Ex-Chelsea player Dan Petrescu has signed a three-year contract to coach Dynamo Moscow, the Russian club said Saturday.
Petrescu quit his previous job at Russia’s FC Kuban last week, telling R-Sport that he was in search of “a new challenge”.
Dynamo have lost all four of their league games so far this season, but Petrescu said that the disastrous start appealed to his sense of adventure.
“The situation in the team is really difficult, but I like to work under such conditions,” he said.
“I took over my previous teams when they were not on a roll. But we managed to improve the situation and achieved serious results,” Petrescu said, adding that wanted to win titles with Dynamo.
The 44-year-old Romanian coach said that he would bring four people with him into the coaching staff and leave caretaker coach Dmitry Khokhlov in the backroom staff.
Khokhlov will be in charge for Dynamo's Russian Premier League match against Terek Grozny on Sunday because Petrescu is serving a touchline ban.
Petrescu’s debut will be against VfB Stuttgart in the Europa League on Wednesday.
He replaces Sergei Silkin, who quit earlier this month after a 4-0 derby thrashing at the hands of Spartak Moscow.
Since retiring from football in 2003, Petrescu has also coached Romanian teams Dinamo Bucharest and Unirea Urziceni, as well as Poland's Wisla Krakow.
As a player, he made more than 150 appearances for Chelsea and won 95 caps for Romania.
