The city of residence of Gorj County, Târgu-Jiu is crossed by the Jiu River and is famous for the monumental ensemble of Constantin Brâncuşi. He, one of the greatest sculptors of mankind, was born in a Gorj locality, Hobita, realizing at Tg. Jiu’s famous creations are the Infinite Column, the Kiss Gate, the Alley of Chairs and the Table of Silence, which, together with the Orthodox Church of the Holy Apostles, make up the “Calea Eroilor” Monumental Ensemble.

Football in this city of Oltenia has been, until the last 16 years, completely mediocre. The current Pandurii club was created, even with this name, only in 1962, through the merger between the local teams Flacăra-Unirea and CIL. In 1972 and 1975, Pandurii absorbed other groups of the city, on AS Gorjul and, respectively, Cimentul. It was also called Victoria, Cimentul-Victoria, Gloria Pandurii, since 1988, bearing its current name uninterruptedly.

The team promoted for the first time in Division B only in 1977. With the former coach, Victor Piţurcă, a 21-year-old striker. In the ’80s, it even lost, in favor of Miner Motru, the status of club-flagship of the county. In the ’90s he struggled in Division C.

In 2000 he was promoted to B. He began to attack the leading places. In 2004 he finished 2nd, then an unpromotable place, behind Student Sports. And the following year, 2005, he won the second series, one point away from FC Sibiu, and promoted, for the first time for Gorj County, in the first echelon! The coach was Emil Săndoi.

Since then and until 2017, Pandurii has constantly evolved in League I. Even though it has twice relegated “on the field”, but remained at the “green table”, thanks to some vacancies, as a first relegation: in 2006, Student Sports not receiving the license, and in 2010, International Curtea de Argeş being abolished! In the Romanian Cup, the highest reached the semifinals, in 2007.

The 2012/13 season was the best in the club’s history. It started with coach Petre Grigoraş and ended with Cristian Pustai. Pandurii also finished on an incredible 2nd place in League I, obtaining, for the first time, the qualification in the European cups.

In the 2013/14 season of the Europa League, Pandurii eliminated, in the preliminary rounds (entered directly in the 2nd), the Estonians from Levadia Tallinn (0-0, 4-0) and the Israelis from Hapoel Tel Aviv (1-1, 2-1), and in the play-off, huge surprise and dramatic qualification, on the Portuguese from Braga (0-1, 2-0 dp).

They thus qualified in groups, being the only Romanian team in the groups of this edition of the competition! They were eliminated in a group with Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Pacos de Ferreira and Fiorentina.

Tudor Vladimirescu Municipal Stadium from Tg. Jiu had 9,200 seats, was equipped with a nightclub and hosted the Romanian Cup final in 2009, CFR Cluj – FC Timişoara 3-0. An ultramodern one was built on its place, inaugurated on October 25, 2019. It has the same name, has 12,518 seats (fully covered) and night. Meanwhile, the team played at home at Drobeta Tr. Severin, at Motru and on the synthetic field next to the stadium then under reconstruction.

In the autumn of 2016, Pandurii played again in the Europa League, then going into insolvency… And in 2017, the Gorj team relegated, dramatically, in the last minutes of the last stage, in the second league. In the last three seasons, they have avoided relegation to C…

The team is now coached by a Timisoara resident, Călin Cojocaru, made the winter camp in Timișoara, playing a friendly with Politehnica (5-0 for white-violets), and is the “red lantern” of the ranking, with only 8 points.

Photo source: Pandurii Târgu Jiu