Article by Liviu Manolache, Cezar Titor – Published Monday, May 18, 2026, 5:21 p.m. / Updated Monday, May 18, 2026, 5:29 p.m.
After a categorical 5-0 with Cluj University, Craiova University is the new champion of Romania, ticking off the first title in Oltenia, after 35 years of waiting. Moreover, the “Jews” accomplished the “event” in the week that just ended, after the triumph in the shootout, also against the “red caps”. After this performance, Filipe Coelho, the Lusitanian technician of the white-blues, became unique in the history of Romanian football.
Arriving on the Olten bench in a complicated moment, after the resignation of Mirel Rădoi, the Portuguese technician was received with great reluctance. Radoi had left the team in 4th place and had an excellent image among the fans, and the CV of his successor was considered far below the level of expectations in Bănie. Until he arrived in Craiova, the Portuguese had only coached in the lower leagues and had no experience in the first league, neither as a footballer nor as a coach.
Coelho, the first Romanian football coach to win the title on debut
After the title won with Olteni, the situation changed completely. The Portuguese has become an unprecedented case in Romanian football: no coach had ever managed to win the title on debut without having previously had contact with the first league, either on the pitch or on the bench, regardless of country.
In the history of the Romanian championship, 65 technicians contributed to winning a title, including the interim coaches. Among them, only Constantin Teașcă and Constantin Cernăianu came close to the performance of the current coach of Craiova.
The two had not played in the first league either, but they already had experience as coaches at this level before they became champions.
Teașcă, champion with Dinamo Bucharest in the 1961/62 season, had previously coached Dinamo Bacău in the 1958/59 and 1959/60 editions.
Instead, Cernăianu had debuted as the main player at Petrolul in the spring of 1965 and continued in the following season, which ended with the Ploiești title. In other words, he already had a few months of experience in the first league before that success.
