George Becali (known as Gigi Becali; born 25 June 1958) is a Romanian politician and businessman.

He was born in Zanga , Brăila county, where his family was deported by the Communist authorities.

After Romanian Revolution of 1989, he bought land near Bucharest, which increased their value. However, his big hit that made him a millionaire was an exchange of land with the Romanian Army , dubbed by the Romanian press as illegal, as the Army did not needed the land it received, and the land it gave was worthed much more. Nowadays, Becali is the owner and president of the FC Steaua Bucharest football team.

He was a candidate in the Romanian presidential election, 2004 from the New Generation Party (PNG), which he has been leading since January 2004 and end up the sixth out of twelve candidates, with 1.77% of the votes.

His political views appear to be nationalistic, he declared himself an adept of the Pre-WWII Romanian Legionnaire Movement and of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. Even his electoral slogan "I swear to God that we'll make Romania shine like the holy sun of the sky" is taken from Testament of Ion Mota , one of the founders of "The Legion of Saint Michael the Archangel".

External link

• gigibecali.ro: official site (in Romanian)