Mihai Adam (3 July 1940 – 11 December 2015) was a Romanian football player who played as a striker.

Career

Mihai Adam was born on 3 July 1940 in

Câmpia Turzii Câmpia Turzii (; german: Jerischmarkt; hu, Aranyosgyéres) is a municipality in Cluj County, Transylvania, Romania, which was formed in 1925 by the union of two villages, Ghiriș (''Aranyosgyéres'') and Sâncrai (''Szentkirály''). It was decla ...

, Romania and started playing football in 1956 at local club, Industria Sârmei. In 1962 he was transferred at

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 ...

where on 19 August 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 under coach Constantin Rădulescu in a 2–1 home victory in front of Politehnica Timișoara. In the 1964–65 Divizia A season, Adam who made a successful couple in the team's offence with Zoltán Ivansuc, won for the first time the top-goalscorer of the season title with 18 goals scored, also he helped the club win the

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 ...

, being used by coach

Andrei Sepci Andrei Sepci (7 October 1911 – 3 December 1992) is a Romanian former footballer and manager. He was the manager that guided Știința Cluj in its successful 1964–65 Cupa României campaign. International career Andrei Sepci played four g ...

in the whole game of the 2–1 victory from the

final 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 ...

against Argeș Pitești. In the following season, Adam made his debut in European competitions, playing four games in which he scored a goal that helped "U" Cluj eliminate Austrian team,

Wiener Neustadt Wiener Neustadt (; ; Central Bavarian: ''Weana Neistod'') is a city located south of Vienna, in the state of Lower Austria, in northeast Austria. It is a self-governed city and the seat of the district administration of Wiener Neustadt-Land Distr ...

in the first round of the

1965–66 European Cup Winners' Cup The 1965–66 season of the European Cup Winners' Cup club football tournament was won by Borussia Dortmund in an extra-time final victory over Liverpool at Hampden Park in Glasgow. This season of the Cup Winners' Cup was the first instance of the ...

, being eliminated in the following round by

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

. In the 1967–68 season he scored 15 goals in 26 league appearances, winning his second top-goalscorer title. In the following

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

he was selected to do his army service in Arad so he played for local club, Vagonul. Afterwards he returned to play for three more seasons at "U" Cluj, in the last one he scored 10 goals which helped the club finish on the 3rd position. Then he moved at

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

where he reunited with coach Constantin Rădulescu and in the 1973–74 season he won for the third and final time the top-goalscorer of the league title with a personal record of 23 goals scored as the team scored a total of 40, a performance that helped them avoid relegation as they finished on the 14th position out of 18 teams from the league. In his last season as a player, Mihai Adam scored 9 goals in 25 appearances, being unable to save CFR from avoiding relegation this time, his last

appearance being on 20 June 1976 in a 1–0 loss in front of Steaua București, having a total of 160 goals scored in 353 matches in the competition. After he ended his playing career, Adam became a

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

, arbitrating games including in Romania's top-league

. In the last years of his life, he lived in

Cluj-Napoca ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = Counties of Romania, County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Subdivisions of Romania, Status , subdivision_name2 ...

, being ill of

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

and died on 11 December 2015 at age 75. The Mihai Adam Stadium from

is named in his honor. Even do he played for Romania's under-23 national team and Romania B, Mihai Adam never played for Romania's senior team and on 13 May 2020, ''

Gazeta Sporturilor ''Gazeta Sporturilor'' ( en, The Sports Gazette) is a daily Romanian newspaper, and the country's largest and most read sports-related publication. It is owned by Ringier Sportal S.R.L—a joint venture of Ringier Romania S.R.L. and the Bulgarian ...

'' included him in a first 11 of best Romanian players who never played for the senior national team.

Honours

Club

Universitatea Cluj *

: 1964–65

Individual

top-goalscorer:

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lyndo ...

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – "Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Januar ...

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Adam, Mihai 1940 births 2015 deaths People from Câmpia Turzii Romanian men's footballers Men's association football forwards Liga I players Liga II players CSM Câmpia Turzii players Vagonul Arad players FC Universitatea Cluj players CFR Cluj players Romanian football referees Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Footballers from Cluj County