Viorel Năstase (born 7 October 1953) is a Romanian former professional footballer who played as a forward.

Club career

Viorel Năstase was born on 7 October 1953 in

București Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

, Romania and started to play football in the

1969–70 Divizia B The 1969–70 Divizia B was the 30th season of the second tier of the Romanian football league system. The format has been maintained to two series, each of them having 16 teams. At the end of the season the winners of the series promoted to Divi ...

season for

Progresul București Progresul is a district in southern Bucharest's Sectorul 4, Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It bord ...

. In the following season 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 7 October 1953 in a 2–1 away loss against Farul Constanța, having scored a total of 9 goals by the end of the season, being partner in the team's offence with

Mircea Sandu Mircea Traian Sandu (born 22 October 1952 in Bucharest) is a retired Romanian footballer and president of the Romanian Football Federation. Career Mircea Sandu, nicknamed "Nașul" (The Godfather) was born on 22 October 1952 in Bucharest and sta ...

. Afterwards he went to play for

Steaua București Steaua or Steaua București may refer to: * CSA Steaua București, a Romanian multi-sports club * CSA Steaua București (football), the football team of the multi-sports club * Fotbal Club FCSB, a football team that used this name between 2003 ...

for 8 seasons, in the first one taking part in the club's

1971–72 European Cup Winners' Cup The 1971–72 season of the European Cup Winners' Cup football club tournament was won by Rangers, who defeated Dynamo Moscow in the final. Preliminary round First leg ---- Second leg ''4–4 on aggregate; Austria Wien won on away goals ...

campaign, playing five games as the team reached the quarter-finals by eliminating Hibernians and Barcelona against whom he scored three goals, being eliminated after 1–1 on aggregate on the away goal rule by

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

. He won two Divizia A titles with '' The Military Men'' in the 1975–76 and 1977–78 seasons, being used by coach Emerich Jenei in 21 matches in which he scored four goals in the first one and in 12 games in which he scored six goals in the second. He also helped Steaua win two

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 ...

and played for the club in one more match against Barcelona in which he scored a goal from the

1977–78 UEFA Cup The 1977–78 UEFA Cup was won by PSV Eindhoven on aggregate over Bastia Bastia (, , , ; co, Bastìa ) is a commune in the department of Haute-Corse, Corsica, France. It is located in the northeast of the island of Corsica at the base of Ca ...

edition, however the game was lost with 5–1. He defected from Romania's communist regime to

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 ...

where he asked for political asylum in 1979 after a game between Steaua and Young Boys Bern from the

1979–80 European Cup Winners' Cup The 1979–80 season was the 20th season of the European Cup Winners' Cup, a football tournament organised by UEFA for the cup winners from each of its member associations. The competition was won by Spanish club Valencia, who beat Arsenal of Engla ...

. After being suspended one year from playing football which was a rule for players who defect from the

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

to the West, he went to play in West Germany at Bundesliga club,

1860 Munich , commonly known as TSV 1860 München (; lettered as ) or 1860 Munich, is a sports club based in Munich. The club's football team currently plays in the 3. Liga, the third tier of German football. 1860 Munich was one of the founding members of ...

where he was the team's top-goalscorer in the 1980–81 season with 14 goals in 23 matches, including a hat-trick against Bayer Uerdingen, being partner in the offence with Rudi Völler, however the team relegated at the end of the season and also coach Carl-Heinz Rühl wanted to throw him out of the team before the start of the season because of his drunken escapades in bars. After playing two more games in the 1981–82 2. Bundesliga for

, he was transferred for 400.000 italian lira in Italy at Serie A club, Catanzaro where he was brought to replace Massimo Palanca, however during his three seasons spent at the club, of which the last was in Serie B, Năstase scored only three goals as his performance was affected by his excessive nightlife activity, getting drunk in parties and clubs. After three more games played in the 1984–85 Austrian Bundesliga season at

SV Salzburg SV Austria Salzburg is an Austrian professional football club, based in the city of Salzburg. The club was formed in 2005 by some supporters of the original SV (Austria) Salzburg after it was renamed FC Red Bull Salzburg by its new owners, who al ...

, Năstase retired from playing football at age 31. Viorel Năstase has a total of 193 matches and 86 goals scored in Divizia A, 23 matches and 14 goals scored in Bundesliga, 23 games and two goals scored in Serie A and 6 games played with four goals scored in European competitions.

International career

Viorel Năstase played one game at international level for Romania on 12 May 1976 under coach Ștefan Kovács in a 1–0 loss against Bulgaria from the

1973–76 Balkan Cup The 1973–76 Balkan Cup was the 11th Balkan Cup football tournament. It was the first tournament played in a knockout system with semi-finals and finals. It was played between April 1973 and November 1976 between Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria and Gree ...

final.

Honours

Progresul București * Divizia B: 1969–70 Steaua București *

: 1975–76, 1977–78 *

: 1975–76, 1978–79 * Torneo di Viareggio Third place:

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nastase, Viorel 1953 births Living people Romanian defectors Romanian men's footballers Romania men's international footballers Olympic footballers for Romania Romanian expatriate men's footballers FC Steaua București players FC Progresul București players Men's association football forwards Liga I players Liga II players TSV 1860 Munich players US Catanzaro 1929 players FC Red Bull Salzburg players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Serie A players Serie B players Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Footballers from Bucharest