Where is Dan Petrescu now?
Former Chelsea full-back Dan Petrescu retired from playing in 2003 after returning to his native Romania and playing for a season with Progesul.
Starting his professional career in 1985 with Steau Bucharest where he won the Romanian League four times, he went onto make 541 first-team appearances for nine different sides including five seasons at Chelsea where he won the FA Cup, the League Cup, the UEFA Cup Winners Cup and UEFA Super Cup.
He was also a mainstay for the Romania national side in the 1990’s winning 95 caps and featuring in the 1994 and 1998 FIFA World Cup finals as well as the 1996 and 2000 UEFA European Championships.
Upon retiring from playing, Petrescu went straight into management and had brief spells with Rapid Bucharest, Sportul Studentesc and Wisla Krakow before longer spells with Unirea Urziceni where he won the Romainian Liga 1 title and Kuban Krasnodor where he won the 2010 Russian First Division.
In August 2012 he was appointed manager of Dynamo Moscow on a reported salary of €2.5 million a year but left 18 months later by mutual consent after the team’s ‘lacklustre performance’ over the course of the season.
After a brief spells as manager of Qatari team Al Arabi and Romanian side Targu Mures he joined Chinese side Jiangsu Sainty in 2015 where he had mixed fortunes winning the Chinese FA Cup in his first few months but then getting sacked after just one season after a disappointing ninth place finish in the league.
During his time at Jiangsu, he was instrumental in bringing high-profile Premier League player Ramires from Chelsea to the club which helped boost their global profile.
In June 2016, Petrescu made a return to former club FC Kuban Krasnador who had recently been relegated to the second tier of the Russian football league but was unable to turn the team’s fortunes around and he left by mutual consent after four months.
After a season managing Arabian Gulf League side Al Nasr Dubai, he joined Romanian Liga 1 side CFR Cluj in 2017 as head coach and won the title in his first season before leaving to join Chinese side Guizhou Hengfeng.
It didn’t work out in China so he returned to CFR Cluj in 2019 where he succesfully retained the title he had won the previous season. He then guided his side to their third consective title in 2020 before leaving later that year.
He then had a brief spell at Turkish side Kayserispor before returning to current club CFR Cluj for a third spell in August 2021 winning the league title once more in 2022. This was his fourth league title for the club and at the end of the season he also won Romania’s Coach of the Year which was the fifth time he had received the award.
In 2023, he joined current side Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors who play in the South Korean K League
Back to Chelsea / Sheffield Wednesday
Dan Petrescu: Premier League Statistics
Nationality | Romania |
Position | Defender |
Appearances | 215 |
Goals | 23 |
Yellow Cards | 28 |
Red Cards | 0 |
Premier League Teams Played for | Chelsea, Sheffield Wednesday, Bradford City, Southampton |
Statistics courtesy of www.premierleague.com
Last Updated on 19 September 2023 by Admin