Veteran Desert Fox joins ex-EPL 'cat lover' and strengthens African core in Romania
Reading Time: 3min | Fri. 12.09.25. | 12:32
All thanks to former Man United and Arsenal star Mikael Silvestre, who is the club's sporting director
How many football fans have heard of the Romanian side Cluj? Not many - perhaps only the hardcore ones, who regularly follow the early rounds of European competitions' qualifiers. However, that may change soon, as the club from the second-largest Romanian city has started gathering stars and renowned football names in its ranks.
It all began about a month ago, when Cluj were knocked out of the UEFA Conference League qualifiers by the Swedish side Hacken, while their league results were as poor as it gets. At that point, the wealthy Romanian businessman and the club's financier, Ioan Varga, opted for a change of sporting director and brought none other than the former Man United and Arsenal star Mikael Silvestre!
CFR Cluj 🚂 with the coup of the year?
— Romanian Football (@RoFtbl) September 3, 2025
30yo centre-back Kurt Zouma 🇫🇷 joins the Transylvanians on a 2-year contract with the option to extend for 2 more
The transfer of the former Prem and CL winner with Chelsea was facilitated by the new sporting director, Mikael Silvestre pic.twitter.com/quFfzGUio9
Even though the Frenchman had little experience and despite that being his first job since 2016, when he left the Ligue 1 side Rennes, the 48-year-old got Varga's trust and started paying off only several weeks later, by bringing Kurt Zouma!
The ex-Chelsea, Everton, and West Ham defender - whose career started going south after he was accused of "cat abuse" - shocked everyone when he signed a two-year deal with the eight-time champions of Romania, but that wasn't the end of Cluj's shocking transfer moves, as they yesterday signed the Algeria international and renowned net-buster Islam Slimani!
After signing Kurt Zouma last week, CFR Cluj moves glamorously once more: Islam Slimani. pic.twitter.com/caI0IqKoF5
— Emanuel Roşu (@Emishor) September 11, 2025
The striker who played for Leicester, Newcastle, Fenerbahce, Monaco, Lyon, Sporting Lisbon, and Anderlecht (among others) in his rich and fruitful career and scored 46 goals in 102 appearances for the Desert Foxes, agreed to join the Romanian side as a free agent, without caring about the wage, but about coffee?! At least that's what Varga claimed.
"He told me he wasn't interested in the salary. He didn't come for the money. If he came for the money, he would have asked for hundreds of thousands of euros. His goal is to get in shape to play in the World Cup and help us achieve our goals."
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"He just said that he wanted to stay in the center, so that at 6 in the morning he could drink his coffee in the city center. He was not interested in anything else," the Cluj financier told the Romanian ProSport.
In the end, Slimani's arrival further strengthened the African core at Dr. Constantin Radulescu Stadium, where two Gambians and a Mauritanian already play.
