“I went to the psychiatrist, to the insane! I felt like I was dying!”

Now Petre says he is relaxed. He smiles often, accepts his mistakes and no longer longs for great success in football. He is not even sure how long he will be a professional player. He was bruised by the failures of recent years: “I'm more used to the negative side of football, there are haters, yes, but they talked about me much more aggressively!”.

Recently, he participated in a reality show: “Since I came from Survivor, I saw that people also appreciate me as a person. It lifted my spirits a little. For a few years I had more hate than appreciation. It affected me at first…”.

Adrian Petre, on the GSP “2 to 1” podcast: “I fell and didn't know how to manage. I came from Denmark, where I was appreciated, to FCSB…”

He knew success at a young age, and he endured the fall with difficulty: “I exploded at the age of 18-19. Until I was 23, I went higher and higher. I was only used to praise, to be all right, to be appreciated by the world. It didn't go to my head, I never had problems with my extra-professional life.

But the first time I fell, I didn't know how to manage the situation. Coming from Denmark, where people appreciated me, I was playing well, to reach the FCSB, to have no results, to be publicly criticized… I was closing in on myself a lot and I wasn't getting any results, not even in training. I had no more motivation, because I knew that I was going to go out during the break”.

3 goalsPetre succeeded in 16 matches at FCSB

The failure at FCSB did not close the doors for him in football for good. Cosenza, UTA, Farul, Levadiakos, Hermannstadt followed in turn. For the future to catapult him into the lower leagues from us, who really beat him.

“I wanted to leave when I was in Chiajna! Gabi Tamaș was the sports director, he gave me confidence at the beginning, they told me that they were offering me a year in the 2nd League, the objective was the play-off, I said: “OK, I'm coming”. The camp was top, no problem, zero injuries, we were doing well, friendlies, goals after goals.

I started the championship, starter, we had a match with Afumați, 3-1 for them, 35th minute, 3 changes, I was out too! Why? Why are you taking out the striker?! I wasn't wrong either. Then backup, backup, backup. And: “Let's terminate!”. The coach was Poenaru. I was entering from the bank, I was entering well, when they called me to terminate. A month had passed!“, reports Petre.

4-2 for the Smokersthe match of the first stage of the 2024-2025 season of the 2nd League, which Petre is talking about, has ended, substituted before the break, at 1-3, “in the package” with Iulian Roșu and Andrei Marc

“Resign? Then I quit football!”

He was shocked by the message he received from the leaders of Chiajna and publicly stated that he would give up football: “How to terminate, why?! I had not argued with anyone, I had no problems, I was doing my job. “That's what the coach says”. They blamed each other. The coach said something else.

I went to the termination hearing. “If I terminate here, I quit! I've had enough, I can't have everyone making fun of me anymore. Have I reached your banter?!». They didn't think I was leaving. “You are young, good.” If I'm good, why don't you keep me? “If you want, we can talk to another team, in Campulung”. I don't talk anywhere anymore, I quit football! I terminated, I came out publicly and said that I can't do it anymore, I also had problems with injuries”.

Only a few days passed and the president of Concordia, Cristian Tănase, called him: “He says: “I can't leave you, come back, I know you're withdrawing from Chiajna!”. They gave me another chance. It all happened in a week, after they lost a match.”

Petre continued the story: “I had no more expectations. Poenaru had taken me aside: “I didn't want you to leave, those from the offices…”. I wasn't interested anymore. It was a shock when they told me I was being kicked out, after a short spell where I had played well and scored goals. If you still came to give me confidence and I delivered, I was also a good boy, I didn't comment that why I don't play, then you tell me you're kicking me out… why?! Is it my fault that the team is not working?

You also tell me: “You're good, you can't give up!”. Then why are you kicking me out? “You have extraordinary qualities”. Then why don't you hold me? I had reached a point where I couldn't, to start over again, to move, I put my foot in football!”.

If this happens to me again, I am reconciled. Mentally I am very OK. It wouldn't hurt like it did then. I realized there are other ways you can become someone important again

– Adrian Petreon the GSP podcast “2 to 1”

Anyway, the experience at Chiajna marked him: “I stayed at Concordia until the summer, when I reached the 3rd League, where I knew that I no longer had any pressure, I went relaxed, I played… I had recovered, after a few months of not being well at Chiajna. I was no longer focused, I had resigned myself to the thought: where are you leaving from Chiajna? Where do you go, who takes you, who trusts you?“.

