• Former Chelsea defender leads minnows to Romanian cup win • Then resigns to sign lucrative deal with China’s Jiangsu Sainty

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The coach Dan Petrescu led his new Romanian club Targu Mures to their first major trophy in his first match in charge – then resigned to join the Chinese side Jiangsu Sainty.

Petrescu was named coach of the Romanian league runners-up last month, signing a three-year contract. But the 1-0 win over Steaua Bucharest in the Romanian Super Cup turned out to be his first and last official game in charge.

Mircea Axente scored the winner for Targu Mures midway through the second half following some good work from the Polish defender Pawel Golanski.

“Steaua were the better team in the first half: I scolded the players at half-time and you saw the reaction,” said Petrescu, before confirming he had agreed a lucrative deal with the Chinese club. “It’s very hard to leave the team in this moment. I don’t how it’ll be in China. I hope it will be like in Russia.”

Petrescu’s new club are sixth in the Chinese championship with 25 points from 17 matches, 11 points behind the leaders Beijing Guoan.

As a coach, he guided Unirea Urziceni to the Romanian league title in 2009. He has also managed Poland’s Wisla Krakow, the Russian clubs Kuban Krasnodar and Dynamo Moscow, the Qatari side Al-Arabi, and the Romanian sides Sportul Studentesc and Rapid Bucharest.

Local media said that the former CFR Cluj and Gyor ETO coach Vasile Miriuta is favourite to replace Petrescu.