FC Rapid București
Fotbal Club Rapid, commonly known as Rapid București or simply as Rapid, is a Romanian professional football club based in Bucharest, that competes in the Liga I, the top tier of Romanian football. It was founded in 1923 by employees of the Grivița workshops as the Asociația Culturală și Sportivă CFR.
Domestically, Rapid București is one of the most successful clubs in the country, having won three national titles, 13 Cupa României, and four Supercupa României. Internationally, its highest achievements are reaching the quarter-finals of the 1972–73 Cup Winners' Cup and the 2005–06 UEFA Cup, and the final of the 1940 Mitropa Cup—the latter not being played because of World War II. Recently, the club was declared bankrupt in 2016, but was refounded and managed to return to the top flight in 2021.
From 1939, Rapid played its home matches in burgundy and white kits at the Valentin Stănescu Stadium, which was replaced by the new Rapid-Giulești in 2022. The team has fierce local rivalries with FCSB, Dinamo București and Steaua București, as well as with Petrolul Ploiești.
History
1923–32: Beginnings
On 25 June 1923, in a classroom of the primary school from the Grivița neighborhood, Bucharest, the employees of the Grivița workshops created Asociația Culturală și Sportivă CFR. Teofil Copaci was chosen as the president of the association, while Grigore Grigoriu became the first captain of the team. The squad was formed in September, following the merger of the Ateliere and Excelsior teams. The first equipment was made out of burgundy fabric in the house of Grigoriu.On 28 October 1923, the team played its first game against Unirea Timișoara, which it lost 4–8. The second match, played over ten days, was against Gloria Arad, and was lost 1–2. Until 1932 CFR played in the Bucharest Championship, not qualifying in the final tournament of the national league. During this period, the leaders of the team were: Teofil Copaci, Grigore Grigoriu, and Bozie Codreanu; other players included Stănică, Tudor, Molnar, Ștefănescu, Foran, Leoveanu, Constantinescu, Fetzko, Georgescu, Albert, Block, Filip, Itu I, Itu II, Pîrvulescu, Cichi, Schileriu, Svetcovschi, Oros, Ujlaki, Pop, Dobrescu I, Kelemen, Vlaiculescu, Ispas, Vintilescu, and Petrovici.
1932–45: The golden years
The club entered the Divizia A at the start of the 1932–33 season, after several years of competing for the regional championship of Bucharest. During the pre-war years, Rapid was one of Romania's top teams, regularly winning the cup, but never the championship, although they came close. Once Rapid lost the title because of a player's candor. One of Rapid's players touched the ball with his hand in the penalty area during a decisive match against Venus București, when Rapid needed a win to finish first in the league. At first, the referee didn't see it, but when he heard the audience protesting asked the player if he had touched the ball with his hand. The player admitted that he had.| Period | Name |
| 1923–1937 | CFR București |
| 1937–1945 | Rapid București |
| 1945–1950 | CFR București |
| 1950–1958 | Locomotiva București |
| 1958–2016 | Rapid București |
| 2016–2017 | Mișcarea Feroviară CFR București |
| 2017–2018 | Academia Rapid București |
| 2018–2019 | Fotbal Club R București |
| 2019–present | Fotbal Club Rapid 1923 |
Venus converted the penalty kick and managed a 1–1 draw to finish first in the league, instead of "the Railwaymen". The team's final season's standings in the Divizia A were: 1932–33 – 2nd, 1933–34 – 4th, 1934–35 – 10th, 1935–36 – 7th, 1936–37 – 2nd, 1937–38 – 1st , 1938–39 – 6th, 1939–40 – 2nd, and 1940–41 – 2nd.
In this period, the club's most successful time in this competition, Rapid won seven Romanian Cups: 1934–35, 1936–37, 1937–38, 1938–39, 1939–40, 1940–41, 1941–42, six of them won in consecutive years. The players in this winning effort included Roșculeț, Ujlaki, Vintilă, Wetzer II, Rășinaru, Cuedan, Barbu II, Rădulescu, Bogdan, Auer, Moldoveanu, Baratky, Raffinsky, Lengheriu, I.Costea, Sipos, Gavrilescu, Sadowski, Silvăț, Ghiurițan, Wetzer III, and Florian.
In the summer of 1937, the club changed its name from CFR București to Rapid București, modeling their new name on that of the Austrian club Rapid Wien.
