Dan Petrescu
From TheChels.info - The Chelsea Football Club Wiki
| Dan Petrescu | |
| |
| Full Name | Daniel Vasile Petrescu |
| Date of Birth | 22 December 1967 |
| Place of Birth | Bucharest, Romania |
| Position | Defender, Winger |
| Chelsea career | 1995-2000 |
| Debut | 18 November 1995 |
| Games (goals) | 208 (23) |
| Other clubs | Steaua Bucureşti Olt Scorniceşti (loan) U.S. Foggia Genoa C.F.C. Sheffield Wednesday Bradford City Southampton Naţional Bucureşti |
Daniel Vasile Petrescu (born 22 December 1967 in Bucharest, Romania) is a former Romanian international who played for Chelsea from 1995 until 2000, as an attacking right back. Other clubs included Steaua Bucharest and Sheffield Wednesday. Petrescu received 95 international caps for the Romanian national side. He is currently managing FC Kuban Krasnodar after resigning as the manager of Romanian Liga 1 team Unirea Urziceni in December 2009.
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Before Chelsea
After playing for Steaua Bucharest's youth teams, Dan Petrescu was promoted into the first team in 1986 in a game played by Steaua just one month after winning the European Cup. Petrescu was loaned to FC Olt for the 1986–87 season, but asked to come back to Steaua Bucharest in 1987. He was an important part of the team which reached the semifinals of the European Cup in 1988 and the final in 1989. Also in 1989 he played for Romania for the first time, but missed the 1990 World Cup of the following year due to an injury.
In 1991 he was bought by U.S. Foggia of Italy, in a period when the club saw promotion to Serie A. In 1993 he moved to Genoa C.F.C. Petrescu moved to the English Premiership in 1994 after a successful World Cup for Romania, signing for Sheffield Wednesday from Genoa.
Chelsea career
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 League Cup and UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (both in 1998).
After falling out with Vialli after a defeat to Manchester United, Petrescu never played for the club again and was not even selected as a substitute for the 2000 FA Cup Final against Aston Villa.
After Chelsea
He moved to Bradford City for £1m in July 2000, and then had a spell at Southampton. Petrescu returned to his native Bucharest for a last season as a football player, with FC Naţional. His last match was the Romanian Cup final, on 31 May 2003.
Petrescu has subsequently pursued a career as a coach, managing Wisła Kraków in Poland, before returning to Romania to manage Unirea Urziceni, with whom he won the Liga 1 title and qualified for the UEFA Champions League. Petrescu resigned as manager of Unirea Urziceni in December 2009. On 28 December 2009 the Russian First division club FC Kuban Krasnodar hired Petrescu on a five-year deal.
International
Petrescu registered 95 caps for the Romanian national team. He made his debut for the squad in 1989, and played at three major tournaments: the 1994 World Cup, Euro 96 and the 1998 World Cup, where the entire team famously dyed their hair blond after losing a bet with the team's coach Anghel Iordanescu.
In 1994 Petrescu played in his first World Cup 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 missing his spot-kick.
Euro 96 was a disappointment for Romania, as they lost all three group matches and only managed to score one goal. At France 1998, he raced past his Chelsea team-mate 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. In the end, the Romanians lost their second round game 1–0 to Croatia.
Chelsea career statistics
| Season | Prem | FA Cup | League Cup | Europe | Other | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | |
| 1995–96 | 24 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 3 |
| 1996–97 | 34 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 42 | 4 |
| 1997–98 | 31 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 43 | 8 |
| 1998–99 | 32 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 45 | 3 |
| 1999–00 | 29 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 47 | 5 |
| Total | 150 | 17 | 21 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 28 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 208 | 23 |
Career honours
As a player
- Steaua Bucureşti
- Romanian League: 1985–86, 1987–88, 1988–89
- Romanian Cup: 1987, 1988, 1989
- European Cup: runner-up: 1989
- Bruges Matins Trophy: 1987
- Chelsea
- FA Cup: 1997
- FA Community Shield runner-up: 1997
- League Cup: 1998
- UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1998
- UEFA Super Cup: 1998
- FC Naţional
- Romanian Cup runner-up: 2003
- Individual
- Overseas Team of the Decade - Premier League 10 Seasons Awards (1992/3 - 2001/2)
As a manager
- Wisła Kraków
- Polish League runner-up: 2005–06
- Unirea Urziceni
- Romanian League: 2008–09
- Romanian Cup runner-up: 2008
