Romania and Hagi suffered a depressing time of it at the 1996 European Championship finals when Romania finished bottom of their group after having a perfectly good "goal" disallwed because the ball ricocheted back into play too fast for referee Peter Mikkelsen to see. Now the old gaurd have the chance of one last hurrah.
Scotland manager Craig Brown considered Romania the best team in the European qualifying section and Hagi was the key to everything. He may have stepped aside from the top-level continental mainstream - Galatasaray lacking the profile of a Real Madrid or Barcelona - but Hagi remains one of the most artistic influences around.
Hagi's talent was the first the subject of covetous attentions one month before his 23rd birthday in 1988, when the son of ruthless dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu forced Sportul Studentesc to "give" Hagi to the army club and then European champions, Steaua Bucharest.
In nearly four seasons at Steaua the owner of one of the world's most mercurial left feet scored 76 goals in 97 league games. This attracted Real Madrid but, while the Spanish fans liked Hagi, his team-mates grumbled about having to fetch and carry for him in midfield so he was sold to Italian club Brescia. It was the nearest thing to a move back to his home country since Mircea Lucescu, a former Romanian national coach, was the Brescia boss and three fellow internationals played there - Dorin Mateut, Ioan Sabau and Florin Raducioiu.
Hagi duly starred at the World Cup in the United States before returning to Spain. New club Barcelona, however, had no more intention than Real Madrid of bending their team strategy to suit Hagi's needs. He spent more and more time on the subs' bench before transferring to Galatasaray.
To his Romanian admirers, however, Hagi remains supreme. Thousands turned out for his wedding back in his home town of Constanta and it was headline news when he funded a western-style, fully-equipped dental surgery in Bucharest.
But, like so many players who love the game more than its rewards, hagi can think of nothing more important now than his last World Cup.

-From the official book of World Cup-