Article by Eduard Apostol – Published Monday, 06 April 2026, 13:55 / Updated Monday, 06 April 2026 13:55
The legend of Dinamo, Cornel Dinu, 77 years old, has been living away from the world for a long time, preferring to live in the company of writing and books. Even the offer made by Cristi Borcea, to be a personal advisor, did not sway Mister from his feelings.
Mircea Lucescu, 80 years old, is fighting for life these daysthe health of the legendary coach being critical. Il Luce is hospitalized at ATI.
Lucescu's friend and generational colleague, Cornel Dinu, has been self-exiled in the house for a long time and avoids contacts with the outside world. The first “Mystery” in Romanian football leads his existence far from the world.
Cornel Dinu, expensive to talk to and to look at: “Acceptable”. Not even Mircea Lucescu took him out of the house
Even though his son, Corneluș, and his family visit him frequently, Dinu refused to leave his home in the center of the Capital. Only visits to the doctor “force” him to do it.
The dynamo player has faced various medical problems in recent years, including hospitalizations. When questioned by his friends about his physical condition and how he feels, Mister answers briefly: “Acceptable“. He retreated to the world of books and writing, occasionally having a delicate schedule. He rests at unusual hours and has insomnia.
Former colleagues and friends tried to get him out of this “care”, but Mister preferred the safety of home and his faithful dog, Merlin. Even Mircea Lucescu wanted to make Dinu change his new habits. Last summer, when Il Luce turned 80, he invited his old comrade to one of his parties.
Dinu refused, so Il Luce, as GSP.ro reported at the time, visited Dinu himself at his home.
Cristi Borcea, 56 years old, for her part, wanted to get Mister out of the house in the long term and invited him to be his advisor and accompany him to various actions and businesses. Dinu refused, elegantly. Mister was the man who educated him and Borcea's model in the 90s, bringing him to the club in Ștefan cel Mare.
Cornel Dinu, painful truths: “The tension in the world scares me”
“I am disappointed by the difficulties of today's existence and the anomalies that I see at every step, I try to resist them… I am also upset by the way Romanians live. I just hope that we can have peace in the family, that we can solve all the problems that come up and make it all right.
(Does everything you see around still move you?) I'm watching because I'm a human living in the real world. And I see how far my nation goes in the temptation of evil. It pains me that a Christian and balanced people has fallen into total chaos.
(And whose fault would it be?) It is a multiple one. It is also of the political class put to the test, full of mediocrity.
The tension in the world scares me. God, where did the degree of unconsciousness go?! Not only in our country are politicians disconnected from the reality of the world. One can reach something that can no longer be changed. One can reach that drastic conclusion: this century will either be Christian, or it will end in a world war and it won't be at all…”, Cornel Dinu reacted in a collection interview offered to Gazeta Sporturilor on August 2, 2024, on his birthday.
