I remember like it was yesterday. In September 2011, after a 1-1 game between Rapid and Brașov in Regie – don’t know why it wasn’t played in Giulești, to be honest – I asked Daniel Pancu and Mugurel Buga for some pictures. They were two of my favorite players, even though the latest was playing at the opponents. It wasn’t a good result, but Rapid Bucharest was still far away from the unthinkable insolvency from 2013 and, later, the bankruptcy from 2016. The time was still shaped around a greater team. Almost 15 years from then, Daniel Pancu took over the position of head coach at Rapid Bucharest.

Daniel Pancu played six times for the club in two decades

Now, fewer people mean more for Rapid, than does Daniel Pancu. In the entire history of the club. And I am not sure, even, there is any other figure in the history of the club who both returned for so many times, but at the same moment, got all the possible functions within it. Daniel Pancu not only played six times for Rapid Bucharest between 1997 and 2018 – his retirement game in the same one before the old stadium was demolished – but he did also coached the team before, had the role of technical director, and even the one as president.

Coach for Rapid Bucharest in the second division

Daniel Pancu coached the club last time in 2020, when it was in the second division, so this is an absolute new for him. But it is the first time in years, as far as I can recall, when Rapid Bucharest changes the coach instantaneously at the end of one season, to make room for a proper preparation for the next one. In this, Constantin Gâlcă, the head coach of the previous season, also played a decent role. Now, Daniel Pancu not only was announced in time, but it looks to have the perfect timing, a statement to which he agrees.

CFR Cluj, saved in style by Daniel Pancu

“Pancone” is certain that it is the right moment because Rapid Bucharest has everything it takes to become a successful club. I can’t agree more, but I also think that he is the right man for the job, as he had a great spell at CFR Cluj, a club he dragged to third place, from the bottom of the ranking when he joined it in 2025. Coming to a club when you are in great spirits, and at the beginning of a project, while being able to leverage what the others before you tried to built, but also avoiding their mistakes and failures, can’t make it “more” perfect.

Legend, supporter, but also a mature coach

The only component many fear is bound to its appetence for the club itself, Rapid Bucharest. It is generally believed, at this club in special, that a person who lives for the club as a supporter can’t have success. There is a point in all these, but the circumstances created, alongside this fact, tend to help. Daniel Pancu is not only a big figure and a great supporter in the history of this club, but in a same measure, as already explained, a mature and successful coach. For sure, at Rapid you can fail. And can fail badly.

My unusual optimism, fueled by Daniel Pancu

However, I prefer to be optimistic, at least this once, and hope that the project which bounds Daniel Pancu to Rapid Bucharest until 2028 – then at least two years – will be a successful one. My thoughts are that Daniel Pancu, regardless of what is happening, to be stuck with the club for these 24 months, and to be let to build and implement his philosophy. It might be hard to digest potential failure, but it depends on what kind of potential failure we might be afraid of.

Trying to build

I hope the board, the owner and the sponsor, will get perfectly along with Daniel Pancu. I think, at this point in time, Rapid Bucharest should shift its approach, and try to consolidate something bigger, not to seek immediate, desperate results. It is a paradox, maybe a non-sense for some. But usually trying to build, releasing the pressure of results – in terms of facts, not in terms of speech!!! – can create a great team, can add another stepping stone in the history of Rapid.

Fingers crossed for Daniel Pancu

Because, indeed, Rapid Bucharest is mainly founded on emotions, not on trophies, and it is fine. But from time to time, the emotions are highly ignited by successful spells, with periods of great results. Can’t be a better man to achieve this, for the history of such a club, than Daniel Pancu. He could prove, once again, that Rapid can dominate Romanian football – a very, very modest and poor one, unfortunately – being led by one of its legends. Because, in the end, this is what the current manager is! Let’s hope my enthusiasm will be covered in facts, and we will remember this period of the club with joy.

Photo source: fcrapid.ro