There are no debts left to Cîrjan! The Rapidists mocked the former colleague in the locker room
Article by Daniel Grigore – Published Sunday, March 15, 2026, 07:27 / Updated Sunday, March 15, 2026 07:27
Rapid turned Dinamo twice, from 0-1 and 1-2, to start the play-offs in the best possible way. After the match, some of Costel Gâlcă's students did not want to owe Cătălin Cîrjan, for the way the former speedster, now at Dinamo, celebrated the goal scored last night.
Cîrjan's first adventure in senior Romanian football was at Rapid, the team that got him on loan from Arsenal in the summer of 2023.
The central midfielder spent one season in Giulești, a not very successful one, resulting in 19 appearances and zero goals, and in the summer of 2024 he was released from his contract at Dinamo.
He became captain among the “red dogs” and scored the 2nd goal in the derby last night. Probably in response to the impression of hostility that Giulești and the white-cherry club left him, Cîrjan defiantly raised his hands to his ears, as if to convey: “Let me hear you now!”.
Cătălin Cîrjan's gesture after scoring in Rapid – Dinamo / photo: Cristi Preda (GSP)
It seems that his gesture touched the fast players, if we look at the group photo taken in the locker room after the game.
The rapidists did not owe Cătălin Cîrjan! They mocked the former colleague in the locker room
Some of the Rapid players copied, ironically, the gesture of the dynamist with whom some of them were colleagues.
In addition to Dobre, in the foreground of the image, Andrei Borza, Daniel Paraschiv, Marian Aioani, Claudiu Petrila, Răzvan Onea, Dejan Iliev, Gabriel Gheorghe and Andrei Șucu, one of the sons of the majority shareholder from Giulesti, also make this gesture.
Photo source: Facebook @ FC Rapid
Cătălin Cîrjan: “It wasn't for Mr. Șucu”
Also after the match, in a flash interview, Cîrjan explained his gesture from the goal:
“Don't let it be understood that it was for Mr. Șucu, I respect him for what he does in Romanian football, but certain people there were, I think, against me when I was at Rapid. They didn't even want me to succeed and that's what I felt I had to do. So the gesture was not for Mr. Șucu.”
And he ranted, blaming the alleged mistake of referee Istvan Kovacs for Rapid's 2nd goal, when the “central” did not sanction Borza's intervention on Musi:
“It's very difficult to talk about football tonight, we all watched the phase of the second goal scored by Rapid. It's a clearer foul phase than the one we had in the championship, now there's more intensity, it's a clear foul. I don't understand how it didn't happen. We watched the phase 10 times in the dressing room, it's a clear foul and I have nothing more to say than that. (…)
That foul influenced the game. It's very frustrating that the match was not decided on the field, but elsewhere, but I don't want to talk about it anymore.”
Below, the phase incriminated by Cîrjan:
