Monday, 28 June 2010, 22:28

Message from the Iraqi desert: “CFR CLUJ RULES!”

From the 3rd league into the Champions League in just 7 years! An incredible success story for football and sports management, CFR 1907 Cluj is, before anything else, a beautiful life story for all those who know that they have to fight for what they believe in, in order to fulfill their dreams.

This is also the message that Costel Baciu, a 28 year old Sergeant in the U.S. Army, is sending us 2300 kilometers away from his home town of Cluj-Napoca. Although he was born and was raised on the banks of the Somes river, Costel chose to follow his American dream and defend the stars and stripes banner all the way in Iraq. He worked his way up: he finished his studies and joined the army as a simple recruit. He slowly climbed the ranks, from paratrooper, to sniper scout and sergeant with a 12 marine unit under his command. He left his heart, though, in the place he was born. He identified himself perfectly with the spirit of the CFR 1907 phenomenon - if you want to achieve something, you must believe it to the end and do something about it.

Therefore, sometime in 2005, when one of his colleagues decorated his armored vehicle with a F.C. Barcelona flag, Costel replied and decorated his own Hum-Vee with a black marker: "CFR Cluj rules!". And this was just the beginning! First, in his spare time, he took football and the cherry-colored ideals in the U.S., Wichita, Kansas, where his best friend and brother in arms, Seth, lives. And he did it every time he had the chance, the 1600 kilometers between Atlanta, his home, and Wichita being a small obstacle. Back in Iraq, he continued the "battle" between F.C. Barcelona and CFR 1907 Cluj, as he recalled smiling: "I was on a patrol mission and, all of a sudden, my team took fire from a mosque. We took cover in a nearby building, where we waited for backup. While being there, I saw "Barca" (short for Barcelona) written on a wall. -What Barca? Enough Barca!- I said to myself and got out a black marker. I crossed out that word and wrote "CFR Cluj rules!". Then, when I returned to base I made myself a billboard with the same message and tied it to the front of a unit M.R.A.P. (armored personnel carrier). Now let's see "Barca"!".

And CFR 1907 Cluj rewarded him for his passion in October 2008, when, on a beautiful autumn night, they managed to beat Totti's Roma, right on Olimpico. An extraordinary result, that echoed all the way to the United States, as Costel remembered: "I was with my friend Seth and we negotiated with an Arab guy for a satellite dish to watch the match in Rome. I wanted to show the Americans, live, what CFR 1907 Cluj meant. They kept asking me about my passion for this team and I kept repeating - "This is my team from Transilvania! We must watch this match! - and, after some mischief, we succeeded. Although my heart yearned to hope for more, a victory against a world football legend like A.S. Roma was rather unlikely. But they made it! Culio, my favourite, scored twice and showed the world what a small team was capable of as long as they believed in something and fought for it! I lost my voice that night! I partied until morning! I went to a bar in Manhattan, called O'Malley's, where I left another "souvenir": the bar had an interesting tradition that allowed each customer to stick a dollar bill in the wall and write a message on it - Seth wrote "Jimmy was here!" - mine is still there today saying "CFR CLUJ RULES!".

Although he is in one of the most dangerous places in the world, and often spends countless days in outposts in the middle of the desert, Costel manages to stay informed to everything that happens with his favorite team from the Internet, though, sometime this very thing can be a challenge because of the difficult conditions and the weak signal in the Iraq middle of nowhere. Still he is happy that the railroaders are the winners of the second championship - cup combo in just three years, the victory in Iasi against F.C. Vaslui being the last result that he remembers reading about. Even so, sergeant Baciu makes the name CFR 1907 Cluj known in every place he is stationed in, with Germany being his next target and his unit's next destination: "All who see my message "CFR CLUJ RULES!" ask themselves about the meaning and come to me for details or Google it and then come to me. Americans, Iraqi or Scottish discovered this beautiful team from Romania, Transilvania, Cluj-Napoca...".