Marius Mihai Lăcătuș (; born 5 April 1964) is a Romanian

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 ...

coach and former professional footballer. He is by far the most successful footballer ever to play for Steaua București and was part of their

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 ...

victory in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal en ...

. Lăcătuș is the all-time top scorer for Steaua with 16 goals in European competitions. On 7 July 2021, Steaua retired his shirt number 7 at the inauguration match of the new Steaua Stadium. He played as a deep lying striker or

inside forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

for Steaua București most of his career, being the team's captain between 1994 and 1999. He also played for Italian side

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fol ...

and

Real Oviedo Real Oviedo is a Spanish football club based in Oviedo, Asturias. Founded on 26 March 1926 as a result of the merger of two clubs who had maintained a large sporting rivalry for years in the city: ''Real Stadium Club Ovetense'' and ''Real Club ...

in Spain. He is the most successful player who has ever played in the

Romanian First League 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 ...

. He has won it a record number of ten times. Following him in the all time table are: Giedrius Arlauskis, Ciprian Deac,

Adrian Bumbescu Adrian Bumbescu (born 23 February 1960 in Craiova) is a retired Romanian footballer who played as a central defender. A defender with a tough attitude, he played mostly with Steaua București, helping it win the 1986 European Cup and subsequ ...

, Mircea Lucescu,

Dumitru Stângaciu Dan Dumitru Stângaciu, (born 9 August 1964) is a retired Romanian football goalkeeper and a current coach. He is best known for his spell with Steaua Bucharest in the 1980s and 1990s where he won the European Cup in 1986 and the European Super ...

and

Tudorel Stoica Tudorel Stoica (born 7 September 1954, in Brăila, Brăila County, Romania) is a Romanian retired footballer who played as a central midfielder. He is the most capped player in the history of Steaua București. He is one of the most famous an ...

, all with 7 championships won.

Club career

Lăcătuș was an iconic player for Steaua București's supporters. Even now, many years after leaving the club as a player, the supporters shout his name at home games. The supporters loved him for his spectacular way of playing football, as well as for his commitment during the games. He was nicknamed ''Fiara'' (The Beast). He was the first player to score in the penalty shoot-out of the 1986 European Cup final against

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Found ...

, won by Steaua. After the

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second time (the first being ...

in Italy, where he scored two goals against the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nati ...

, Lăcătuș signed for the Italian team

ACF Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fol ...

and then moved to

in Spain. In 1994, he returned to Steaua and played for the team until 1999, when he finally signed for FC Național București, where he played only for half a season before retiring. However, in October 2006 he decided to enroll himself as part of UT Arad team where he was also coach until 2007 before he joined FCSB. On 25 March 2008, he was decorated by the president of Romania,

Traian Băsescu Traian Băsescu (; born 4 November 1951) is a conservative Romanian politician who served as President of Romania from 2004 to 2014. Prior to his presidency, Băsescu served as Romanian Minister of Transport on multiple occasions between 1991 ...

with Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" — (Order of Sporting Merit) class II for his part in winning the 1986 European Cup Final. Lăcătuș played a total of 414 games in the Romanian

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 ...

(now Liga I), scoring 103 goals; 21 games in the Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

where he scored three times and also 51 games in the Spanish

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Banco Santander, Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaL ...

, scoring 7 goals. He also made appearances 72 games in the

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 ...

and

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

, scoring 16 goals. As a player, he won the Romanian championship ten times and the

Romanian Cup 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, traditiona ...

seven times, as well as the European Cup in 1986 and the European Supercup in 1987, all with Steaua București.

International career

Lăcătuș was capped 83 times, scoring 13 goals for the Romania national team, and played for his country in the 1990 World Cup,

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 ...

and

1998 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 the ...

. He scored the 700th goal for the national team of Romania.

Career statistics

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

Honours

Player

Steaua București *

(10, record): 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98 (Record) *

(6): 1984–85, 1986–87, 1988–89, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1998–99 * Romanian Super Cup:

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

: 1985–86, Runner-up: 1988–89 *

European Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was originall ...

* Intercontinental Cup Runner-up:

*Note: Lăcătuș is the Romanian footballer who won the most domestic awards.

Notes

References

External links

*
Marius Lăcătuș (Statistics as coach)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lacatus, Marius 1964 births Living people Sportspeople from Brașov Romanian footballers Olympic footballers of Romania Romania international footballers FC Steaua București players FC Steaua București presidents 1990 FIFA World Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players Association football forwards Association football wingers La Liga players Real Oviedo players Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in Spain UEFA Euro 1996 players Romanian football managers FC Steaua București managers FC Steaua București assistant managers ASC Oțelul Galați managers Liga I players Romanian expatriate footballers ACF Fiorentina players Serie A players FC Progresul București players FC Brașov (1936) players FC Brașov (1936) managers FC Vaslui managers ASA 2013 Târgu Mureș managers FC Politehnica Iași (2010) managers CSM Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț managers CSA Steaua București managers