Sports Club
2019 was not a good year for
Romanian football sides. With victories only against Malta and the Faeroe
Islands in group F, the national eleven failed to qualify for Euro 2020. There
were some remarkable performances though, but in the present edition of our
sports feature we will be referring to the performances obtained by football
coaches
Florin Orban, 18.12.2019, 13:41
2019 was not a good year for
Romanian football sides. With victories only against Malta and the Faeroe
Islands in group F, the national eleven failed to qualify for Euro 2020. There
were some remarkable performances though, but in the present edition of our
sports feature we will be referring to the performances obtained by football
coaches
.
At the Romanian Football Awards,
Razvan Lucescu has been designated coach of the year for having won the
championship and cup of Greece with PAOK Thessaloniki; with Saudi side Al-Hilal
the Romanian headcoach won the Asian Champions League. From the beginning of
his career Lucescu proved to be one of the best Romanian technicians.
At only 37, in 2006, he coached
Rapid Bucharest to the quarterfinals of the UEFA Cup after beating teams like
Feyenoord Rotterdam, Shaktar Donetsk, Hertha Berlin and SV Hamburg. Rapid
failed to qualify for the semifinals after two draws against Steaua Bucharest.
Between 2009 and 2011 Lucescu coached Romania’s national eleven.
Another headcoach who reached a
high performance level is Mirel Radoi. At the age of only 38 Radoi has been
designated coach of the Romanian national football side due to the results
obtained by the country’s under twenty-one team at the European championships in
Italy and San Marino.
Young Romanian footballers won the
championship’s C group after a 4-1 against Croatia, 4-2 against England and
nil-all against France also qualifying for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Romania
had not participated in the Olympic Games since 1964, an edition also hosted by
Japan, when our footballers made it to the quarterfinals.
The best result of Romania’s
footballers in 2019 was the qualification of CFR Cluj for the Europa League’s
round of 32. A Romanian football side had not made it to the spring edition of a
European Cup for six years. Furthermore, with 12 points out of the six games in
group E, CFR also set a record for a Romanian side.
The difference was made by coach
Dan Petrescu who managed to capitalize on CFR’s potential. Petrescu is presently
considered the best coach in Romania’s first football league. Petrescu was part
of British side Chelsea’s line-up for five years and the side he coached Unirea
Urziceni made it to the Champions League and obtained a 4-1 win against
Scottish side Glasgow Rangers. Unirea also clinched a 1-0 win against Spanish
side Seville.
