Max Wilkins

Mon 1 June 2026 17:10, UK

West Ham United quickly ended their interest in Octavian Popescu in the middle of a 2024 scouting mission.

The forward is now 23 years old and continues to feature regularly for FCSB in the Romanian Superliga.

He burst into the first team set-up at National Arena in 2020, aged 17, and has never looked back.

Becoming a regular while being so young certainly caught the eye and prompted various links away from his boyhood side.

West Ham were linked to Popescu previously, and it has now been revealed why they never made a move to sign the attacker.

West Ham walked away from Octavian Popescu scouting mission

The early years of the Romanian’s spell at FCSB were excellent, but things have taken a slight downward turn recently.

That may be due to the disappointment of failing to make a big move when his stock was at its highest a few seasons ago.

Various Premier League sides were interested in his signature at one time, but he ultimately remained with the Romanian outfit.

The Hammers are one side who were interested in former Galatasaray and Valencia star Adrian Ilie, revealing to Fanatik that scouts were sent to watch Popescu two years ago.

An Irons delegation was in attendance as FCSB faced Rapid Bucharest, but were unimpressed with the quality on show as they left early.

Ilie has revealed what happened on the day, saying: “There were scouts from West Ham, at an FCSB – Rapid game. They left at half-time. People said to them, ‘Where are you going, because the match is still being played’.

“And they said, ‘What kind of pace is this?’. They left at half-time. They had come for Tavi Popescu. At half-time they said: ‘Let’s go, because there’s no pace.”

There have been a number of rogue signings like Keiber Lamadrid at West Ham recently, but this is one deal that was bizarrely avoided.

West Ham dodged a bullet with Popescu snub

The irony of this whole story is that Hammers fans would typically expect someone their side missed out on to go and become a star elsewhere.

The likes of N’Golo Kante, Didier Drogba and even Neymar have been linked with East London over the years, but were missed out on.

Fortunately, their successes on the world stage haven’t been replicated by Popescu after a difficult stint in Romania.

Scoring just 27 goals in six years for a forward isn’t good enough, and he likely would have seriously struggled in the Premier League if he had moved.

For once, this seems to have been a wise move from the Irons.