Article by Adrian Duţă – Published Monday, 01 June 2026, 21:39 / Updated on Monday, 01 June 2026 22:04
Jovo Lukic (27 years old), the striker of U Cluj, attracted attention after the best season of his career, ending with 18 goals in the Superliga. Transylvania received an offer of two million euros for the Bosnian international, but the president of the club, Radu Constantea, did not want to hear it.
Lukic arrived last summer at U Cluj, for free, after parting with Craiova. The forward impressed in black and white and became Ligue 1's top scorer.
For his performances at U, he was called up by the Bosnia national team to the World Championship in the summer. Transylvania will receive around 7,000 euros from FIFA for each day spent by Lukic at the 2026 World Cup, including the training camp before the final tournament.
Radu Constantea: “We are not obliged to sell”
At the end of an excellent season, with 2nd place in the Superliga and the final of the Romanian Cup, U Cluj is doing well in terms of budget and does not need to collect money from player sales. Precisely for this reason, the people of Transylvania can afford to hold on to the price and will not give up their holders except in case of big offers.
“It is clear that from the perspective of the budget we are not obliged to sell anyone. This is our objective, so that at least during the European preliminaries no player leaves. Unless an extraordinarily good offer comes.
There are players like Lukic, Macalou, we have to see the full side of the glass, U Cluj has never given the goal scorer and the best passer in the Superliga. Lukic also overlaps with this invitation to the World Championship, I think that for the first time a player from U Cluj participates in the World Championship.
If very good offers come in, we will capitalize, but we are not obligated. There were offers that I refused, the amount was not big enough to make concessions.
We are trying to strengthen the squad for participation in European cups. I also saw the possible opponents in the Europa League, they are strong teams”, said Radu Constantea, at TVR Cluj.
20 goalsLukic scored this season at U Cluj: 18 in the Superliga, 1 in the Romanian Cup, 1 in the Conference League preliminaries
Radu Constantea: “I automatically refused the offer for Lukic”
“Macalou feels very well, in the winter we extended for two more seasons. Jovo Lukic had one year left on his contract, it was opened and we extended for another 3 seasons. He has a contract until 2029.
We hope he doesn't leave, but if an offer comes… We want the World Cup to end well for him, to come as quickly as possible so we can use him during the European campaign, we hope it will be as long as possible.
Lukic was a very good choice for us, he was the top scorer of the championship. We will also have income during the time he is present in the Bosnia team at the World Cup.
Referring to the previous World Cup, it also depends on how long Bosnia will be in the tournament, it will be a significant amount. We will have to share with Craiova, we take the teams he played for in the last two years.
We are a club that has not discussed prices. We had potential discussions at two million euros for Lukic. I automatically refused”Radu Constantea also declared.
U Cluj, the most active team in the Superliga this summer
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So far, U Cluj has transferred Neofytos Michael, Florent Poulolo and Marius Ștefănescu this summer. He also has an agreement with Friday Adams, free after leaving Botoșani, but the right-back has not yet been officially presented.
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Regarding departures, U Cluj parted ways with Jasper van der Werff, Alin Toșca and Andrei Artean, who remained free of contract. The Transylvanian team no longer count on Răzvan Oaidă, who is in court with the club. After two victories at the FRF, the case reached the TAS.