The "railway workers" were no longer topping the league standings, but they still had supportive fans, and some players were selected for the national team. During those years, the competition format changed after various reorganizations, and Rapid won the Bessarabia Cup in 1942. They qualified for the final of the Mitropa Cup. In 1940, Rapid played to two ties in the Mitropa Cup semi-finals and was drawn for the final, which was never played, due to the outbreak of World War II.
1945–1970: The Railwaymen, a solid team
After the war, Rapid returned to the Bucharest Championship in the 1945–46 season, finally finishing 4th. After this season the club returned to its old name, CFR, and entered the 1946–47 Divizia A season, the first official national season after the end of the war, and ended in 5th place, two points away from 2nd place and 13 from 1st place. In the following season, 1947–48, the team finished 3rd, behind CFR Timişoara and ITA Arad. In the 1948–49 season, "the White and Burgundies" finished 2nd, only five points behind IC Oradea. Also, on 20 March 1949, CFR București obtained the most lopsided victory in its entire history, 12–2 against CFR Cluj.Under the influence of the communist regime installed in the country after 1945, the 1950s started with a change from an autumn-spring season to a spring-autumn one. In the 1950 season Rapid became Locomotiva, a name much closer to the Soviet version, Lokomotiv, a change imposed on all the teams that belonged to the Romanian Railways, but the Giuleștenii finished again in 2nd place. The first relegation to Liga II came in 1951 when the club was ranked 11th, losing a three-way contest by a goal against Locomotiva Târgu Mureș and Știința Timișoara. Promoted one year later, from 1st place in Liga II, with 10 points over the second-ranked, Rapid would finish the 1953 season in 5th place. In 1954 season Locomotiva, in 12th place, was relegated for the second time. However, "The White and Burgundies" returned after only one year to Divizia A, following a good showing for the team, including a 4th-place ranking at the end of 1956, only 5 points behind 1st place.
In the 1957–58 season, Romanian football returned to the autumn-spring system and "the Railwaymen" finished at the middle of the table, 8th out of 12. The end of the Soviet system also meant the end of Soviet team names, and in 1958 the team returned to the Austrian-inspired name of Rapid. In the following years, the team finished 4th and 10th at the end of the 1958–59 and 1959–60 seasons, respectively.
In the 1950s, the squad included the following players: Valentin Stănescu, Gheorghe Dungu, Gh. Demeter, Dumitru Macri, Ion Mihăilescu, C. Simionescu, N. Cristescu, I. Ruzici, C. Socec, Ion Lungu, Bazil Marian, Andrei Rădulescu, Anton Fernbach-Ferenczi, Ștefan Filotti, Nicolae Roman, E. Avasilchioaie, D. Călin, L. Coman, A. Todor, N. Dodeanu, I. Langa, I. Olaru, Stere Zeană, and Gh. Milea, among others.
The 1960s was one of the best periods for Giulești football. In 1961, Rapid reached the final of the Romanian Cup, where they lost to Arieșul Turda, 1–2, with Nicolae Georgescu scoring in the 24th minute for the "White and Burgundy". The result was more surprising, as the winning team was, at that time, only a Divizia C member. The following season, Rapid—with a squad coached by Ion Mihăilescu and composed of valuable players such as Ilie Greavu, Ion Motroc, Dumitru Macri, Titus Ozon, Ion Ionescu or Teofil Codreanu, among others—eliminated CSM Mediaș, Laminorul Roman, Metalul Târgoviște, and Progresul București. However, they suffered a dramatic defeat in the final, 1–5, against a Steaua București squad that would come to be recognized as the golden generation of that club.
For most of these seasons, the team could be found in the top half of the league: 1960–61 – 3rd, 1961–62 – 5th, and 1962–63 – 8th. Then followed three great seasons for the squad, under the Grant Bridge, which finished 2nd three years in a row: 1963–64, 1964–65, and 1965–66. Nevertheless, they finished behind their rivals Dinamo and Petrolul. This motivated "the Railwaymen", who, at the end of the 1966–67 season, had their best performance up until that time, their first Divizia A title, with the following players: Răducanu Necula, Marin Andrei – Dan Coe, Nicolae Lupescu, Ion Motroc, Ilie Greavu, Constantin Jamaischi – Constantin Dinu-Buric, Nicolae Georgescu, Constantin Năsturescu, Teofil Codreanu, Viorel Kraus – Ion Ionescu, Emil Dumitriu, and Alexandru Neagu. Valentin Stănescu and Victor Stănculescu were their coaches. In that season the title was won by two points over Dinamo București and the season's top scorer was Ion Ionescu, with 15 goals.
