Popescu Used to Totally Check Out His Teammates

Well they gave him a number 10 shirt but nobody in Ceausescu's Romania took away his name.

Doesn't mean Gheorghe Popescu wasn't a secret agent man.

Gheorghe "Gica" Popescu, the former captain of Romania's national football team, has admitted being an informer for the country's secret police during the communist era.

Popescu was part of the Romanian squad that qualified for three straight World Cups (1990, 94, and 98). Hey, we hosted in 1994, so was he spying on us from the pitch?

No.

Popescu was an informant for Ceausescu's government from 1986 to 1989, the year the Romanian ruler was finally tossed into the grave he had been digging himself. The Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc satellite states were pretty much casualties of history by the time we hosted the World Cup.

Popescu comes off as more of a tattle tale than any kind of cool man of mystery engaging in espionage. Ceausescu's government kept close tabs on its athletes, and was particularly interested in conversations they might have had with foreigners while abroad.

Popescu admitted that he wrote "four informative notes about teammates and other colleagues when he was playing at Universitatea Craiova." He defended his actions by saying that he only wrote good things about the teammates.

Yes, bet they totally believe you. Figures he played for Tottenham. Oh look, cheese.