RRI Sports Club – Rapid Football Club’s 95th anniversary
Rapid - one of the most popular Romanian football clubs of all times
Florin Orban, 27.06.2018, 12:58
A couple of railway workers with the Grivita Railway Works laid the foundation for one of the best-loved and most popular club in the history of Romanian Football: Rapid Bucharest. The date proper was June 25, 1923, and back then the group of railway workers set up the CFR Bucharest Cultural and Sports Association.
The club’s football team had shortly become one of the most popular football teams in Romania. In the interwar period, railway footballers succeeded a couple of notable results. Until 1942, Rapid won Romanian Football Cup seven times, while in 1940 they reached as far as the final of the Central European Cup, which was cancelled because of the war.
However, it was not until 1967 that Rapid managed to win Romania’s domestic championship for the first time, that is more than four decades since the club had been founded. Their team in 1967, with Valentin Stanescu at the helm, is rated the best in the club’s entire history. Rapid’s strongest point was the attack line, with Ion Ionescu and Nicky Dumitriu at the center.
Apart from its ups, however, Rapid had its downs, throughout the years, playing in the second division for quite a long time, where they even had their traditional rivals, such as Petrolul Ploieşti or Progresul Bucharest. Decades ago, a second league match pitting Rapid against Petrolul brought more football fans in the stands than League One’s derbies.
It took Rapid 32 years to claim the title, as in 1999, with Mircea Lucescu at the helm, Rapid once again became champions. Rapid won the title yet again, in 2003, with Mircea Rednic as their headcoach.
At international level, in the European Cup of modern times, Rapid boasts two notable performances. In the 1972-1973 season, the railway workers team reached as far as the Cup Winners’ Cup quarterfinals, being ousted from the competition by Leeds United. In the 2005-2006 season, Rapid reached as far as the UEFA Cup quarterfinals, then they were eliminated by Steaua Bucharest.
In recent years, Rapid has had a rather fated course, money-wise, as they had financial problems, reaching insolvency and being dismantled in late 2016.
In 2017, at the initiative of Capital city’s District One Municipality, the Rapid Academy Sports Association was set up, being included in Bucharest 4th League. The association purchased the Rapid brand and got promoted to the 3rd League, where they will play their regular games as Football Club Rapid Bucharest.
(Translated by E. Nasta)
