Fotbal Club Progresul București, commonly known as Progresul București or simply as Progresul, was a Romanian football club based in Bucharest. The team was founded in 1944 as B.N.R. București, being the team of the National Bank of Romania (B.N.R.). In 1947 B.N.R. has promoted to Divizia B, then after only seven years made its debut in the Divizia A, this time under the name of Progresul Finanțe Bănci București. The road of Progresul through Romanian football has been marked with ups and downs, in total spending no less than 32 seasons in the top flight, being ranked 15th in the Liga I All-Time Table. "The Bankers" were runners-up of the league for three times (1995–96, 1996–97, 2001–02), won the Romanian Cup in the 1959–60 season and was also the finalist of the competition on four other occasions (1957–58, 1996–97, 2002–03, 2005–06). Life in the shadow of the big three teams of Bucharest and Romania, Steaua, Dinamo and Rapid was not easy for "the bleu and blues", but the lack of support by the communist regime ensured the sympathy of many supporters, a big part of them were actors, artists and people from the little bourgeoisie, the elite of Bucharest. In April 2009 due to financial problems, Progresul was kicked out from the Cotroceni Stadium by its first owner, National Bank of Romania, which was no longer part of the club, but was still the owner of the stadium. In the same month, the club was excluded from the Liga II and declared bankrupt. One of Romania's most well known footballers Dan Petrescu finished his career at the club. History Founding, early years and the biggest success (1944–1970) FC Progresul București was founded as B.N.R. București on 10 May 1944 at the initiative of Nicolae Pop Sr. and Traian Pătrașcu, who, during a meeting host by I. Vidrighin Hotel in Rășinari, have proposed to the audience made up of the staff of the National Bank of Romania, the creation of a football team which would represent the institution. The idea was quickly embraced by those present, the club was founded, but no formal act of constitution was signed, problem that was solved many years later, somewhat informally by writer Valentin Căltuț who created an act of constitution based on the confessions of Nicolae Pop Jr. (son of Nicolae Pop Sr.) and some founding members as Petre Lambru, Iosif Micu, Petre