Cornel Popa (19 March 1935 – 4 November 1999) 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 ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who played as a

right defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned ...

Club career

Cornel Popa was born on 19 March 1935 in

Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the second largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, it has traditionally ...

and started to play football in 1951 at junior level at local club, Victoria, before starting his senior career at

Divizia B The Liga 2, most often spelled as Liga II, is the second level of the Romanian football league system. The league changed its name from Divizia B just before the start of the 2006–07 Liga II, 2006–07. It is currently Sponsor (commercial), sp ...

team, Locomotiva Iași. In 1955 he went to play for Dinamo Bacău where he made 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 18 March 1956 in a 1–0 loss against

Dinamo București A dynamo is a magnetic device originally used as an electric generator. Dynamo or Dinamo may also refer to: Places * Dinamo (Moscow Metro), a station of the Moscow Metro, Moscow, Russia * Dinamo (Yekaterinburg Metro), a station of the Yekaterinbu ...

. He went to play for

where he spent a total 12 seasons at the club, winning four consecutive

titles from 1962 until 1965, in the first he played 24 matches, in the second he played 25 games, in the third he made 24 appearances and in the last he played 25 games. Popa also won three

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 ...

with '' The Red Dogs'' and played 15 games in the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

and two in the

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

. He made his last

appearance on 15 June 1969, playing for

Dinamo A dynamo is a magnetic device originally used as an electric generator. Dynamo or Dinamo may also refer to: Places * Dinamo (Moscow Metro), a station of the Moscow Metro, Moscow, Russia * Dinamo (Yekaterinburg Metro), a station of the Yekaterinbu ...

in a 1–0 away loss against Universitatea Craiova, having a total of 262 appearances in the competition. He ended his career after spending a period in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul, Turkey, located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and Şişli, on the west by Kağıthane and Şişli, on the south by Beyoğlu, and ...

where he did not play any games. Cornel Popa died on 4 November 1999 at age 64, being ill of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

International career

Cornel Popa played 27 games of which in 12 he was captain at international level for

, making his debut on 26 October 1958 under coach

Augustin Botescu Augustin Botescu was a Romanian football manager who coached Romania at the 1960 European Nations' Cup qualifiers and Romania's Olympic team at the 1960 Summer Olympics qualifiers, failing to qualify for both tournaments. He has a total of 7 g ...

in a friendly which ended with a 2–1 away 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 ...

. He played four games at the 1960 European Nations' Cup qualifiers, helping the team eliminate

with 3–2 on aggregate, managing to qualify to the quarter-finals where they were eliminated by

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

who advanced to the

final tournament Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

. He also played in a 3–1 victory against

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

at the 1964 European Nations' Cup qualifiers and made 6 appearances at the 1966 World Cup qualifiers. Cornel Popa played five games at the Euro 1968 qualifiers, including his last appearance which took place on 24 May 1967 in a 7–1 away loss against

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

Managerial career

Cornel Popa started coaching after 1970, working for a while at

's junior and children center, then at several teams from the Romanian lower leagues such as Unirea Alexandria, Victoria Roman and Minerul Gura Humorului without achieving any notable performances.

Honours

Dinamo București *

: 1961–62, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1964–65 *

: 1958–59, 1963–64, 1967–68

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Popa, Cornel 1935 births 1999 deaths Romanian footballers Romania international footballers Olympic footballers of Romania Association football defenders Liga I players Liga II players FCM Bacău players FC Dinamo București players Beşiktaş J.K. footballers Romanian football managers Sportspeople from Iași