Article by Andrei Crăiţoiu, Tudor Belivacă – Published Tuesday, October 21, 2025, 22:07 / Updated Tuesday, October 21, 2025 22:30
CFR Cluj issued an official statement in which it announced the dismissal of the Italian and the fact that Ovidiu Hoban and Laurentiu Rus will take care of the team in the next period.
The official statement from CFR Cluj: “Thank you, Andrea Mandorlini!”
“Thank you, Andrea Mandorlini!
The CFR 1907 Cluj club and the technician Andrea Mandorlini have stopped collaborating starting this evening. In the next period, our second coaches, Laurentiu Rus and Ovidiu Hoban, will take care of the team's training.
We thank Mr. Mandorlini for the work he has done at CFR Cluj in his three terms as coach of our team and we wish him much success in the future!” was the official statement of the team from Gruia.
Andrea Mandorlini was appointed coach at CFR Cluj after the departure of Dan Petrescu from Gruia. The Italian sat on the “railway” bench for 9 matches: 2 wins, 5 draws and 2 defeats. Last night's failure with Petrolul Ploiești, score 0-1, was fatal for the Italian coach.
Dan Petrescu, Ioan Varga's favorite
At the moment, Dan Petrescu is in pole position to take over the team from Gruia. Ioan Varga is determined to bring back “Bursuc”. According to GSP, the financier has closed any further negotiations and is willing to wait for the coach until the next break caused by the matches of the national teams.
Until then, the team from Gruia will play against those from Farul Constanța in the championship, with CSM Slatina in the Romanian Cup and with Dinamo and Slobozia in the Superliga.
This would become Dan Petrescu's fifth mandate at CFR Cluj. He also coached Cluj in the periods June 2017 – June 2018, March 2019 – November 2020, August 2021 – June 2023 and April 2024 – August 2025.
In the last term, Dan Petrescu played 68 games (33 wins, 22 draws and 13 losses), and at the end of last season he won the Romanian Cup.
In the last 10 years he coached ASA Târgu Mureș, Jiangsu Suning, Kuban Krasnodar, Al-Nasr, CFR Cluj, Guangzhou, Kayserispor and Jeonbuk.
