Article by Maria Olteanu – Published Wednesday, 07 January 2026, 11:12 / Updated Wednesday, 07 January 2026 11:18
Released by the group from Gruia, after not convincing Coco in the first part of the season reached an agreement with Hapoel Tel Avivoccupying the 5th place in the first echelon in Israel. He was announced in the media there and was expected to arrive to sign the contract in the next 24 hours, but was blocked at the “Avram Iancu” International Airport on Wednesday morning.
Marcus Coco cannot leave Romania
According to GSP.ro information, the defender from Guadeloupe would have had a scheduled flight this morning, from Cluj-Napoca, to Tel Aviv, Wizz Air flight W43483, scheduled for 5:45, but he could not take off, due to the fact that he was not allowed to board, because he did not have a visa for Israel.
At the moment he stayed in Cluj-Napoca and it remains to be seen how the situation will be resolved in the next few hours, so that he can reach Israel and sign with his new team.
Arriving free of contract in September 2025, from FC Nantes, Marcus Coco played in 10 games for CFR Cluj, 9 of which in the Superliga. Although at one point it looked like he had earned himself a starting place, the defender made several errors at the start of the season and the confidence of the technical staff was quickly lost.
Before coming to Romania, Marcus Coco played for five seasons at FC Nantes, where he made 131 appearances in all competitions. The French transferred him in 2019 from Guingamp, for approximately 3 million euros.
In total, the defender made 260 Ligue 1 appearances and was a France youth international with 17 U21 caps. The separation from Coco comes in a period of important changes at CFR Cluj, after the departures of Lindon Emerllahu (Polissya Zhytomyr) and Louis Munteanu (DC United).
