Andrei Mercea (16 March 1925 – 24 January 2002) was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n football

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

Club career

Andrei Mercea was born on 16 March 1925 in

Arad, Romania Arad (; German and Hungarian: ''Arad,'' ) is the capital city of Arad County, Transylvania. It is the third largest city in Western Romania, behind Timișoara and Oradea, and the 12th largest in Romania, with a population of 159,704. A busy tr ...

and started playing football at junior level at local clubs SG Arad and

Gloria Arad Asociația Fotbal Club Gloria Arad, also known as AFC Gloria Arad, or simply as Gloria Arad is a Romanian football club based in Arad, Arad County, currently playing in the Liga VI. The club was originally founded in 1913 by Dr. E. Veliciuiu ...

. He started his senior career, making his

Divizia A The Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1, is a Romanian professional league for men's association football clubs. Currently sponsored by betting company Superbet, it is officially known as the SuperLiga. It is the country's top ...

debut on 15 September 1946 for

ITA Arad Asociația Fotbal Club UTA Arad (), commonly known as UTA Arad or simply UTA, is a Romanian professional football club based in the city of Arad, Arad County, which competes in the Liga I. The UTA acronym stands for ''Uzina Textilă Arad'' ("Text ...

in a 8–4 victory against Dermagant Târgu Mureș. He won the title with ITA in the first two seasons of his career, at the first contributing with 12 goals scored in 22 appearances and in the second he played 21 games and scored 5 goals, also winning a

Cupa României The Cupa României ( en, Romanian Cup) is a Association football, football cup competition for List of football clubs in Romania, Romanian teams which has been held annually since 1933–34 Cupa României, 1933–34, except during World War II. I ...

. In 1948 he went to play for CSCA București where on 21 November 1948 he appeared in the first ever CSCA București – Dinamo București derby which ended with a 1–0 loss. After one season, Mercea returned in Arad, winning another two

titles with

UTA Arad Uta or UTA may refer to: Universities *University of Texas at Arlington, in the United States * University of Tarapacá, in Chile *University of Tampere, in Finland Sports * FC UTA Arad, a Romanian football club based in the town of Arad * A ...

, at the first he made 22 appearances in which he scored 12 goals and in the second he played 24 matches and scored one goal and he also won the 1953 Cupa României. He made his last

appearance on 15 June 1958, playing for the '' Old Lady'' in a 2–1 victory against

Rapid București Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a '' cascade' ...

, gaining a total of 230 matches played with 57 goals scored in the competition. Andrei Mercea spent the last years of his career playing for

AMEF Arad Vagonul Arad was a football club based in Arad, Romania. It was founded in 1911 and it soon became one of the best teams from Arad. It was affiliated to Astra Arad rail equipment manufacturing company. It was dissolved in 2006. History 1911 ...

and Teba Arad in the lower leagues of Romania. He died on 24 January 2002 and a book about him was written by Radu Romănescu, called ''Andrei Mercea – Campionul care desena inimi'' ''(Andrei Mercea – The champion that drew hearts)'', being released on 18 April 2018.

International career

Andrei Mercea played 6 matches and scored two goals for Romania's national team, making his debut on 6 June 1948 under coach

Petre Steinbach Petre Steinbach (January 1, 1906 in Timișoara, Romania – 1996 in Germany), was a Romanian football midfielder and manager. Career His career in club football was spent at CAM Timișoara between 1925 and 1928, also playing for Colțea Brașo ...

in a 9–0 loss against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

at the 1948 Balkan Cup, a competition in which he would make two more appearances. His last three matches for the national team were friendlies in which he scored two goals against

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, making his last appearance on 25 May 1952 in a 1–0 victory against

. He was part of Romania's squad at the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

International goals

:''Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Mercea goal''.

Honours

UTA Arad *

: 1946–47, 1947–48, 1950,

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

: 1947–48,

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito i ...

Notes

References

External links

*
Andrei Mercea
at Labtof.ro {{DEFAULTSORT:Mercea, Andrei 1925 births 2002 deaths Romanian men's footballers Romania men's international footballers Men's association football forwards Olympic footballers for Romania Footballers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Liga I players Liga II players FC UTA Arad players FCSB players Vagonul Arad players Footballers from Arad, Romania