Product Code Database
Dan Vasile Petrescu (; born 22 December 1967) is a Romanian professional football manager and former Football player.
As a player, Petrescu was deployed as a full-back or a winger and began his career at Steaua București, with which he played in the 1989 European Cup final. Abroad, he represented Serie A clubs Foggia and Genoa, before moving to the Premier League where he played for Sheffield Wednesday, Chelsea, Bradford City, and Southampton, respectively. With Chelsea, Petrescu won the 1998 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. He earned 95 caps for the Romania national team, being selected in two World Cup squads, in 1994 and 1998, and in two European Championships, in 1996 and 2000.
Petrescu became player-assistant manager to Walter Zenga at Național București towards the end of his playing career, and has since had an extensive career as a head coach in Poland, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, China, Turkey, and South Korea, in addition to his native country. His first job was at Sportul Studențesc, which he led to Liga I promotion. Petrescu has won domestic honours with Unirea Urziceni, Kuban Krasnodar, ASA Târgu Mureș, Jiangsu Suning, and CFR Cluj. He is the second-most successful manager in Romania, tied with Emerich Jenei, winning the league on six occasions (five times with CFR Cluj and once with Urziceni), and was also named Romania Coach of the Year a record five times, tied with Mircea Lucescu.
Petrescu was part of the Steaua squad that reached the European Cup semi-finals (1988) and the final (1989).
In 1991, Petrescu was bought by Italian club Foggia in a period when the club saw promotion to Serie A. In 1993, he moved to Genoa.
Petrescu signed for Sheffield Wednesday in 1994 from Genoa, after a successful 1994 World Cup for Romania. After one season at Hillsborough, he signed for Chelsea and featured prominently there for the next five years. During his term at Chelsea, he was a member of the teams which won the FA Cup in 1997 and the EFL Cup and Cup Winners' Cup (both in 1998). After falling out with Chelsea manager Gianluca Vialli after a defeat to Manchester United (a game in which he scored), Petrescu never played for the club again and was not even selected as a substitute for the 2000 FA Cup final against Aston Villa.
Turning down a move to Southampton in August 2000, (2025). 095344743X, Hagiology Publishing. 095344743X he instead moved to Bradford City for £1 million, scoring one goal, against West Ham United.
In January 2001, Petrescu's former Chelsea manager, Glenn Hoddle, eventually persuaded him to join Southampton for a "nominal" fee. He initially settled in well at The Dell, scoring against Leicester City and Manchester City in his first few matches. In March, Hoddle left the Saints to take up the managerial reins at Tottenham Hotspur and his replacement, Stuart Gray, dropped Petrescu, replacing him with Hassan Kachloul for the remainder of the season. After making only two substitute appearances in the 2001–02 season, Petrescu was released and returned to Romania.
Petrescu returned to his native Bucharest for a last season as a footballer, with Național București. His last match was the Cupa României final, on 31 May 2003; Național lost 1–0 to Dinamo București, during which Petrescu received much abuse from some of the Dinamo fans as he left the pitch at the end of 90 minutes, even though it was the last game of one of Romania's greatest footballers. Presumably, this was because he used to play for Dinamo's greatest rivals, Steaua.
Petrescu missed the 1990 World Cup due to injury. In 1994, Petrescu played in his first World Cup, held in the United States. He scored the only goal in a win against the United States which saw Romania qualify for the second round as group winners. They were then handed a difficult game against Argentina which they managed to win, only to lose to Sweden on penalties in the quarter-finals, with Petrescu one of two Romanians to miss his spot-kick. The miss still haunts him today. "It will probably stay with me for the rest of my life", he said. After the World Cup, he flew to Saint Thomas and spent two weeks in the Caribbean region.
Euro 1996 was a disappointment for Romania, as they lost all three group matches and only managed to score one goal.
At the 1998 World Cup in France, Petrescu raced past his Chelsea teammate Graeme Le Saux and scored the winning goal against England, which effectively won them the group and ensured they would not have to face Argentina in the second round. He became the second Romanian player to score in two different World Cups after Ștefan Dobay. The Romanians, however, lost their second round match to Croatia, 1–0.
Petrescu was an important piece of the Romanian team at Euro 2000, where they survived a group with Portugal, Germany and England. A new victory over the English team was decisive to qualify for quarter-finals. Romania won all the matches where Petrescu scored.
Petrescu resigned as manager of Unirea Urziceni in December 2009.
On 14 August 2012, it was announced that Petrescu had resigned as Kuban Krasnodar manager, citing the need for a new challenge. Kuban later participated in the UEFA Europa League for the first time.
On 8 April 2014, his contract was terminated by mutual agreement after a heavy loss to outsiders Anzhi Makhachkala, 0–4. Dynamo Moscow director of sports Guram Adzhoyev stated, "Last year Dan drew the team from the complicated situation, lifted it to the certain level, but recently we have seen no progress."
On 29 October 2016, Petrescu was announced as the manager of Emirates Arabian Gulf League side Al-Nasr until the end of the season. He led the club to the final match of the UAE President's Cup but was defeated by Al-Wahda in his last game in charge. Al-Nasr appointed Cesare Prandelli as his replacement.
