Article by Mihai Mironică – Published Saturday, May 23, 2026, 4:02 p.m. / Updated Saturday, May 23, 2026, 4:02 p.m.
The drama of Daniel Pancu's transition from the second-class CFR carriage to the first-class Rapid car stopped when it came to paying the difference in class: 50,000 euros. The driver of the Rapid car wants the passenger to pay, as always, but Daniel Pancu has heard of the new trends in European trains, where the new car pays the price difference to more special coach-passengers.
However, in our country, it seems that this fashion has not yet caught on, proof that Daniel Oprița did not get even 50,000 forints from Sepsi for the liberation from the Steaua military unit.
We have a love triangle where everyone is right and wrong. CFR Cluj attracted Daniel Pancu into a relationship and the Cluj club fell head over heels in love with the coach when he managed the miracle of the team's rise from 13 to 3.
CFR offered an important challenge to a coach without any significant past in club teams, but also subtly sabotaged him when he sold the Munteanu-Emerllahu-Hindrich backbone, when he paid his players very late, when he did not present him with a solid plan to strengthen the squad for the next season.
Pancu's point G is Giulesti, not Gruia
We move to the tip disputed by the other two sides of the love triangle, to Daniel Pancu. I can't recall a performance like his in the modern history of our football, this leap from 13th to 3rd. Pancu understandably, the great love of his footballing life is Rapid. The way the coach chooses to part ways with CFR Cluj is incomprehensible.
He knew what club he was going to. In addition, when the rapidist sirens had not yet started to sing, not those of Vasile Roaita, but those of Dan Șucu, Daniel Pancu spoke to us after the matches about the greatness of the CFR Cluj club. But who remembers the declarations of love from the honeymoon?
And last but not least Rapid, who broke the house at CFR Cluj. Not to complain if someone does the same to them in the future. Rapid wants Daniel Pancu now after he didn't want him when he had him. Femdom hooks. Panco Italiano loves her too even though he was betrayed by her in love. For the woman of his footballing life, Pancu leaves a good lady, with a European passport, with an invitation to Nyon, with huge achievements on the continent in the last 20 years.
And who does he leave it for? For a young woman who bought herself a coat of arms, but could not rise above a mediocre, non-European level with all her money.
Look who's offending…
Ioan Varga says that Pancu is a nobody. He, who has changed coaches in his life like socks, comes with such X-rays. If he really trusted Pancu, Varga would put a termination clause of half a million euros and Pancu was intangible. Like Dan Petrescu, who said when he was at CFR that he would have gone to the national team or wherever else he was wanted, but the clause…
In addition, Iuliu Muresan says about Pancu that it is not a long way. This reminded me of the comical moment with Muresan declaring about Ioan Andone that he will be an Alex Ferguson of the CFR so that, immediately after, Andone is dismissed from the CFR.
The most photogenic of this whole story was the CFR gallery, which came with a beautiful parting message at the match with FC Argeș. Pancu will return to Giulesti, where he is an idol. But let's not forget that Giulești is the place where the idols are lumped by their own fans, not their own fans, as it was written on the famous rapidist sheet.
They're not really run on rails anymore, but booed, booed. The distance between idol and outcast in Giulesti, as everywhere in our “demanding” football, is about 10-15 stages. If the coach misses the first part of the season, Panco Italiano will become Panco Itineranto.
Of course, Pancu comes after a remarkable career with CFR, but Rapid has a weaker team than the Cluj club. We will see how Pancu will be able to change the ratio in the offseason.
