Nicolae Lupescu (17 December 1940 – 6 September 2017) was a Romanian football defender and manager.

Club career

Nicolae Lupescu was born on 17 December 1940 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 ...

, Romania. He started to play football at junior level in 1954 at ICAR București, afterwards playing for Flacăra Roșie București, starting his senior career by playing two seasons in

Divizia B 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 ...

, the first one at Academia Militară București and the second at Olimpia București. He was eventually brought to

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' ...

by coach Nicolae Roșculeț where he debuted in Divizia A on 16 September 1962 in a 4–2 victory against Farul Constanța. He remained with Rapid for ten seasons, winning the title in the 1966–67 season, being used by coach

Valentin Stănescu Valentin Stănescu (20 November 1922 – 4 April 1994) was a Romanian football goalkeeper and manager. Club career Valentin Stănescu also known as "Tinel" or "Zimbrul" ( The bison) was born on 20 November 1922 in București, Romania and start ...

in 26 matches in which he scored one goal. Lupescu also won the 1971–72 Cupa României, two Balkans Cup and played all the six games in the

1971–72 UEFA Cup The 1971–72 UEFA Cup was the inaugural year of the UEFA Cup (now known as the UEFA Europa League), which effectively replaced the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. It was won by English side Tottenham Hotspur over their countrymen Wolverhampton Wanderer ...

campaign, as the team reached the eight-finals, eliminating

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

and Legia Warsaw, being eliminated by the team who would eventually win the competition,

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Wal ...

. During Romania's communist era, transfers of Romanian footballers outside the country were rarely allowed, but Lupescu convinced Ștefan Andrei who was the Secretary for Foreign Relations of the Central Committee to help him gain the regime's approval of his transfer at Admira Wacker in 1972 for which Rapid received 40.000$. He made his Austrian Bundesliga debut on 15 September 1972 under coach

Ernst Ocwirk Ernst Ocwirk (7 March 1926 – 23 January 1980) was an Austrian football player and coach. He is regarded as one of the greatest Austrian footballers of all time. He spent the majority of his playing and coaching years between Austria and Ital ...

in a 0–0 against Austria Klagenfurt, the team finishing the season on the 4th place, which would be the best performance of the team in the championship during his 5 seasons spent there, also helping Admira eliminate

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is ...

in the 1973–74 UEFA Cup. Nicolae Lupescu has a total of 244 matches and 8 goals scored in Divizia A, 134 games and 9 goals scored in the Austrian Bundesliga and 16 appearances without scoring in European competitions. On 6 September 2017, Lupescu died at the Fundeni hospital from Bucharest at age 76.

International career

Nicolae Lupescu earned 20 caps and scored two goals 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 ...

, all under the guidance of coach Angelo Niculescu, making his debut on 25 June 1967 in a 1–0 home loss against

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

at the Euro 1968 qualifiers. Angelo Niculescu also used him in all the minutes of the three group matches from the 1970 World Cup final tournament as

did not advance to the next stage. He played 8 matches and scored two goals at the 1972 Euro qualifiers, managing to reach the

quarter-finals A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

where

was defeated by

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

, who advanced to the

final tournament 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 ...

. Lupescu was also Romania's captain in a friendly against

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

which ended with a 2–0 loss and made his last appearance for the national team on 17 June 1972 in a friendly against

which ended 3–3. For representing his country at the 1970 World Cup, Lupescu was decorated by

President of Romania The president of Romania ( ro, Președintele României) is the head of state of Romania. Following a modification to the Romanian Constitution in 2003, the president is directly elected by a two-round system and serves for five years. An indi ...

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 ...

on 25 March 2008 with the Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" – (The Medal "The Sportive Merit") class III.

International goals

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

Personal life

He was the father of professional football player

Ioan Lupescu Ioan "Ionuț" Angelo Lupescu (born 9 December 1968) is a Romanian former football player who played as a midfielder and a manager. Club career Ioan Lupescu, nicknamed ''Kaiserul'' was born on 9 December 1968 in Bucharest, Romania and started to ...

Honours

Player

Rapid București * Divizia A: 1966–67 * Cupa României: 1971–72 * Balkans Cup: 1963–64, 1964–66

Manager

Gloria Buzău *

: 1983–84

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lupescu, Nicolae 1940 births 2017 deaths Footballers from Bucharest Romanian footballers Association football defenders Romania international footballers Olympic footballers of Romania Liga I players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Olympia București players FC Rapid București players FC Admira Wacker Mödling players 1970 FIFA World Cup players Romanian football managers FC Rapid București managers FC Gloria Buzău managers FC Progresul București managers Romanian expatriate footballers Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Expatriate footballers in Austria