Article by Andrei Crăiţoiu – Published Friday, December 26, 2025 8:41 p.m. / Updated Friday, December 26, 2025 8:42 p.m.
Mircea Lucescu (80 years old) is the Romanian national team coach from August 2024. With Il Luce on the technical bench, the “tricolors” will try to qualify for the World Championship in the USA, Canada and Mexico in March.
Invited to the “Prietenii lui Ovidiu” show, former international Dănuț Lupu (58 years old), one of the “children” of the selectors, spoke openly about Lucescu's situation on the bench of the first team.
Dănuț Lupu: “Lucescu would leave even now if he had someone to come”
“I met him in 1986 and I argued with everyone who took care of Mircea. I think that even now he needs peace and to be left alone. I know very well that since he came to the national team, many people did not agree with his coming”, said Lupu.
Who entered the subject specified. “I don't want him in the national team even now! But they have to understand one thing. Nea Mircea came because he was asked to come! And now he would leave if he had someone to come. The problem is that no one wants to come to coach the national team.”
The former international is of the opinion that “Lucescu is the only man who nevertheless assumed this responsibility. I wouldn't have done this in his place. But he said that he owes a lot to Romanian football and that he wants to help the national team. The world is making him senile, I think it's too much.”
Răzvan Burleanu and Mihai Stoichiță, at Mircea Lucescu's installation // photo: Imago Images
“There was no one to coach the national team!”
After a break of 38 years, Lucescu returned to the helm of the national team, signing a contract for a period of two years, with the main objective of qualifying the team for the World Championship in 2026.
“I wasn't going to the national team, but knowing Mircea, I was sure that she would accept. There was no one to coach the national team! He can't stay in the house. He was sick with Covid, he was sitting with his hand on the doorknob and arguing with Mrs. Neli, that he wanted to leave the house. He can't sit still, he wants to exercise, he's active non-stop. I hope he gets over this moment and doesn't harm him in any way”, Lupu also declared on Ioanițoaia's show.
He was asked to join Mircea Lucescu's staff
Lupu revealed that he even had a discussion to be in Lucescu's technical staff, but the discussions stalled.
“I'm not the man to pray for him. I only told him if he agrees and he thinks I could help him if I sit next to him in the national team. It's hard for me to believe that Jery Gane or someone else on the bench has the courage to say something to nea Mircea,” the former international also pointed out.
Il Luce wrote history in European football
Mircea Lucescu, one of the most titled and respected coaches in Europe, has a remarkable career spanning more than four decades. After laying the foundations of a successful career as a player, Lucescu made the transition to coaching, where he achieved notable results.
He started coaching in 1979, taking over the Romanian national team for the first time in the period 1981-1986. During this period, he managed to take Romania to the European Championship in 1984, from a group with Italy, Sweden, Czechoslovakia and Cyprus.
Throughout his career, Mircea Lucescu coached prestigious teams in Europe, such as Inter Milan, Galatasaray, Shakhtar Donetsk, Beşiktaş, Zenit St. Petersburg and Dinamo Kyiv, accumulating over 30 national and international trophies.
