As a coach at Rapid, the current coach Mircea Lucescu (79 years old), was convinced that, in order to win the championship in Romania in 1999, besides the talent in Lupu, Iftodi or Maier, Lobonț, Incsi, Marinescu or Pancu, Rednic and Sabău’s experience, the team also needed players. And designated Stefan Nanu (56 years old) to concrete a defense flank.
Ștefan Nanu, at the national team of Romania
Although right -handed, the “atomic dwarf” made the left band like no other at the end of the last century. He also noticed the then coach of the tricolors, Victor Piţurcă, who had a match match in the qualifying campaign at the European Championship of 2000. Piţi was expelled after a conflict with the leaders of Hagi, Popescu and Petrescu, and Emeric Iena’s learning was thrown on the boy from Filiași for the Lot, Fane seems to be the only footballer that the reputed Nea Im, a blajin and non-conflictual guy, managed to upset him with his technical choice.
Bought with $ 120,000
Ștefan Nanu started football Electroputere Craiova, with the workbook placed at the factory, then jumped naturally in the courtyard of Farul Constanța. With both formations he played in the late UEFA-Intertoto Cup, an interclub competition with which the continental forum occupies the summer of the middle of the standings. The great performance met with Fane a little later.
In 1997 he signed a contract valid for two and a half years with Rapid, where he called Liță Dumitru, but “Il Luce” was the one who transformed into a fixed point. As scratched as he was considered, the owner George Copos took out $ 120,000 out of his pocket, a significant amount for those years. Nanu left two years after Rapid, and for half a year of contract, as much as the player had, the Giulesti were chosen with $ 500,000 and a 20-day cantonment in the Netherlands for 40 people.
In Bucharest, Nanu faced the pain of a dramatically lost title in front of Mihai Stoichiță’s star, at the end of a draw in Giulești with the great rival (“The equalizer goal, scored by Ciocoiu in Giulești, came after an unanswered phase, in which I was made 16 meters by Adi Matei, then scored on the counterattack“), Then with the discharge of the championship finished in the first place in 1999, with a quick dominant, stepping their opponents.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hnrvsg1mdc
Giulești’s Rummy gang
“Nea Mircea Lucescu had a word: the championship is won with the small teams. With the big teams we motivated each other anyway. I had a beautiful life in Giulești, although there was not much money. At Rapid, I had a salary of $ 2,500 a month. Only the oldest and most experienced teams received $ 3,500-4,000. These were the salaries at that time. But I had a good team, with Rednic, Sabău, Lupu … Rednic was the “child” of Copos, at and put a coach. At the first match as a coach, played in Bistrița, Rednic was shaking his beard in the locker room. Lupu said, “Well, Mircea, leave us, that we know what we have to do”! However, from that team, Rednic and Șumudică managed to win champion titles in Romania, as coaches. I, Lupu, Rednic, Șumudică and the late Manea (no – second) I made a team at Rummy. When the turn of Șumudică came, Lupu told him to let go of the running shifts, he only kept him in the caterpillar. Rarely footballer and man than Lupu. An extremely soulful guy“, Nanu recalls, reached 56 years old.
Nanu made Lăcătuș strict marking, in Rapid – Steaua 1-1, 1998
Na wanted to stay in the Netherlands
In 1999, at the age of 30, Fane was transferred to the Netherlands, to the Vitesse Arnhem band, as a champion position of Romania. There he worked with a big name in football Ronald Koeman, in 2000 in the first year of coaching. Former winner of the Champions Cup as a player in Barcelona, Koeman is now the Holland’s coach and the one who later put the banner on Cristi Chivu’s arm at Ajax Amsterdam.
Stefan Nanu, during the period Vitesse Arnhem
“The body helped me, I did not drink, I did not smoke … I signed a 3-year contract with Vitesse and I extended the fourth season. Ronald Koeman said he didn’t go to Ajax until I sign a year with Vitesse. In the fourth season I broke my cross ligaments. Anyway, in the Netherlands I didn’t feel like I’m in football. There was no pressure, although we were playing in European cups. There were 26 players in the lot and you had to catch the game sheet, 18. The first to victory was $ 2,000, whether you were a holder or you were reserve. In a month you could raise $ 25-30,000, from bonuses and salary. I had colleagues like Pierre Van Hooijdonk, Mahamadou Diarra … as a social life, I did not see myself living there. In the Netherlands, everyone is his job. It is not like us, you make a barbecue with the neighbor, a joke … I had a house at Arnhem, but I sold it at the departure”, Reports Nanu episode Batav.
“I had put the bone on qualification”
His big of the national team remains. Only 7 selections, all gathered in 1999 and 2000: “The great sin for me was Piţurcă’s change. That was my misfortune. He had used me throughout the Euro 2000 qualification campaign. Then, with Nea I had two verification matches, before the final tournament. At the first match, from Constanța, in the 72nd minute Chivu changed me, that was his first match to the national team. Then, after the next game, in the Netherlands, he told me he didn’t need me anymore. He preferred Chivu, he was younger and confirmed. And now confirms as a coach, at Parma. With pits at national, I was sure to reach the final tournament. I deserved to be there, I had put the bone for qualification. I had played about 600 minutes at the national … I also played in that match, Romania-Portugal 1-1, which assured us the qualification for Euro. I also received a qualification premium of $ 40,000, for the contribution made ”.
Signed with the star
With Victor Piţurcă, Stefan Nanu later collaborated in 2003, for a short time, in Steaua. “Returning from the Netherlands, I played about four matches at Steaua. Pițurcă put me the right defender, because on the left was Pompiliu Stoica, young, of the future. I was right -handed, but I didn’t feel at ease as a left -hander. Then I told this to Nea Piți that I could not continue that way and I interrupted the contract. I went to Steel then, with Sorin Cârțu. There I had a sensational return. We only lost two matches with Dinamo and Rapid, and I caught the Cup final“Says Nanu about the moment when he” betrayed “the Rapid.
National without personality
The current national team, involved in the 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign, does not give Stefan Nanu back. “I had entered a hole with the results. Nea Mircea came and achieved a good campaign in the League of Natural. But this defeat came from home, from the preliminaries. Now, before the matches with Austria and Cyprus, there are many injured. The big loss for these two matches seems to me cute. There is no leader, a personality, such as Hagi, Popescu, Petrescu, Dorinel, Lupescu. There is a leader, Stanciu but not very involved”.
Ștefan Nanu and future footballers
Withdrawn at home, Stefan Nanu has opened a football school, where he has students and his children, twins (9 years). One of them, Eduard, came out a goalscorer at a competition, replacing the lack of successes next to his father, who appears in statistics with two goals in the professional career, one at Rapid and one at Vitesse.
Eduard Nanu is giving goals on treadmill
