Rapid Bucharest football club's President Daniel Niculae is pictured during a friendly football match in Buftea city near Bucharest on June 19, 2021. Rapid Bucharest came close to disappearing, but this historic and popular club is undergoing a renaissance, back among the elite with a new stadium, to ward off the difficulties of Romanian football that benefits little from the Euro. "We are like the phoenix", declares to AFP Niculae, who passed notably by Auxerre and Monaco. "The team was bankrupt, we started from scratch". Champion for the third and last time in 2003, the club born on June 25, 1923, exactly 98 years ago, almost died in 2015. After a long penance, it returned to the first division this spring, and now wants to "return to the top three teams in Romania, our place", summarizes Victor Angelescu, 36, the club owner. For this, Rapid has started with the Giulesti Stadium with 14,000 seats, whose modernization is planned to be completed in January 2022.,Image: 617857949, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY EMMANUEL BARRANGUET, Model Release: no

SURSA FOTO: SPORT PICTURES

Daniel Niculae, president of the Rapid team, looks on from the stands during the football match between Rapid Bucharest and CFR Cluj in the 6th round, "Superliga" play-off, the first league of the Romanian 2022-2023 championship, at the Giulesti Stadium, in Bucharest. Rapid Bucharest v CFR Cluj, Giulesti Stadium, Bucharest, Romania - 01 May 2023,Image: 773217488, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no