Hagi Orders National Team to Elect Captain by Walking 1,200 Kilometres to Stanciu's House in China
Gică Hagi has ruled that the Romania captaincy will be decided by a footrace from Bucharest to Dalian, with the winner required to personally hand Nicolae Stanciu the armband at his front door.
Gică Hagi has abolished the traditional vote for the Romania captaincy and replaced it with a single qualifying event: every candidate must walk from Bucharest to Dalian, China, and the first to reach Nicolae Stanciu's front gate will be named captain for the next four years.
The Romanian Football Federation has already begun marking the route with painted arrows and portable toilets, while the national team's training schedule has been rewritten to consist entirely of twelve-hour walking sessions on a treadmill installed at the Mogoșoaia base. «We are not selecting a captain,» Hagi said. «We are selecting the man who wants it enough to cross two continents on foot.»
Dan Petrescu, who first proposed Stanciu for the role, has been appointed official starter and will fire the beginning pistol from the steps of the National Arena. He has also volunteered to walk the first hundred kilometres in a tracksuit, explaining that «a recommendation without blisters is just an opinion.»
Stanciu himself has been ordered to remain in Dalian and keep his porch light on until the winner arrives. The federation has printed maps for supporters, and several Bucharest taxi drivers have already offered to drive behind the walkers with their hazard lights on, charging by the kilometre.
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