Article by Andrei Crăiţoiu – published Wednesday, October 08, 2025 23:58 / Updated Wednesday, 08 October 2025 23:58
Dănuț Lupu (58 years old), one of the most controversial Romanian footballers of the 1990s, lived in Athens unimaginable moments for any athlete: arrests, scandals with the millionaire owner and harsh negotiations that triggered chaos. And yet, Lupu came out of all these attempts.
In 1990, Dănuț Lupu left Romanian football, being bought by Panathinaikos for $ 1.2 million. At that time, the Athens club was funded by Iorgos Vardinogiannis, a shipowner close to the big team of Star and Valentin Ceausescu.
Dănuț Lupu (58 years old) had played at Dinamo, which he now says: “No matter how broken the mother is, my mother stays! I was and I will remain a dynamo, although I admit that I was more loved at Rapid. The most beloved!”
Dănuț Lupu: “I made a gesture and gave in Mr. Vardinoianis”
Then came the transfer to Greece, one with a special history, of which a movie or bestseller could be made. “In Greece, the history that we unearty again. I arrived there simply because others wanted, not because I wanted it,” The story of Dănuț Lupu begins, invited to “Ovidiu's friends”.
There, Lupu had the hardest moments of the footballer career, being including arrested, all after a monster scandal with the owner Iorgos Vardinoianis.
“When I wanted to leave, I made a gesture and gave Mr. Vardinogiannis. If they put my gun to my head … He was doing what he wanted in Greece at that time. He was the third man in the world for money. Vardinoianis lied to give Hagi, and Nea Puiu Iordănescu told him that if he wants someone from Romania, he will take me. He thought he was doing good to me, but in the end, he did me a harm. It doesn't matter anymore … ”says Dănuț Lupu.
The footballer had no long life in Panathinaikos. The scandal followed with the team chief, then he was accused of being the leader of a group of Romanian thieves. In the summer of 1991, he was sent to Korinthos.
They told me that I had the head of the Romanian Mafia in Greece. They found three fur clothes and five leather jackets. I bought them … they didn't find a warehouse. In Greece it was a law that for more than two weeks you were not allowed to be in preventive arrest. I stayed half a month!
Dănuț Lupu, former international
“He removed the gun! He understood the Romanian language! I pushed him, I ran”
“Vardinoianis called me one day at the office and asked me why I didn't play anymore. And I told him I wanted to leave, because I never wanted to get there. I went there on the last day of transfers, because I did not want to stay in the country, to stay at Dinamo … ”, reveals Lupu about the discussion in Greece.
“I had a pre -contract signed with Pisa. Mr. Ian did not want to leave me. He said that if someone cuts his hands he does not sign to go to Pisa. And he took the same money on me … the same official money … that he has taken a bag after that, he has no importance. This is how I arrived in Greece, ”he tells the show on gsp.ro.
Vasile Ianul
At Panathinaikos, Lupu only caught 13 matches. “I played the first three months well, then Mircea Lucescu asked me:” What contract do you have? “
“I started to hit, not play anymore … In four months I went with his wife to the office, I was talking, and he did not sketch a gesture to show that he would have understood the Romanian language. The moment we quarreled, I swore. He pulled out the gun! “The bitch, you smell me?!”. He understood the Romanian language! I pushed him, I ran from him from the office, got in the car and came directly to Romania”, Lupu reveals now.
“All the presidents of Olympiacos arrested him!”
What followed? A real police series. “After three weeks I woke up with about three generals and four ministers at my door, in Galati. Mr. Vardinoianis had said that if I do not return to Greece, it stops all the trade I was doing with Romania. I wanted to leave football because I knew what awaits me. When I got to the desk, they all put it in, and it kicked me out”, Says Lupu.
Lupescu, Hagi and Lupu in one of the great derby Steaua-Dinamo
“After two weeks he called me again at the office, the police came and arrested me. The police took me from his office, not from the street, as the world said. Was it called by him? Well, if he was the third man in the world, you realize he was doing what he wanted there! All those who were president at Olympiacos during that period, the team that was our candidate, everyone arrested, “says Dănuț Lupu, to” Ovidiu's friends “.
If I had a discussion with Mr. Vardinoianis and I would have understood that, in fact, I only came there at the insistence of Mr. Ianul, that I had no other possibility, and against my will, maybe I would have understood and let me go. But I was a kid, I didn't have much mind at that time
Dănuț Lupu, former international
“I took a handful of pills … I was admitted for a week”
Taken from Vardinoianis's office, Lupu came behind the Greek graces: “I stayed for a month and a half … They moved me elsewhere, when I took a handful of pills … I was admitted for a week, ten days.”
Dănuț Lupu
And to be released, “the wife came with an A4 sheet”. “” Sign here to let go. “” If I sign that, we don't see any money. “He started crying …” You don't think about me, you don't think of Răzvan, what are you doing? You just think of you? “Well, I signed it and, after ten minutes, sent me home. The lawyer I had, and to whom I gave enough money then, refused to defend me! But gave us the money back”, Says Lupu.
“From there we started arguing for the first time”
The former international left Panathinaikos and reached Korinthos. After years, Iorgos Vardinoianis met. “Maybe my stubbornness, and maybe his pride has damaged this relationship.”says Lupu.
“Indeed, When I went to Panathinaikos, he said, “Well, you are my diamond, if you listen to me, you will be the richest man in Romania.” But he did not give me the money … he told me he was put in an account so that I would not spend them, “the former midfielder reveals.
He concludes the intervention from “Ovidiu's friends” with another disclosure about Vardinoianis: “He was a very chic guy … When I signed, he told me he was giving me a car, but he brought me another. From there we started arguing for the first time. We got along with one thing and he gave me another one. I didn't want to play anymore and we started to get rid of it. I told him I never wanted to come to Panathinaikos and from there the problems started. ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xHD3e50LR0
The variant of Iorgos Vardinoianis: “Lupu, a great liar, not just a thief!”
In an interview for GSP granted last year, Iorgos Vardinoianis, a former patron at Panathinaikos in 1979-2000, remembered the backstage of Dănuț Lupu's arrest in 1991, just a few months after buying it from Dinamo for $ 1.2 million.
Iorgos Vardinoianis
“He was not an honest boy at all. It was just a thief!”, It was the first reaction. “He was involved in breaking houses and shops, my assistant found in his car a false insurance. I gave him the police hand, which searched the house and He found a lot of stolen things there. It was part of a band made up of several Romanians. I kicked him out of Panathinaikos and sent him to Korinthos, ”he said.
Iorgos Vardinoianis was amused when he heard that Lupu claimed in the Romanian press that he was hit by fist: “A great liar, not just a thief!