In the 1967–68 European Cup, Rapid eliminated the Bulgarian champion, Botev Plovdiv, in the first round, but lost to Juventus, 0–1. In the 1967–68 Division A season the team reached the final game of the Romanian Cup, which it lost to Dinamo, 1–3 in overtime; placed 3rd in 1968–69; and 2nd in 1969–70.
1970–1990: Troubled times
Rapid's last strong season was in 1970–71, when it finished in 2nd place, after which it started to slide towards the bottom half of the league table: 1971–72 – 10th and 1972–73 – 14th. Despite these lesser performances, in 1972 Rapid reached the Romanian Cup final under coach Bazil Marian, a team player in the 1950s, and won 2–0 against Jiul Petroșani, with goals scored by Stelian Marin and Alexandru Neagu. In the 1971–72 UEFA Cup season Rapid had impressive results, eliminating Napoli and Legia Warsaw before being stopped by Tottenham Hotspur, 0–5. The 1972–73 European Cup Winners' Cup was another good European campaign, and, after a 3–1 against Landskrona BoIS of Sweden and a 4–2 against Rapid Wien, the team that had inspired the Romanian side so much in the past, Rapid was eliminated again by an English side, this time Leeds United, 1–8.At the end of the 1973–74 season, the "White and Burgundies" finished 16th, with the same number of points as Jiul Petroșani, but this time the club from the Jiu Valley would win because of higher scores. Rapid was relegated for the third time in its history, only 7 years since its first national title. The squad had a strong following season and was promoted after only one year spent in the second league, finishing 1st in the 2nd series, 6 points ahead of 2nd place Progresul București. "The Railwaymen" seemed to want to convince everyone that relegation was nothing but a regrettable error; so, they also won the Romanian Cup in the same season, surprisingly, being a second echelon team. In the 1974–75 Cupa României campaign, Rapid advanced by eliminating strong teams such as Dinamo București, Jiul Petroșani, Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț, and Steaua București. In the final they encountered Universitatea Craiova, the Divizia A defending champions, a club that was fielding its first golden generation, led from the pitch by its legend, Ion Oblemenco. Rapid won 2–1, in extra time, with goals scored by Nicolae Manea, and Ion Oblemenco scoring for Craiova.
File:Rapid 1974-1975.jpg|thumb|right|270px|Rapid București, the second league team that won the 1974–75 Romanian Cup
Back in Divizia A, Rapid had two mediocre seasons: 1975–76 – 14th and 1976–77 – 16th, being relegated again, 10 years since being champions of Romania. After this relegation began one of the darkest periods in the history of the club at their stadium near Grant Bridge, with 6 consecutive Divizia B seasons: 1977–78 – 4th, 1978–79 – 6th, 1979–80 – 2nd, 1980–81 – 3rd, 1981–82 – 2nd and 1982–83 – 1st. This period led to a fierce rivalry with Petrolul Ploiești and Progresul București. A 1980 match, against Progresul, saw a record attendance, for a Divizia B match, of over 50,000 spectators. The subsequent return to the first division was due to coaches Valentin Stănescu and Viorel Kraus. The players were Ion Gabriel, Manu, Popescu, Paraschiv, Pirvu, Șișcă, Tiță, Iancu, Cojocaru, Ion Ion, Nicolae Manea, Ad. Dumitru, Petruț, Ispas, C. Dumitriu, Avram, Marian Damaschin, Marta, Lazăr, Koti, Săftoiu, A. Mincu, and Petre Petre.
Rapid then had a disappointing record in Divizia A: 1984–85 – 11th, 1985–86 – 8th, 1986–87 – 14th, 1987–88 – 13th, and 1988–89 – 17th. In these five seasons "the Railwaymen" recorded the biggest loss in the history of the club, 0–9 against Corvinul Hunedoara, as well as the biggest loss in Giulești Stadium, 2–8 against Steaua București. After these poor performances, the 1988–89 Cupa României season saw the "White and Burgundies" gaining the semi-finals of the competition, when they were eliminated by Steaua București, 2–3, with a decisive goal scored in the last minute. The team was relegated to Divizia B for the fifth time. The Giuleștenii then had a good season in the 2nd series of the second league—finishing 1st with 22 victories, 5 draws, 7 defeats, 61 goals scored and 32 conceded, 49 points, 4 more than the second place and 11 more than the third place —and were again promoted.