Dan Petrescu

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Dan Petrescu
Personal information
Full name	Daniel Vasile Petrescu
Date of birth	December 22, 1967
Place of birth	Bucharest, Romania
Nickname	Super Dan
Position	Defender, Winger
Youth clubs
	Steaua Bucharest
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1985-91 1986-87 1991-93 1993-94 1994-95 1995-2000 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03	Steaua Bucureşti FC Olt (loan) U.S. Foggia Genoa C.F.C. Sheffield Wednesday Chelsea Bradford City Southampton FC Naţional	95 (26) 24 (0) 55 (7) 24 (1) 39 (3) 151 (17) 17 (1) 11 (2) 20 (0)
National team
1989-2000	Romania	95 (12)
Teams managed
2004 2004-2006 (Jan.) 2006 (Jan.-Sep.) 2006 (Sep.)-	Rapid Bucureşti Sportul Studenţesc Wisła Kraków Unirea Urziceni
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Daniel ("Dan") Vasile Petrescu (born 22 December 1967 in Bucharest, Romania) is a former international football player, whose teams included Steaua Bucureşti, English Premiership clubs Chelsea and Sheffield Wednesday, and the Romanian national side. He is currently the manager of Romanian Liga 1 team Unirea Urziceni.

Contents 1 Club Career 2 Return to Romania 3 International career 4 Retirement

[edit] Club Career

After playing for Steaua's youth teams, Dan Petrescu is promoted into the first team in 1986 in a game played by Steaua just one month after winning the European Cup. As it was nearly impossible for a youngster to make impact into the best Steaua team ever, Petrescu is loaned to FC Olt for the 1986-87 season, but asked to come back to Steaua 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 World Cup of the following year due of an injury.

In 1991 he is 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. After one season at Hillsborough he signed for Chelsea F.C. 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 Cup Winners' Cup (both in 1998). After falling out with Chelsea manager Gianluca Vialli after a defeat to Manchester United, Petrescu never played for the club again and wasn't even selected as a substitute for the 2000 FA Cup final against Aston Villa. He moved to Bradford City for £1m that July and then had a spell at Southampton.

During his time in England, he was the answer to a popular trivia question: Name a Premiership footballer who shares a name with a TV programme. The answer related to Pet Rescue, a Channel 4 programme presented by Wendy Turner Webster, Anthea Turner's sister.

To this day he still considers the time spent at Chelsea as the best part of his playing career and is still loved by the fans, who consider him to be one of the best non-English footballers in the club's history. As a sign of affection and loyalty to the Stamford Bridge based club, he named his daughter Chelsea.

[edit] Return to Romania

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 May 31, 2003. Naţional lost 1-0 to Dinamo Bucharest, during which Petrescu received a lot of abuse from some of the Dinamo fans as he left the pitch at the end of ninety minutes, even though it was the last game of arguably one of Romania's greatest footballers. This was because he used to play for Dinamo's greatest rivals, Steaua Bucharest.

[edit] International career

Petrescu registered 95 caps for the Romanian national team. He made his debut for the squad in 1989, and played at three major tournaments: World Cup 1994, Euro '96 and finally the1998 World Cup, where the entire team famously dyed their hair blond as a team building exercise.

Petrescu's first World Cup, in the USA in 94 saw him score the only goal in a win against the USA which saw them qualify for the Second Round as group leaders, where they were handed a difficult game against Argentine team. They won this but then lost to the Swedish team in the quarter-finals.

Euro 96 was a disappointment for Romania, losing all three of their matches while scoring only one goal.

At France 1998, he 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 the dangerous Argentines in the Second Round. In the end, the Romanians lost their second round game 1-0 to Croatia.

[edit] Retirement

Petrescu is currently pursuing a career as a coach. He resigned from Rapid Bucureşti in October 2004, after only six games and four months at the helm. On January 1, 2006 he became the manager of Polish 2004/2005 champions Wisła Kraków, replacing the temporary coach Tomasz Kulawik. Wisła finished second in the 2005/2006 championship. After poor league performances in the 2006/2007 season and a loss against Iraklis in the UEFA Cup (Wisła won the tie on aggregate, however the second game was won under a new coach), Petrescu was dismissed as manager of Wisła Kraków on September 18, 2006. About a week later, he was appointed as the manager of Romanian Liga 1 newly-promoted team Unirea Urziceni.

Preceded by: Mircea Rednic	Rapid Bucureşti Coach 2004	Succeeded by: Viorel Hizo
Preceded by: Gavril Balint	Sportul Studenţesc Coach 2004-2006	Succeeded by: Gheorghe Mulţescu
Preceded by: Tomasz Kulawik	Wisła Kraków Coach 2006	Succeeded by: Dragomir Okuka
Preceded by: Iulian Mihăescu	Unirea Urziceni Coach 2006	Succeeded by: in charge

	Romania squad - 1994 World Cup Quarter-finalists
1 Prunea | 2 Petrescu | 3 Prodan | 4 Belodedici | 5 Lupescu | 6 Popescu | 7 Munteanu | 8 Chiriţă | 9 Răducioiu | 10 Hagi | 11 Dumitrescu | 12 Stelea | 13 Selymes | 14 Mihali | 15 Panduru | 16 Vlădoiu | 17 Moldovan | 18 Gâlcă | 19 Papură | 20 Stîngă | 21 Ivan | 22 Preda | Coach: Iordănescu

	Romania squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup
1 Stângaciu | 2 Petrescu | 3 Dulca | 4 Doboş | 5 Gâlcă | 6 Gheorghe Popescu | 7 Lăcătuş | 8 Munteanu | 9 Moldovan | 10 Hagi | 11 Ilie | 12 Stelea | 13 Ciobotariu | 14 Niculescu | 15 Marinescu | 16 Gabriel Popescu | 17 Dumitrescu | 18 Filipescu | 19 Stîngă | 20 Selymes | 21 Craioveanu | 22 Prunea | Coach: Iordănescu