Eugen Trică (born 5 August 1976) is a

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

football

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 activities ...

and former

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, rugby ...

who played as a

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 ...

, currently in charge of

Liga II 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. It is currently sponsored by Casa Pariurilor, a betting c ...

club

Concordia Chiajna Clubul Sportiv Concordia Chiajna, commonly known as Concordia Chiajna, is a Romanian professional football club based in Chiajna, Ilfov County, which competes in the Liga II. Founded in 1957, the team's best period was between 2011 and 2019, wh ...

Club career

Eugen Trică started his career at Universitatea Craiova as a youth, being promoted in the first team in 1995, making his

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

debut on 17 June 1995 in a 5–4 loss against Electroputere Craiova. He played 91

games for "U" Craiova in which he scored 14 goals, managing to reach the 1998 Cupa României final in 1998 which was lost in front of

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' ...

. He then joined Steaua București in 1998, winning the championship in the 2000–01 season in which he played 30 games and scored 7 goals, also scoring two goals in Steaua's 2–1 victory 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 Yekaterin ...

in the 2001 Supercupa României.

Litex Lovech Litex ( bg, Литекс) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Lovech, which currently competes in the Second League. The club was founded in 1921 as Hisarya Sports Club. The club's home ground is the Gradski Stadion ...

was the third club Trică played for after being transferred in 2003, where he scored 22 goals in 54 league matches, winning the Bulgarian Cup in 2004. He joined the squad of

Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Tel Aviv ( he, מכבי תל אביב) is one of the largest sports clubs in Israel, and a part of the Maccabi association. Many sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv are in association with Maccabi and compete in a variety of sports, such ...

in 2005, but after only a few months he returned to

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

, this time at

CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia ( bg, ЦСКА София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sport ...

where he played alongside fellow Romanians

Florentin Petre Florentin Petre (born 15 January 1976) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player. Club career Born in Bucharest, Petre started playing football at the youth center of Dinamo București, playing his first Divizia A match fo ...

and Alexandru Pițurcă, managing to win the

2005–06 Bulgarian Cup The 2005–06 Bulgarian Cup was the 66th season of the Bulgarian Cup. CSKA Sofia won the competition, beating Cherno More Varna 3–1 in the final at the Vasil Levski National Stadium in Sofia. First round In this round entered winners from the p ...

and the

2006 Bulgarian Supercup The 2006 Bulgarian Supercup was the fourth Bulgarian Supercup match, a football match which was contested between the "A" professional football group champion, Levski Sofia, and the winner of Bulgarian Cup, CSKA Sofia. The match was held on 30 J ...

. Trică was one of the highest scoring foreign players in the Bulgarian league with 39 goals to his name. In 2007, Trică returned to Romania, signing with

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ), is a Romanian professional football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, which competes in the Liga I. It was founded in 1907 as ''Kolozsvári Vasutas Sport Club'', whe ...

, where he was part of the team that won for the first time in the club's history the championship and the cup in 2008 with Trică being the team's top scorer with 13 goals in 31 league matches, also playing five games in the 2008–09 Champions League group stage. He moved in 2009 to

Anorthosis Anorthosis Famagusta ( el, Ανόρθωση Αμμοχώστου, translit=Anorthosi Ammochostou), commonly known as Anorthosis in English or Anorthosi in Greek, is a Cypriot football club, part of the Anorthosis Famagusta multi-sport club fo ...

in Cyprus, but after the end of the season, he returned to

where he won the

2009 Supercupa României The 2009 Supercupa României was the 11th edition of Romania's season opener cup competition. The match was played in Bucharest at Stadionul Giuleşti-Valentin Stănescu on 26 July 2009, and was contested between Liga I title holders, FC Unirea Ur ...

. In 2009, Eugen Trică came back to his first club, Universitatea Craiova, but after a year, in 2010, he joined

, a team from the second Romanian division which he helped promote to

for the first time in history and after a few games in the first division for Concordia, in October 2011, Trică decided to end his playing career.

International career

Eugen Trică played four games for

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

, making his debut on 3 March 1999 when coach

Victor Pițurcă Victor Pițurcă (; born 8 May 1956) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player. Club career Pițurcă was born in Orodel, Dolj County. He joined Universitatea Craiova as a youth in 1970, aged 14, and four years later he was ...

introduced him in the 74th minute to replace Dennis Șerban in a friendly which ended with a 2–0 victory against

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. His following game was a 1–0 victory in a friendly against

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

and the last two were appearances at the successful Euro 2008 qualifiers, a 3–1 victory against

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

and a 1–0 loss against

International stats

Managerial career

Eugen Trică started his coaching career in 2012 at Juventus București, after which he coached various other teams, including as an assistant coach, his biggest performances being a runner-up position in a Cupa României final with

and two promotions from the third league to the second and from the second to the first with FC U Craiova. On 22 September 2022, he became the head coach of

side

Personal life

Eugen Trică was married to Lorena, daughter of

Ilie Balaci Ilie Balaci (; 13 September 1956 – 21 October 2018) was a Romanian football midfielder and manager. He spent 12 of his 15 years as a professional with Universitatea Craiova, appearing in more than 300 official games with the club and winning ...

, one of the best Romanian football players from the past. They divorced in 2015. Their son, Atanas Trică is also a footballer.

Honours

Player

Universitatea Craiova * Cupa României runner-up: 1997–98 Steaua București *

: 2000–01 * Supercupa României: 2001 Litex Lovech *

Bulgarian Cup The Bulgarian Cup ( bg, Купа на България, Kupa na Bulgaria) is a Bulgarian annual football competition. It is the country's main cup competition and all officially registered Bulgarian football teams take part in it. The tournamen ...

: 2003–04 CSKA Sofia *

: 2005–06 * Bulgarian Super Cup: 2006 CFR Cluj *

: 2007–08 * Cupa României: 2007–08 * Supercupa României: 2009

Manager

CFR Cluj * Cupa României runner-up:

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

FC U Craiova 1948 *

: 2020–21 *

Liga III The Liga 3, most often spelled as Liga III, is the third level of the Romanian football league system. Its name was changed from Divizia C to Liga III before the start of the 2006–07 season. It was the first in this format (six series of 18 t ...

: 2019–20

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Trica, Eugen 1976 births Living people Sportspeople from Craiova Romanian footballers Romania under-21 international footballers Romania international footballers Romanian expatriate footballers Association football midfielders FC U Craiova 1948 players FC Steaua București players PFC CSKA Sofia players Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. players Expatriate footballers in Israel PFC Litex Lovech players CFR Cluj players Anorthosis Famagusta F.C. players CS Concordia Chiajna players Liga I players Liga II players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Cypriot First Division players Expatriate footballers in Bulgaria Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Romanian football managers ASC Daco-Getica București managers CFR Cluj managers FC UTA Arad managers CS Sportul Snagov managers FC U Craiova 1948 managers AFC Turris-Oltul Turnu Măgurele managers ACS Viitorul Târgu Jiu managers FC Metaloglobus București managers CS Concordia Chiajna managers