On June 25 1923, several rail
\nworkers of the Grivita workshops laid the foundations of one of the most
\nbeloved clubs in the Romanian sports history: Rapid Bucharest. The aforementioned
\nworkers were at that time members of the Cultural and Sports Association CFR
\nBucharest and the club’s football side became one of the most popular in
\nRomania. In the period between the two world wars, the rail footballers managed
\nto accomplish several notable results. They had claimed seven editions of
\nRomania’s Cup by 1942 and in 1940 they had made it to the finals of the Central
\nEuropean Cup, which was cancelled by the war. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Rapid footballers managed to win the first Romanian championship only in 1967
\nover 40 years since the club’s foundation. With Valentin Stanescu at the helm,
\nRapid’s lineup at that time was considered the best in the entire club’s
\nhistory. The team’s strong point was its attacks with Ion Ionescu and Nicky
\nDumitriu as strikers. Along the years, however, Rapid had less fruitful periods,
\nwith many years in the championship’s second league where it got archrivals
\nlike Petrolul Ploiesti and Progresul Bucharest. Several decades ago, a game
\npitching Rapid against Petrolul used to bring more fans together than the
\nderbies of the first league. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
After a break of 32 years, Rapid became champions under the guidance of the
\nfamous Romanian headcoach Mircea Lucescu. The team got the title again in 2003
\nwith Mircea Rednic as coach. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Rapid also boasts two major
\nperformances in the European Cups. In the 1972-1973 football season, Rapid made
\nit to the quarters of Cup Winners’ Cup where it was eliminated by Leeds United.
\nIn the 2005-2006 season, this prestigious football side advanced to the
\nquarters of the UEFA Cup, where it was eliminated by Steaua Bucharest. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In recent years though, the
\nsituation of the club got complicated and the financial issues eventually led
\nthe club to insolvency and dismantling in late 2016. A year later, upon the
\ninitiative of the district one city hall, a sports association entitled the
\nRapid Academy was founded and joined Romania’s fourth football league. The
\ngroup purchased the Rapid logo and in three years, made a comeback to the first
\nfootball league, where in 2022 ranked ninth. This year Rapid has qualified for
\nthe Superleague’s play-offs presently ranking fifth in the standings. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(bill)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The famous Romanian football club, Rapid Bucharest, celebrates its 100th anniversary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":123580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40940],"tags":[33219,28915,33719,42297,34698,41891,37140],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-123579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-academy","tag-bucharest","tag-cfr","tag-dumitriu","tag-ionescu","tag-lucescu","tag-rapid"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n