Professional soccer K League 1 club Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors FC has named Romanian soccer legend Dan Petrescu, 55, as the seventh head coach in the club’s history. In fact, Petrescu was a legendary player in the English Premier League at Chelsea.
Petrescu is a former player who played for Romania, Italy, and England for 17 years between 1986 and 2003, earning more than 500 caps.
He was a key player for FCSB (Steaua Bucharest) in Romania and Chelsea in England, where he lifted several cup trophies, including the league title.
Petrescu’s time at Chelsea was his peak. Petrescu played for Chelsea from 1996 to 2000, making more than 200 appearances and finding the back of the net more than 20 times. He became the first foreign player to play more than 100 games for Chelsea.
Playing on the right flank, Petrescu flourished under then-Chelsea manager Glenn Hoddle. Known for his clever play, his goal-scoring ability endeared him to Chelsea fans.
Petrescu also represented Romania at the World Cup (1994-1998) and Euro (1996-2000), making 95 appearances (12 goals).
He ended his playing career in 2003 and began his coaching career in his home country. Petrescu was recognized for his leadership at FC Unirea Urziceni (Romania), where he took over ahead of the 2006-07 season, leading the club to a Romanian Cup runner-up finish (2007-08) and the club’s first league title (2008-09).
In 2009, Petrescu moved to Russia, where he led Kuban Krasnodar from the second division to the championship (2009-2010 season) and promoted the team to the first division, before taking the helm of Russian giants Dynamo Moscow.
Petrescu has also gained a wealth of experience in Asian soccer since 2014. He started with Al Arabi in Qatar in 2014, followed by Jiangsu Suning (China) 먹튀검증 in 2015, Al Nasr (UAE) in 2016 and Guizhou Hengfeng (China) in 2018. With Jiangsu, he lifted the FA Cup trophy and experienced the Asian Football Confederation Champions League (ACL) in the 2016 season.
After gaining experience in Asian soccer, Petrescu returned to Romania and took the helm of CFR 1907 Cluj in 2017, winning the league title four times (2017-2018, 2018-2019, 2019-2020, and 2021-2022 seasons).
Jeonbuk praised Petrescu’s leadership in leading the club to four consecutive league titles after years away from the championship.
Petrescu is the second foreign coach in the club’s history. Previously, Jeonbuk entrusted Portuguese coach Morais with the reins for two seasons starting in 2019.
Petrescu will begin his official duties on Thursday morning with a press conference at Hyundai Motor Studio Goyang.
