a football school. Funding through banks has become ever more common among the large football teams in the internal championship, but in the case of a football school such an investment is riskier as transfer sums are much smaller given that players are less experienced. Neither BRD representatives, not Gheorghe Hagi commented on the information by edition close. Hagi started works for the Football Academy, located on a 6.9-ha land plot in Ovidiu, Constanţa, in March, and eight play grounds have already been built. "Office sections, a hotel of 40 rooms and 120 places, a restaurant, a swimming pool and a sports hall are now under construction," Ciprian Mihai, a press officer with the Football Academy, told Mediafax. Hagi got the funding from BRD, a bank whose image he represents together with Ilie Năstase and Nadia Comăneci.