Virgil Economu (21 November 1896 – 1978) was a Romanian

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

player, 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 ...

, journalist and a writer.

Life and career

Virgil Economu was born in

Bucharest 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 ...

, being half Jewish from his mother's side. He spent his high school years in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, and graduated the University of Agronomy from Montpellier, where he also played

for the local team. In 1923 he founded the first school of football

referees 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 ...

from Romania and started his coaching career. In the 1930s he was the deputy minister of Agronomy in Romania and he also worked in the press, being the director of the "Sportul Capitalei" newspaper, the head of the sports section from "Curentul" and a sports announcer. In 1937 Economu was hired as technical director at Romania's national team and in 1938 he founded the first coaching school from Romania, while in 1939 he was named head coach of the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

. In 1940,

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 ...

had to play a friendly in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

against

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but Economu did not receive an entrance visa because of his Jewish origin, but Romania's Football Federation president

Gabriel Marinescu Gabriel Marinescu (first name also Gavril or Gavrilă; November 7, 1886 – November 26/27, 1940) was a Romanian general. Born in Tigveni, Argeș County, he was the son of a teacher. He attended Saint Sava National College in Bucharest, the school ...

wrote a letter to Wilhelm Fabricius who was

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

's minister from

, in which he asked him to give Economu an entrance visa, claiming he is of ethnic Romanian origin. Economu received the visa and the game ended with a 9–3 victory for

. He also suffered discrimination in Romania because of his Jewish origins, being fired in October 1940 from the post of General Inspector at the Center for the Capitalization of Wheat and in December 1941 his name disappeared from the army records, where he was listed as a lieutenant in reserve, a decision published in Romania's Official Gazette. In 1945 he actively participated in the reorganization of the Romanian Football Federation and in the appearance of the "Sportul Popular" newspaper. From 1946 until 1947 he was the Romanian Football Federation's president and he named himself as head coach of the

, leading it at the

1946 Balkan Cup The 1946 Balkan Cup was the 8th edition of this tournament. The participanting teams were Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania and for the first time ever, Albania, who ended up winning the tournament in their first try. Squads *The four men ...

, he has a total 14 games (4 victories, 3 draws, 7 losses) as Romania's coach. From 1953 until 1957 he was technical director at

CCA București CCA may refer to: Organisations *Canadian Cat Association *Canadian Cattlemen's Association, an advocacy group for the Canadian beef industry *Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal, Quebec * Canadian Council on Africa * Center for Contemporar ...

. Between 1962 and 1966 he held the position of coordinating director at "23 August", which was the first center for children and juniors from Romania. From 1967 until 1968, Economu was

Ilie Savu Ilie Savu (9 January 1920 – 16 November 2010) was a Romanian footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He was Steaua București's first goalkeeper. Playing career Born in Cornățelu, Dâmbovița County, Romania, Savu began his career at ...

's counselor at Steaua București and from 1967 until 1974 he worked again for the Romanian Football Federation.

Writing

Virgil Economu wrote a total of six volumes, all of them being about football: * Fotbal – studiu documentar și critic ''(Football – documentary and critical study)'' (1935) * Fotbal – contribuții la studiul unei metode unitare de joc, cu aplicații la echipa C.C.A. ''(Football – contributions to the study of a unitary method of play, with applications to the C.C.A. team)'' (1958) * Fotbal – probleme de tactică in jocul modern ''(Football – tactical problems in the modern game)'' (1964) * Sistemul de patru fundasi ''(The four-defender system)'' (1965) * Fotbalul modern simplificat si 400 de intrebari si raspunsuri ''(Simplified modern football and 400 questions and answers)'' (1972) * Fotbal de la Mexico la Munchen ''(Football from Mexico to Munich)'' (1972)

Honours

Manager

;Gloria CFR Arad * Divizia A runner-up: 1929–30

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Economu, Virgil 1896 births 1978 deaths Romanian rugby union players Romanian football managers Romania national football team managers Presidents of the Romanian Football Federation Romanian sports executives and administrators Romanian sportswriters Romanian journalists 20th-century Romanian writers Romanian male writers 20th-century Romanian male writers Jewish Romanian sportspeople Romanian Jews Sportspeople from Bucharest 20th-century journalists Romanian expatriates in Austria Romanian expatriates in France