The Football Museum Bucharest was inaugurated

The former international Gheorghe Popescu stated, on Tuesday, at the inauguration of the Football Museum Bucharest, that he wants the museum to be a place of emotion in the history of Romanian football, calling on the former great players to give in custody shirts or other objects to be exhibited.

“I am extremely happy that finally football has its own home, a football museum where football lovers will be able to find important exhibits from both Romanian and international football. I am convinced that in this place the supporters will be able to experience football in various aspects, they will be able to see matches from the European leagues or League 1. I believe that the choice of this place is very important, because the historical center is important both for the supporters from us in country, especially for those from abroad, who always come here. I believe that the history of Romanian football is so rich, we had so many valuable players who performed in international football, that if we collected all the valuables they have, we would have to wait many years to finish them and then let’s turn to those abroad. We will get there too. We will try to make a mix between big players from abroad who will come to Bucharest, at various events. I want it to be a place of emotion in the history of Romanian football. Because we have so much history. Unfortunately, the present still suffers. I hope that the future will be at the level of the past, but we will have to wait. But history exists, a rich history, which we will expose here’, declared Popescu.

The former captain of Barcelona and the national team came to the opening of the museum with a small part of the collection of more than 200 shirts that he has, the Football Museum will benefit in time from the presence of the others.

“Over time there will be many collections that we will exhibit. Now, at the beginning, I brought a series of extremely important shirts from my personal collection. At the moment there is a shirt in which I scored the goal of the Galatasaray final with Arsenal, also the shirt from the World Cup in ’98, a shirt that I exchanged with Maldini. I am convinced that this project will be a real success due to the quality of the exhibits that will be in this museum. I have around 200 T-shirts at home and I brought only five now. Think what Hagi, Dan Petrescu, Lupescu, Ilie Dumitrescu, Adrian Ilie have. There are many exhibits that supporters will be able to see over time in this museum. I have t-shirts of Hagi, who was sitting next to me in the dressing room and I told him to give me a t-shirt too, because his t-shirts have an incredible value. Now maybe they are more valuable than when he was playing. I had the opportunity to play alongside important footballers, I have Ronaldo’s shirt from Barcelona, ​​from Madrid, Figo’s. I had the opportunity to play with three ‘Golden Ballons’ and I have their shirts in my collection”, added Gheorghe Popescu.

He appealed to Romania’s former great players to give the objects they have in the custody of the museum to be exhibited: ‘I invite the former footballers, who I am convinced have closets full of shirts, who have trophies and objects of interest for football lovers, to come and give them to the football museum, so that football lovers can also enjoy. I am convinced that Turkish fans will come and see the shirt from the final with Arsenal, or maybe from Barcelona and see the shirt I wore in the final with Paris Saint-Germain. There are many exhibits that will create excitement, joy, and I am convinced that there will be many players who will want to display their shirts. Think of the shirts Duckadam can display, Cămătaru, Dinu, Iordănescu, all football legends’.

Regarding the future of Romanian football, Popescu said that he would like the football museum to also house shirts of Ianis Hagi or his son, Nicolas Popescu.

“I have many T-shirts of Ianis Hagi and I would be extremely happy if he reached his father’s level and if his T-shirts were worth the same. Or my son’s shirt if it ends up representing something in Romanian football, because we all want that from our children’, added the former international.

“This idea started a year ago. Why this museum? It’s probably a nostalgia I have from my childhood, when I was waiting for the matches of my favorite team. And I was energized by the idea of ​​creating a space to capitalize on football’s cultural heritage. It is a mix of education and entertainment and has the potential to create communities and bring joy to millions of football fans in Romania’, said Robert Redeleanu, co-founder of the Football Museum Bucharest.

He stated that through a foundation, the museum will try to acquire important football pieces in private collections, such as Helmuth Duckadam’s gloves from the 1986 European Champions Cup final.

“We have a foundation through which we try to purchase very important shirts or all kinds of materials that are important in the history of Romanian football. We have an annual budget through which we will try such repatriations and we will also try to buy back Duckadam’s gloves. We will try’, added Redeleanu.

The museum will open its doors to the general public from November 1.

We hope to be able to open to the public from November 1. There are a lot of exhibits that we hope to put in the museum in the next week. We have relations with different clubs so that their exhibits are brought to this museum. We will also bring foreign footballers to Bucharest, we will have many events. It won’t be a museum that you see and forget about in the next three to four years, we want it to be a living space in constant change’, added Robert Redeleanu.

According to the organizers, the entrance price for adults to the Football Museum will be 49 lei for adults, and children under 7 will enter for free.

Part of the Golden Generation of Romanian football, Gheorghe Popescu, Ionuţ Lupescu, Florin Prunea, Florin Răducioiu, Ilie Dumitrescu, Anghel Iordănescu, Adrian Ilie, Basarb Panduru, and the mayor of the capital, Nicusor Dan, participated on Tuesday evening at the inauguration of the Football Museum from Bucharest, located on Gabroveni street, no. 24.

Cătălin Donose

Photo – Football Museum Bucharest