While most kids with a taste for football gravitate towards the artistry of Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi, for Radu Drabrevegușin it was a different story.
As his father Dan explains, growing up in Bucharest, his son had only one ambition: to be the best defender in the world.
Tottenham Hotspur’s new signing has become Romania’s most expensive player, paying more than £21 million to Genoa, and there is a feeling a move to the Premier League is his destiny. Her parents played sports for Romania – Dan in volleyball and her mother Svetlana in basketball – and she showed talent for both disciplines.
But as Dan Dragușin explained to Telegraph Sport this week, football was his sole focus from an early age. There were no posters of football players on the walls, only the determination to reach the top as a defender.
“I’m not proud… I’m the proudest father,” Drăgușin said. “I know how hard he worked to get to this point. He was very determined. It was his goal when he was very young to be the best defender in the world. He’s not there now but I’m sure, in the right way, he will be the best in two or three years.
“He has very good statistics in different areas of skill, but he has the potential to improve and I am sure that in this new team, Tottenham, he will have all the conditions that will increase his value. This is a very good team and manager with a very good tradition [Ange Postecoglou] A special man, a true professional. Radu will come here and I’m sure this is the best place to grow.
“She started playing some volleyball as a child and played basketball like her mother, but she also started playing football around the age of seven. From about the age of eight he decided to play only football. “After all these years, the conclusion is that he made the right choice.”
Determined to reach the top, young Radu Dragușin was among the elite players from the age of 11, when his childhood club Sportul Studențesc closed and he joined Regal Sport București, a team in partnership with Atletico Madrid. The red and blue colors of the Spanish giants.
“I wouldn’t want to undermine the role of our academy in his career path,” Regal sports director Klaus Mihail said. “We did things differently, taking the business to a whole new level and going ‘international’ since we started in 2011.”
Footage of Dragușin playing for Regal showed the player with long hair, the now-familiar headband, and a commanding presence as he captained the team.
“We had training camps in Paris St-Germain, participated in all kinds of international tournaments and friendly matches throughout the season,” said Mihail. “For example, the 2015 season ended with a friendly tournament played in Atletico Madrid in Spain. “We have tried to prepare our young players for exactly this moment: a big transfer in a top-five league and to be able to deal with all the pressure behind it.”
Drăgușin had trials with Parma, OGC Nice and Empoli before transferring to Juventus. Premier League clubs, including Tottenham, were thought to be aware of this talent in Bucharest; He is a warrior of a mature defender for his age.
“Radu has risen rapidly in the last 12 months and this is testament to his mental courage, willingness and great physical strength and endurance,” said Mikhail. “He became a regular at Genoa and was among the top three players in minutes played for the national team in the historic European qualifiers.”
He signed a contract with Fabio Paratici in Juventus in Italy, and after staying on loan at Sampdoria and Salernitana, he found his place in Genoa. When he joined the team, they started calling him ‘The Bodyguard’ because of his action-packed style. This also rings true for his father, who sees these characteristics in his son.
“He is the man of the team. He doesn’t like to talk too much. He likes to make things happen,” said Drăgușin. “This is Radu. A very kind man. Empathy for the rest, a team player. Every time he tried to do something he got the job done. He always wanted to learn new things and He loved helping people.
“He worked hard, training twice a day, in addition to his schoolwork, as he always did. But he always followed his dream. He does this with passion and determination, and all of this has brought him to this point.
“He didn’t have an idol growing up, he just observed many players. But I hope he becomes an idol for young children to love football and sports because he has a very strong character. You will see this from day one. “He will show us all what a great player he is,” he said.