Article by Remus Dinu – Published Tuesday, 05 May 2026, 00:00 / Updated Tuesday, 05 May 2026 00:00
Cristian Daminuță, 36 years old, at one point the leader of the 90's junior team, moved to Inter Milan at the end of the 2000s, crossed paths with Cristi Chivu for a short time and comments for GSP on the exceptional performance of the Romanian, champion with “nerazzurri” in his first season as coach on “Meazza”.
Cristian Daminuță was bought by Inter Milan in the summer of 2008, from Politehnica Timisoara. He was considered by the Italians as a promising talent, but he did not establish himself in the first team, performing at youth level or on loan at Modena.
The former Inter Primavera captain did not remain indifferent to Cristi Chivu's resounding performancechampion with “nerazzuri” since his first season as coach of the Italian colossus.
Daminuță showed the face of the compatriots who challenged Chivu after the appointment at Inter and the superlative characterizing the man who definitively went down in history on “Meazza”. Retired for the time being, the Timișoara native recalled during the interview granted to Gazeta the period in which he trained alongside Chivu in the first team of Inter.
Cristi Daminuță, reverence in front of Cristi Chivu: “She achieved something fantastic”
“Unfortunately, this is a defect of the Romanians. If we remember over the years, we kind of hit all the former great athletes that we were proud of in the world.
Knowing Cristi Chivu and following his career, knowing what kind of person he is, I had no doubt that he would not succeed as a coach. He succeeded as a footballer, he proved it, he made history with Inter, he won the League with them, and now, from my point of view, he succeeded first of all in forming a united group.
If we remember, Inter was coming after a year of failure, they lost the title, plus that UCL final… (no 0-5 with PSG) He accomplished something fantastic! To be able to create that enthusiasm again in the heart of the team, to be able to give them back the pleasure of playing football… If we remember, Çalhanoğlu was transferred every week to another team, now he is one of the best midfielders in the world, if not the best!
To win the locker room over in such a short time?! Because he didn't have time to prepare his field since he took over Inter. We, the Romanians, should not bow down to him, but learn to respect our values.
It's very, very bad to get to the point of giving your opinion, as certain experts have done, in quotation marks, that “the coat doesn't catch him”, because I don't know what else”, pointed out Cristi Daminuță, in dialogue with GSP.ro.
Bodo Glimt? Remember which teams have lost at Bodo Glimt! It's a completely different philosophy there, you go to minus ten degrees, you go on synthetic, it's not easy! In life, you can't have only victories, it's important to learn from failures.
– Cristian Daminuță
Cristian Daminuță, wearing the Inter jersey before moving to Italy / Photo source: GSP Archive
“If he also takes the Cup, I think we're talking about a “fuoriclasse””
Daminuță continued his point, listing some of the qualities observed in Chivu:
“This group unity is very important, look at what's happening at Real Madrid, precisely because that unity doesn't exist. You can't say there aren't world-class players there.
He is a very pedagogue, first of all. And secondly, it comes from grass. With so many world-class coaches around him, I think he's taken the best from each and managed to implement a style that, in my view, characterizes him very well.
Naturally he is appreciated, he gave his life for this team, if we remember that unfortunate episode. It happened in Inter's shirt. To achieve the treble with such a team seems sensational to me, as a player speaking.
And as a coach, maybe God helps him to win the Cup too (the final with Lazio is on May 13) Then, I already think we are talking about a “fuoriclasse”, as they say! And think that he is only at the beginning of the journey. It's the first full year in which he coaches a senior team”, said Daminuță.
“Let's support our values, because they are few anyway!”
In 2023, when he announced his retirement, Daminuță confessed that, for a year, while he was in Inter's expanded squad, he did not spend much time around Chivu. Now, he sees things differently:
“After years, I realized that he didn't do it out of malice. If we remember, he went from a very young age to a country with a certain history, with a difficult championship, to Ajax, and there I am convinced that each one is for himself, it is not like here: “Where do we go to eat”, “where do we go to drink coffee, to relax”.
Cristi had no expectations from anyone, she relied only on him, on his desire to reach his potential.
The years passed, what was was, the important thing is that he managed to make history, he is one of our Romanians.
We are not really in the position to juggle with the coaches who made history. There are very few of them, and I have lost one of them, unfortunately (no Mircea Lucescu). We should be much more positive, much more tender about these things. We have a talent to give in all the people we have been proud of in this world. Let's support our values, because they are few!“, Daminuță concluded.
