No Olympics dream for Rangers star Ianis Hagi as Romania give up chase

Romania’s failings at the qualifying stage denied Ianis Hagi any chance of appearing at the Euros.

Now it has been confirmed the Rangers man will not be featuring at the Olympic Games later this month, either.

The Romanians have finally admitted defeat in their battle to try and persuade Rangers to allow their player to travel to Tokyo.

Hagi was named in their preliminary squad for the football tournament after they had qualified for the summer spectacular for the first time in 57 years.

But Rangers, along with a host of clubs abroad and in Romania, have refused to allow them to play in the tournament because it clashes with important Champions League qualifiers.

Romanian Olympic boss, Mirel Radoi, was still desperate for a last-minute reprieve, with Hagi himself insisting earlier in the summer he would love to represent his country in Tokyo.

But Radoi has revealed he’s reluctantly had to give up any hopes of including the son of the iconic former Real Madrid and Barcelona legend, Gheorghe, for their matches against Honduras, South Korea and New Zealand.

He said: “I regret I am unable to include Ianis Hagi and, indeed, a lot of players on the original list.

“It clearly weakens my team considerably.

“It makes our task to try and get out of the group all the tougher, and we just have to accept clubs do not have to release their players for this tournament.

“It will be a very big challenge for us without our best players.”