Dorinel Ionel Munteanu (; born 25 June 1968) is a Romanian retired professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...

and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activitie ...

. A former

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, Munteanu is the most capped Romanian player of all time, with a total of 134 appearances and 16 goals. He played in two editions of the World Cup, those held in the United States in 1994 and France in 1998, as well as two

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

, in 1996 and 2000.

Club career

Munteanu was born in Grădinari. He started his football career playing for Metalul Bocșa, a team which offered him the first chance to play in

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 ...

in 1986. After a year he went to play for FCM Reșița and then in 1988 for Olt Scornicești, while 1989 found him at Inter Sibiu.

Dinamo Bucharest 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 Yekaterinb ...

bought him from FC Inter Sibiu in 1991 only to sell him to

Cercle Brugge Cercle Brugge Koninklijke Sportvereniging () is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges. Cercle have played in the Belgian Pro League since the 2003–04 season, having previously spent several years in the Belgian Second Divisio ...

two years later. After two years in Belgium, he moved to Germany to play for

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., commonly known as simply FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English, is a German professional football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 as a merger of the clubs ''Kölner Ball ...

and

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg () or Wolfsburg, is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of W ...

until 2003. In 2003, aged 35, he was released from his contract by VfL Wolfsburg and signed with Steaua București as a free agent, only to leave the club in 2005 after a conflict with the club's

Chief Executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Mihai Stoica Mihai Stoica (born 12 April 1965), commonly known as Meme Stoica, is a former president of Oțelul Galați and former general manager of Unirea Urziceni. Since November 2010 until September 2011, Mihai Stoica was the manager of FCSB. He was fo ...

and join the squad of CFR Cluj Napoca.

International career

Dorinel won his first cap for

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 ...

in 1991 while still at Inter Sibiu. Since then he was a very important part of the national team of Romania, playing in various positions such as left back, left midfielder and playmaker. In 2001, he won his 100th cap in a game against

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

and four years later he won the 126th cap, making him the most capped Romanian

. He has a total of 134 caps. Munteanu scored 16 goals for

and played at the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...

UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for t ...

and

UEFA Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament wa ...

Coaching career

After leaving Steaua București, Munteanu is offered the position of player-manager at CFR Cluj. In this first managerial job, he took the team to the Intertoto Cup final in 2005 and finished fifth in

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 ...

at the end of the 2005–06 season. During the first half of the 2006–07 season, despite a good start (six wins, two draws, two defeats) with CFR Cluj, Munteanu announced he resigns his position at the club, due to interference with his decisions and lack of support from the club management. Munteanu had a pending offer from Argeș Pitești and he decided to accept it, despite the team being bottom of the first league after 10 games. Towards the end of the season, due to impossibility of avoiding the relegation of Argeș Pitești, he was sacked, only to be confirmed in short time as the new manager of Liga 1 team FC Vaslui. He has stated that he also intends to continue his playing career at FC Vaslui. He came back as head coach of

Universitatea Cluj Fotbal Club Universitatea Cluj (), commonly known as Universitatea Cluj or simply as U Cluj, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I, the first ...

in September 2008, but only after seven games he quit to go to Steaua București. And again, after only eight games, he was dismissed by the club's president, Gigi Becali and returned to Universitatea Cluj. After the short spell at Universitatea Cluj, in July 2009 he signed a contract with Oțelul Galați. In the first season under his command, the team finished eighth. The next season, Oțelul started the season with four wins in the first six games and climbed on top of the championship. They finished first the Autumn part of the season, and what seemed to be only a flash in the pan, became one of the biggest surprises in the Romanian football. Oțelul maintained its position throughout the Spring season and became Romanian champion for the first time in their history. Munteanu was seen as the primary factor for this success. The following season, under Munteanu's guidance, Oțelul took part in the

UEFA Champions League 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 competi ...

group stage, but failed to gain a single point. In the championship, Oțelul finished sixth and didn't qualify for the European competitions. The 2012–13 season started badly for Oțelul who won the game in the first round, against Politehnica Iași, but then registered five consecutive games without a win. As a consequence, Dorinel Munteanu resigned. In November 2012, he was installed as a head coach at

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 Yekaterinb ...

. After only one month and four games in charge at Dinamo, Munteanu resigned at the end of 2012, citing the wish to follow his dream to coach abroad. Just a day later, on 28 December 2012, Munteanu signed a contract for one and a half years with

Mordovia Saransk FC Mordovia Saransk (russian: ФК Мордовия Саранск) is a Russian association football club from Saransk, Republic of Mordovia. In its current state it was formed in 2005, through the merge of Biokhimik-Mordovia and Lisma-Mordov ...

. On 1 August 2013, he took charge of Russian side Kuban Krasnodar, before being sacked on 12 October of the same year. On 14 June 2014, Munteanu was appointed as manager of

Gabala FK Gabala Football Club ( az, Qəbələ Futbol Klubu ), also spelled Qabala, is an Azerbaijani association football club representing Qabala in the Azerbaijan Premier League since 2006. Gabala has been the runner up in the Premier League three time ...

. Munteanu was relieved of his duties as manager on 8 December 2014, following four wins in sixteen matches.

Career statistics

International goals

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

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Inter Sibiu *

Balkans Cup The Balkans Cup was an international football competition for clubs from Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. It was introduced in 1961 and was very popular in the 1960s (the 1967 final attracted 42,000 spectators), being t ...

1990–91 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

Dinamo București *

: 1991–92 FCSB *

: 2004–05 CFR Cluj *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, ' betting pool'),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Fo ...

runner-up:

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; " Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discover ...

Individual

* Man of the Season (Belgian First Division): 1993–94

Coach

CFR Cluj *

runner-up:

Oțelul Galați *

Liga I 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 ...

: 2010–11 *

Supercupa României The Supercupa României ( en, Romanian Supercup) is a Romanian football championship contested by the winners of the Liga I and the Cupa României. It is usually played at the Arena Națională in Bucharest. The competition started off in 1994 ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrates ...

* Liga III: 2021–22

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Munteanu, Dorinel 1968 births People from Caraș-Severin County Living people Romanian footballers Association football midfielders CSM Reșița players FC Olt Scornicești players FC Inter Sibiu players FC Dinamo București players Cercle Brugge K.S.V. players 1. FC Köln players VfL Wolfsburg players FC Steaua București players CFR Cluj players FC Argeș Pitești players FC Vaslui players FC Universitatea Cluj players Liga I players Belgian First Division A players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Romanian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Belgium Expatriate footballers in Germany Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Romania under-21 international footballers Romania international footballers UEFA Euro 1996 players UEFA Euro 2000 players 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players FIFA Century Club Player-coaches Romanian football managers Romanian expatriate football managers FC Argeș Pitești managers FC Universitatea Cluj managers CFR Cluj managers FC Vaslui managers FC Steaua București managers ASC Oțelul Galați managers FC Dinamo București managers FC Mordovia Saransk managers FC Kuban Krasnodar managers Gabala FC managers FC Astra Giurgiu managers CS Concordia Chiajna managers CSM Reșița managers Russian Premier League managers Expatriate football managers in Russia Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Iraq Expatriate football managers in Iraq People's Movement Party politicians