Former Romanian international footballer Gheorghe Popescu said on Tuesday at the opening of the Football Museum Bucharest that he wants the museum to be a place of emotion in the history of Romanian football, calling on former great players to donate their shirts and other personal belongings to be exhibited there.

"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 fans will be able to experience various aspects of football, they will be able to watch European Leagues and League 1 matches. I think that the choice of this place is very important, because the historical centre is important both to the Romanian fans, and especially to those coming from abroad, who always come here. I think that the history of Romanian football is so rich; we had so many valuable players who played in international football, that if we were to collect all the valuables they have, we would have to wait many years to exhaust them and then to ask for more from abroad. We will get there too. We will try to make a mix of big players from abroad who will come to Bucharest, for various events. I want this 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 match up the past, but we will have to wait and see. But there is history, a rich history, which we will display here," said Popescu.

The former captain of Barcelona and the Romanian team came to the opening of the museum with a small part of a personal collection of over 200 shirts, and more will be added at the museum.

"Over time, there will be many collections that we will display. For starters, I have brought over a series of extremely important shirts from my personal collection. At the moment, there is a shirt I was wearing when I scored the goal in the Galatasaray vs. Arsenal final; there is also my shirt from the 1998 World Cup, a shirt that I exchanged with Maldini. I am convinced that this project will be a real success because of the quality of the exhibits that will be on display in this museum. I have around 200 t-shirts and I brought over only five now. Think what Hagi, Dan Petrescu, Lupescu, Ilie Dumitrescu, Adrian Ilie have. There are many exhibits that the fans will be able to see in time in this museum. I have t-shirts of Hagi, who would sit next to me in the lockers and I would tell him to give me a shirt too, because his shirts have an incredible value. They are maybe more valuable now than when he was playing. I had the opportunity to play with important footballers, I have Ronaldo's shirt from Barcelona, Figo's from Madrid. I had the opportunity to play with three 'Ballons d'Or' recipients and I have their shirts in my collection," added Popescu.

He called on former great players of Romania to loan items they have to the museum to be exhibited: "I am inviting 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 loan them to the football museum, so that football lovers can also enjoy them. I am sure that Turkish fans will come and see the shirt from the final with Arsenal, or maybe from Barcelona and they will see the shirt that I donned in the final with Paris Saint-Germain. There are many exhibits that will create emotion, joy, and I am convinced that there will be many players who will want to display their shirts. Think Duckadam, Camataru, Dinu, Iordanescu, all football legends, what shirts can be displayed."

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 shirts of Ianis Hagi and I would be extremely happy if he reaches his father's level and his shirts end up being worth the same. Or my son's shirt if he ends up representing something in Romanian football, because we all want that from our children," added the former international player.

"This idea started a year ago. Why this museum? It's probably childhood nostalgia as I was waiting for the matches of my favorite team. And I was energised by the idea of creating a place to capitalise on the football cultural heritage. It is a mix of education and entertainment and it 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 said that a foundation will try to acquire important football paraphernalia from private collections, such as Helmuth Duckadam's gloves from the 1986 European Champions Cup final.

The museum opens to the public on November 1.

According to the organisers, admission to the Football Museum will be RON 49 lei for adults, while admission for children under seven will be free.

Some players of the golden generation of the Romanian football - Gheorghe Popescu, Ionut Lupescu, Florin Prunea, Florin Raducioiu, Ilie Dumitrescu, Anghel Iordanescu, Adrian Ilie, Basarb Panduru - and Bucharest City Mayor Nicusor Dan participated on Tuesday evening in the opening of the Football Museum Bucharest, located on 24 Gabroveni Street.

AGERPRES is a media partner of the museum. AGERPRES (RO - author: Adrian Tone, editor: Mihai Tenea; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)