Hagi gets an Olympic sweetener and Aribo is set to waltz in Vienna
Rangers midfielder, Ianis Hagi, will line up against England next month after he was named in Romania’s squad – despite seeing his Olympics dream ended.
The Ibrox playmaker was included in the pool for friendlies against Georgia and England, which will be Gareth Southgate’s side’s penultimate game before they play in Euro 2020, where they face Scotland in a Wembley showdown.
Rangers informed the Romanian FA they wouldn’t release Hagi for the Olympic football tournament because it coincides with Champions League qualifiers for Steven Gerrard’s team, where they will already be missing Kemar Roofe and Glen Kamara through UEFA suspensions.
The Light Blues’ Europa League nemesis, Slavia Prague, also won’t allow Nicolae Stanciu to travel.
Italian club, Cagliari, have refused to release Razvan Marin, and Inter Milan have said no to Ionut Radu going to Tokyo.
But that hasn’t prevented the Romanians from including the son of former Barcelona and Real Madrid icon, Gheorghe.
He won 124 caps for the country, and now 22-yearold Ianis is in the squad for the June challenge matches, where they will face England at Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium.
Romania manager, Mirel Radoi, said: “We want to play attacking football, and intend to take the game to England and Georgia. “So I have chosen a squad with many attacking players in it.”
Meanwhile, Hagi’s Rangers team-mate, Leon Balogun (left), has been dropped from Nigeria’s squad for the friendly against Cameroon in Vienna next month because of his Achilles injury.
Balogun, who has just signed a new deal with Rangers, is a stalwart with the Super Eagles, but manager Gernot Rohr opted to allow him time to recover from his problem.
Rangers midfielder Joe Aribo was included in the squad, and is set to play in the Austrian capital.