Although his career stopped giving him satisfaction, Petre believes that he kept his balance on a personal level: “I knew how to set boundaries, I was also lucky with my wife, she helped me get over the problems at Chiajna. I never had inclinations towards addictions – cigarettes, alcohol, women, games. I knew how to differentiate between my personal and professional life, I didn't bring evil from the field into the house. I knew how to do this from an early age. On I didn't know how to manage my emotions…”.

“Now I'm fine mentally,” states Petre. The price? “I feel older. I went, in one year, from being very good in training camps to the thought of giving up football, to start again, I transferred to the 3rd League. In one year, it's like 5 years have passed. I feel older than I actually am. Even though I'm 10 years older, it feels like 30 years have passed!“.

The sports psychologist did not help him. He went to a psychiatrist!

Adi Petre needed psychiatric therapy. When?

“I had a period when I worked with a psychologist. I even worked with a psychiatrist. I had given her depression, anxiety, she didn't care about football anymore. That was between UTA and Farul (no – period 2021-2022)when I came from Italy.

I was at the Lighthouse and I was talking to the psychiatrist. I had panic attacks, I felt like I was always dying, every game I felt like I was dying. But more was happening outside the matches, on the field being focused on the game, being adrenaline. The worst was before and after the game. But I also had panic attacks during matches.

At first I didn't know how to manage. And now I still have attacks, when I'm very stressed, my anxiety takes over, but I know how to breathe, how to react now, I know what's going to happen and it's OK, I'm in control”, reveals Petre.

It was cruel: “At first, I didn't know what was happening to me, I thought I was dying, during a panic attack your heart beats, you imagine falling, rescue comes, they talk after that person died on the field. That's it, I'm dying! I had these thoughts. I also read books about anxiety states. But until I talked to a psychiatrist, I didn't know what it was.

I felt like I was going to faint, that I had to hold on to something, not to fall. I actually had nothing, but I was like on a roller coaster”.

Adrian Petre, on the GSP podcast “2 to 1”, photo: Ionuț Iordache (GSP.ro)

“I didn't take medical treatment,” continues the attacker with the revelation. “I talked to the psychiatrist and took magnesium, it helped me a lot, I took it for a year. I had 6 pills – two in the morning, two at lunch, two in the evening. I took it daily for a year. I couldn't do without it. It also gave me peace of mind, I no longer had cramps, I was no longer tired. Magnesium helped me tremendously”, added Petre.

He also suffered from heart problems: “I also had a period with extrasystoles, like Tucudean had when he died. I still have them now, but very rarely. I also had them during the match, I felt like my heart stopped beating for a second – then I panicked, I thought my heart was stopping“.

“When I was in Italy, I talked to a sports psychologist, before I came to Farul, I was managing my departure from FCSB, to find my motivation again, but these things didn't really help me.

The psychiatrist helped me. I'm not ashamed to admit that I needed a psychiatrist. We've gone crazy, almost! OK, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but I was crazy, I thought I was always dying. If every night you think you're dying, at some point you go crazy”, said Adi Petre.

I also had to deal with the mental situation, the panic attacks. An hour ago I was having a panic attack, I felt like I was dying, then I had to be good at training. And I ended up very mentally tired. I slept all day when I had time off. I didn't go out anywhere, I was sleeping.

I was, in a way, in a state of depression, which lasted until I went to Greece, about a year and a bit. After, when I went somewhere else, I changed the environment, the relationship, a lot changed and I felt like his brain was starting to recover

– Adrian Petreon the GSP podcast “2 to 1”

About Adrian Petre:

• in Romania, he played at UTA, FCSB, Farul, Hermannstadt, CS Tunari, Concordia Chiajna;

• now he is registered in the 3rd League, at CS Păulești;

• won two trophies, the title with Farul and the Romanian Cup with FCSB;

• played abroad at Esbjerg fB (Denmark), Cosenza (Italy), Levadiakos (Greece);

• FCSB paid €500,000 for Petre in 2020 to transfer him from Denmark;

• has 18 selections (5 goals) for Romania U21, with whom he played in two final European tournaments, in 2019 and 2021;

• the highest market share in his career – 1.5 million euros, achieved in 2019;

• in League 1 he has 12 goals (3 assists) in 63 appearances;

• worked with coaches such as Gică Hagi, Mirel Rădoi, Adrian Mutu.

With each passing week, we give him more minutes. He had physical problems, not other problems. Adrian Petre can be a striker for the national team too!

– Gica Hagiin 2021