At 80 years of age, the Romania coach is still chasing the World Cup after an unparalleled career: “Anconetani’s gifts, Brescia chosen with notes, Moratti in love with strikers. I was a winger with exceptional crosses, thanks to which Georgescu won the Golden Boot.”

“Everywhere is beautiful if you feel good, everywhere is ugly if you feel bad.” Mircea Lucescu says this because he knows: he has coached and won 36 cups (surpassed only by Guardiola and Ferguson) in five countries. At 80, he leads Romania and dreams of going to the World Cup. Lucescu didn’t just win in soccer, he invented. Starting with himself: “I attended the School of Economics in Bucharest, and at the time, students weren’t allowed to train with the pros. So I worked on my own, and managed to bring my left foot up to the same level as my right.”

What kind of player was Mircea Lucescu?

“A winger with exceptional crosses, thanks to which Georgescu won the Golden Boot. I played for Dinamo Bucharest for 10 years, joined the national team, and in 1970 I was captain of Romania against Pelé’s Brazil. I was also invited to play for Fluminense. They noticed me in a four-team tournament at the Maracanã: Romania, Flamengo, Vasco da Gama, and Independiente. I was the best player, and they gave me a car radio as a prize. Then, in 1977, the earthquake hit Bucharest…“

And what happened?

”My house was destroyed, and I had to flee. In Hunedoara, they helped me, and I helped them: I became a player and coach. I didn’t follow everyone else’s style of soccer; I developed my own mentality. First thing: education, at all levels. Then discipline, not imposed, but based on respect, and instruction: I took the kids to museums, the theater, factories; they had to understand the world. Finally, tactics and different working methods. I play in a hyper-offensive way: ball possession, cuts, creating space, pressing, tactical fouls if necessary. What they do today, I was doing 50 years ago.”

What was soccer like in Ceausescu’s time?

“I can’t win the championship with Dinamo because his son is at Steaua, but I’m in a delicate position because I also coach the national team. There, too, I do things my way: I immediately bring in 3-4 young players from provincial clubs. Everyone was against me, so we organized a friendly match: my team against a selection of the best players in Bucharest chosen by journalists. We beat them 3-1. That’s when they realized that my ideas worked. To prepare for the 1984 European Championship qualifiers, I took the boys to South America: we played against Argentina, Chile, Peru, and in El Salvador there was a revolution and we had to run at night… But it was very useful, we won the qualifying group, even beating world champions Italy. In 1986, I was sacked, three years later Ceausescu fell and I won the league and cup. Do you know where I was when I heard the news?

Where?

“In Cagliari, as a guest of Anconetani for Italy-Argentina. In the end, I accepted his offer; I liked him. But working with him was difficult; he always wanted to be the center of attention. You remember him with the salt on the field, right? I have fond memories of him, a cheerful man, a fervent Catholic who never misses mass at Piazza dei Miracoli, generous: every time we go to Montecatini, he gives the players a gift. But he also wants to make money: he sells me one a month, then kicks me out.“

And then Brescia came along.

”By chance. Corioni wanted me, but Standard Liege and Porto also wanted me. So my wife, my son, and I wrote three notes and drew lots. At the time of the draw, however, one was missing, which was strange. I found it two days later, stuck under a shoe: Brescia. A sign of destiny.”

Corioni, another of his legendary presidents.

“A man with extraordinary intuition. Italy thrives on colonies: the Dutch at Milan, the Germans at Inter, the Uruguayans at Cagliari… so I convinced him to make Brescia Romanian. We took Hagi, who wasn’t happy at Real: he trusted us, made a smart choice, played a great World Cup two years later, and Cruijff called him to Barça. The great thing about Corioni is that with him I can launch young players, he’s happy because he can sell them later. I field Pirlo at 16 in the 2-1 against Ipswich in the Anglo-Italian Cup, he loses the ball and they make it 2-2, then I have to argue with Luzardi who accuses me of putting the kid in…”

On to Moratti.

“A true gentleman, he tried to convince me to stay, but I had 10 players whose contracts were expiring at Inter, and he had let it be known that he would be bringing in Lippi the following year, which caused me problems. Moratti: he’s the soul of the club, you can feel his love, he’s an example of a golden age when Italian soccer belonged to the big families. Today, that’s no longer the case: funds, consortiums, foreigners… yes, we play, we do business, but soccer has gone from being fun to being an event.”

But what an attack that Inter had…

“Baggio, Djorkaeff, Recoba, Ronaldo, Zamorano… Moratti is in love with strikers. If he had also signed some strong defenders, who knows how much that Inter team would have won. I have an exceptional relationship with Ronie: a friend brings me oranges from Sicily, I give him some and he repays me with bottles of Brahma beer.”

Akhmetov, the man behind Shakhtar’s dream.

“I tell him that before we can build a great team, we have to play great football. I don’t want champions, I want talents to develop, and I know the Brazilians well. I see Neymar and Casemiro, who are very good, but I’m told they’re not available. Okay, what about the others? Douglas Costa, Teixeira, and Fernandinho arrive, and we create a system whereby Shakhtar earns a lot and if it sells one player, it already has a replacement. Akhmetov doesn’t do it for himself; he invests everything in the team. He builds the most beautiful stadium in Europe, we beat the big teams, we are young, strong, and we play great. We win the UEFA Cup and every year we reach the Champions League quarter-finals or thereabouts. Do you know how difficult it is to legitimize a team from the East at that level? If the war in Donbass hadn’t come along, maybe we could have won it, the Champions League, one day. Akhmetov is a wonderful president because he wants to learn. After the games, we go out for dinner or karaoke because he loves to sing, and we talk about football and life.”

A few years later, he went to rivals Dynamo Kyiv…

“They called me, I thought they wanted some friendly advice, but instead they asked me to take over the team that had lost the championship by 23 points. I accepted, and with the same players, I won it by 11. One day they told me that 30 million had come in and they wanted to know who to buy. I replied: no one, rather build a new gym and buy some minibuses for the youth teams. These are the purchases that last.”

In 1970, at the end of the match, he swapped shirts with Pelé.

“I still have it. It’s covered in dirt, I’ve never washed it. I framed it, it’s in a museum.”