Romania World Cup stars accused of having 'angered God' after England win

26 June 2023 , 13:26

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Romania made the knockout stages at the 1998 World Cup, seeing off England en route

Romania felt they'd "angered God" midway through the World Cup in 1998 as their so-called 'Golden Generation' took to the global stage.

The European nation made themselves regulars at the world's biggest football party, qualifying for the World Cup in 1990, 1994 and 1998. Romania made the knockout stages in each tournament, but in 1998, after they'd won their opening two games, they decided to try and pull off a major stunt.

Dan Petrescu scored a 90th minute winner to see off England and afterwards the entire squad decided to bleach their hair. They had hoped to form a closer bond as a result, but coach Anghel Iordănescu thought differently after they drew their final group game against Tunisia.

"We've angered God," he told the press after their stalemate. A sentiment which only increased when Romania were knocked out by Croatia in the last 16. That remains the country's last game at a World Cup having failed to qualify for the last six tournaments.

Former international Adrian Ilie, who had scored the winner in their World Cup opener against Colombia, admitted to Vice : At a strategy meeting two days before our first game against Colombia, we asked Mr Iordănescu if he'd be willing to shave his head if we qualified after two matches. And when he agreed, we decided that if he actually went through with it, we'd dye ours, too. But first we had to beat Colombia and England."

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That is exactly what happened, which ensured Romania would make the last 16. Ilie added: "After we beat England, we made the manager cut his hair. Then it was our turn to keep our promise. At first, some players said they wouldn't do it, but we eventually all agreed that we would get it done as a team. So we had the guys at the hotel find us two local hairdressers, who bleached everyone's hair the evening before we played Tunisia."

The squad all bleached their hair, but failed to win a game after doing so

Romania would end up being beaten by a Davor Šuker penalty in the knockouts, meaning they failed to win either of the games in which the team turned to the hair bleach. Iordănescu's fears were realised and the best side in Romania's history failed to realise their potential.

Commentator Emil Grădinescu joked that even he struggled to tell who was who on the pitch with other colleagues even seeking him out for answers.

"You couldn't really tell who was who on the pitch," he said. "I'd heard a rumour that the players had decided to dye their hair, but I didn't actually believe it. At worse, I thought maybe a few of them had gotten highlights. So you can imagine my shock when we saw 11 blond heads bob out of the dressing room. Foreign commentators kept coming up to ask me what was going on, but I had no idea."

Samuel Meade