Daniel Pancu

Daniel Pancu
	Pancu in 2011
Personal information
Full name	Daniel Gabriel Pancu
Date of birth	17 August 1977 (age 47)
Place of birth	Iași, Romania
Height	1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position(s)	Forward, attacking midfielder
Team information
Current team	Romania U21 (head coach)
Youth career
1986–1994	Politehnica Iași
Senior career*
Years	Team
1994–1996	Politehnica Iași
1997–1999	Rapid București
1999–2000	Cesena
2000–2002	Rapid București
2002–2006	Beşiktaş
2006	→ Rapid București (loan)
2006–2007	Bursaspor
2008	Rapid București
2008–2009	Terek Grozny
2010	CSKA Sofia
2010	Vaslui
2011–2015	Rapid București
2015–2016	Voluntari
2017–2018	Rapid București
Total
International career
1994	Romania U16
1995	Romania U18
1996–1997	Romania U21
2001–2005	Romania
Managerial career
2017	Voluntari (assistant)
2017–2018	Rapid București (technical director)
2018–2020	Rapid București
2020	Rapid București (president)
2020–2021	Politehnica Iași
2022	Voluntari (academy director)
2022–2023	Romania U20
2023–	Romania U21
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Daniel Gabriel Pancu (Romanian pronunciation: [daniˈel gabriˈel– ˈpaŋku]; born 17 August 1977) is a Romanian football coach and a former player who played mainly as a forward or an attacking midfielder. Currently he is the head coach of the Romania national under-21 team.

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Pancu began his playing career at Politehnica Iași. He made his debut in Divizia A in 1995. In the winter of 1996 he was transferred to Rapid București for the sum of US$200,000. This was, at that time, the highest fee ever paid for a Iași player. After two and a half seasons, he moved to A.C. Cesena, in the Italian Serie B, for US$1,200,000. After a year, Cesena was relegated from the Serie B and Pancu returned to Rapid for US$800,000, where he stayed for two seasons. During this tenure he gained the nickname "the Giulești Ronaldo".

In 2002, he was bought by Beşiktaş, at the request of the manager who discovered him, Mircea Lucescu, for a fee of US$2,250,000.^[1] It was at Beşiktaş that Lucescu turned Pancu from striker into central midfielder with impressive results. In the winter of 2005/2006, he returned to Rapid on loan with the possibility of becoming a permanent transfer in the summer. He was then bought by Bursaspor, but returned to Rapid again in the spring of 2008, scoring on his first appearance. In July 2008 he moved to FC Terek Grozny and left the club on 30 November 2009.^[2]

On 11 December 2009, it was announced in the Bulgarian media that CSKA Sofia had an interest in signing the midfielder. On 12 January 2010, CSKA signed Pancu on a one-a-half-year deal.^[3] Pancu made his official debut for CSKA Sofia in the 3–2 win against Lokomotiv Plovdiv in Sofia, again scoring on his debut.

After a short spell in Bulgaria at CSKA Sofia, Pancu returned to Romanian football later in 2010 to play for FC Vaslui, but had a difficult time breaking into the first eleven with strong competition from Wesley and Mike Temwanjera. During the summer transfer window of 2011 he re-signed yet again for Rapid București.

Curiosity

On the 28th gameweek of the 2004/05 Süper Lig season, during a derby match against Fenerbahçe, with the score at 2–3, Pancu replaced Óscar Córdoba, after the goalkeeper received a red card and Beşiktaş had already used all their substitutes. After conceding a penalty, Pancu kept Fenerbahçe at bay until Koray scored the fourth goal for Beşiktaş in the fifth minute of added time. Beşiktaş thus sealed a sensational away win over their rivals at Kadiköy Stadium. Pancu was given the nickname "Kadıköy Panteri" (the panther of Kadıköy) and dressed in a regular goalkeeper's jersey with the number "1" the following season.^[4]^[5]^[6] He later stated that he felt uncomfortable being labelled as a goalkeeper, as his native playing position was a forward.^[7]

Managerial career

On 2 October 2018, Daniel Pancu was appointed as Rapid’s new manager. He obtained the promotion from Liga 3 to Liga 2 after losing only 1 game. In 2020, he was named President of Rapid București.^[8]

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International stats

^[9]

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Appearances and goals by national team and year
National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Romania	2001	3	0
	2002	6	2
	2003	9	2
	2004	5	4
	2005	4	1
Total		27	9

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Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Pancu goal.^[9]

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List of international goals scored by Daniel Pancu
No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	27 March 2002	Stadionul Gheorghe Hagi, Constanța, Romania	Ukraine	2–0	4–1	Friendly
2	27 March 2002	Stadionul Gheorghe Hagi, Constanța, Romania	Ukraine	3–0	4–1	Friendly
3	6 September 2003	Stadionul Astra, Ploiești, Romania	Luxembourg	2–0	4–0	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying
4	10 September 2003	Parken Stadium, Copenhagen, Denmark	Denmark	2–1	2–2	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying
5	31 March 2004	Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland	Scotland	2–0	2–1	Friendly
6	4 September 2004	Stadionul Ion Oblemenco, Craiova, Romania	Macedonia	1–0	2–1	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
7	8 September 2004	Estadi Comunal d'Andorra la Vella, Andorra la Vella, Andorra	Andorra	2–0	5–1	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
8	8 September 2004		Andorra	5–1	5–1	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
9	9 February 2005	GSZ Stadium, Larnaca, Cyprus	Slovakia	1–1	2–2	Friendly