CFR were able to maintain their domestic domination, winning the regular season of the 2019-20 Liga I by a comfortable margin. However, the playoffs proved to be a much bigger challenge, as the COVID pandemic allowed Craiova to stabilize and pose a challenge to his side. While Craiova lead the standings for most of the playoff phase, following a win on CFR's ground and CFR's draws against Astra Giurgiu and Gaz Metan Medias, eventually CFR did manage to win the reverse fixture against Craiova on the last matchday, securing their third consecutive title.
On 19 August 2020, CFR started the European campaign against Maltese champions Floriana FC with a 2–0 victory but were eliminated in the second round by Dinamo Zagreb on penalties. Eventually, CFR did manage to qualify for the 2020-21 Europa League, eliminating Djurgårdens in the 3rd round and KuPS in the playoffs. Sadly, CFR could not repeat the previous season's European performance, as they finished third and were eliminated from the Europa League. Domestically, they lost form, playing unconvincing football and losing against Gaz Metan and UTA Arad at home. Petrescu announced on 30 November that he and the club had agreed to terminate his contract. He would be replaced by Edward Iordanescu, whom Petrescu would eventually replace himself a year or so later.
In the 2024–25 season, Petrescu led CFR to his first cup win and 6th overall trophy, winning the 2024–25 Cupa României, 3–2 against FC Hermannstadt, making him the most decorated manager in CFR's history.
/ref>
| + Appearances and goals by club, season and competition | |||
| Steaua București | 1985–86 | Liga I | 0 |
| 1987–88 | Divizia A | 1 | |
| 1988–89 | Divizia A | 6 | |
| 1989–90 | Divizia A | 11 | |
| 1990–91 | Divizia A | 17 | |
| Olt Scornicești (loan) | 1986–87 | Divizia A | 0 |
| Foggia | 1991–92 | Serie A | 4 |
| 1992–93 | Serie A | 3 | |
| Genoa | 1993–94 | Serie A | 1 |
| Sheffield Wednesday | 1994–95 | Premier League | 3 |
| 1995–96 | Premier League | 0 | |
| Chelsea | 1995–96 | Premier League | 3 |
| 1996–97 | Premier League | 4 | |
| 1997–98 | Premier League | 8 | |
| 1998–99 | Premier League | 4 | |
| 1999–2000 | Premier League | 5 | |
| Bradford City | 2000–01 | Premier League | 1 |
| Southampton | 2000–01 | Premier League | 2 |
| 2001–02 | Premier League | 0 | |
| National București | 2002–03 | Divizia A | 0 |
| + Appearances and goals by national team and year "Dan Vasile Petrescu – Century of International Appearances". RSSSF. Retrieved 13 September 2021. | |
| Romania | 0 |
| 1 | |
| 0 | |
| 1 | |
| 0 | |
| 3 | |
| 0 | |
| 3 | |
| 2 | |
| 2 | |
| 0 | |
| 0 | |
| + List of international goals scored by Dan Petrescu |
| UEFA Euro 1992 Qualifying |
| Exhibition game |
| Friendly |
| World Cup 1994 Group A |
| Euro 1996 Qualifying |
| Friendly |
| World Cup 1998 Qualifying |
| World Cup 1998 Qualifying |
| World Cup 1998 Qualifying |
| World Cup 1998 Qualifying |
| Friendly |
| World Cup 1998 Group G |
| Sportul Studențesc | 20 July 2003 | 3 December 2003 | ||
| Rapid București | 8 December 2003 | 14 April 2004 | ||
| Sportul Studențesc | 17 June 2004 | 5 December 2005 | ||
| Wisła Kraków | 7 December 2005 | 18 September 2006 | ||
| Unirea Urziceni | 25 September 2006 | 26 December 2009 | ||
| Kuban Krasnodar | 28 December 2009 | 14 August 2012 | ||
| Dynamo Moscow | 17 August 2012 | 8 April 2014 | ||
| Al-Arabi | 5 June 2014 | 1 December 2014 | ||
| ASA Târgu Mureș | 10 June 2015 | 9 July 2015 | ||
| Jiangsu Suning | 12 July 2015 | 3 June 2016 | ||
| Kuban Krasnodar | 14 June 2016 | 4 October 2016 | ||
| Al Nasr | 29 October 2016 | 26 May 2017 | ||
| CFR Cluj | 10 June 2017 | 4 June 2018 | ||
| Guizhou Hengfeng | 7 June 2018 | 21 March 2019 | ||
| CFR Cluj | 22 March 2019 | 30 November 2020 | ||
| Kayserispor | 11 January 2021 | 23 February 2021 | ||
| CFR Cluj | 31 August 2021 | 8 June 2023 | ||
| Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors | 9 June 2023 | 5 April 2024 | ||
| CFR Cluj | 30 April 2024 | 22 August 2025 | ||
Chelsea
Național București
Individual
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors
Individual
|
|
