Ștefan Sameș (14 October 1951 – 17 July 2011) was a

Romanian 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, traditional ...

professional

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and manager.

Club career

Ștefan Sameș was born on 14 October 1951 in Dobroești, Romania and started playing football in 1965 at age 14 for the youth side of Steaua București. In 1971, he was loaned to Universitatea Craiova where he started his senior career, making his

Divizia A Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

debut on 28 November in a 1–1 with Petrolul Ploiești. After two seasons spent at "U" Craiova, Sameș returned to Steaua where in the 1975–76 season he helped the club win The Double, being used by coach Emerich Jenei in 31 league games in which he scored once, also appearing the full 90 minutes in the 2–1 win over CSU Galați from the Cupa României final. In the following season he reached another Cupa României final, Jenei using him the whole match in the eventual 2–1 loss in front of his former club, Universitatea Craiova. In the 1977–78 season, Sameș scored one goal in the 21 league games that Jenei used him, helping the club win another title. In the next two seasons, he reached two more

Cupa României The Cupa României () 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. It is the Romania ...

finals, coach Gheorghe Constantin using him all the minutes in both, the first one being a 3–0 win over Sportul Studențesc București and in the one from

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

, the team lost with 2–1 in front of Politehnica Timișoara. In his ten seasons spell spent with '' The Military Men'' he also played 12 matches in European competitions, scoring two goals in a 6–0 win over Young Boys from the

1979–80 European Cup Winners' Cup The 1979–80 season was the 20th season of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, European Cup Winners' Cup, a association football, football tournament organised by UEFA for the cup winners from each of its member associations. The competition was won by Spa ...

. For the way he played in 1979, Sameș was placed first in the ranking for the Romanian Footballer of the Year award. In the middle of the 1982–83 season, Sameș went to play for FC Constanța where he was teammate with a young

Gheorghe Hagi Gheorghe Hagi (; born 5 February 1965) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player, who is currently the owner of Liga I club Farul Constanța. Deployed as an attacking midfielder, Hagi was considered one of the best players in ...

, however the spell was unsuccessful as the team relegated to

Divizia B The Liga 2, most commonly 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 football season. It is currently sponsored by Casa Pariu ...

at the end of the season. He switched teams again, going to play for

Rapid București Rapid(s) or RAPID may refer to: Hydrological features * Rapids, sections of a river with turbulent water flow * Rapid Creek (Iowa River tributary), Iowa, United States * Rapid Creek (South Dakota), United States, namesake of Rapid City Sport ...

where on 27 October 1985 in a 1–0 away loss with Sportul Studențesc he made his last appearance in Divizia A, having a total of 388 games with 21 goals scored in the competition. Sameș ended his career in 1989 after playing several seasons in Divizia B at ROVA Roșiori and Siretul Pașcani.

International career

Sameș played 46 matches and scored three goals at international level for

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, making his debut on 18 April 1973 under coach Valentin Stănescu in a friendly with

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which ended with a 2–0 loss. His following game was Romania's biggest ever victory, a 9–0 against

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at the 1974 World Cup qualifiers. He played in all four games at the 1978 World Cup qualifiers which consist of two wins over

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and

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and two losses in front of the same teams. Sameș then played in five games at the Euro 1980 qualifiers in which he scored a double in a 3–2 win with Yugoslavia and also captained ''The Tricolours'' for the first time in a 2–0 over

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

. He also captained Romania in both legs of the 4–3 aggregate victory with Yugoslavia from the 1977–80 Balkan Cup final. In the following years he played six games at the 1982 World Cup qualifiers which include a 2–1 victory and a 0–0 with

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, making his last appearance for the national team in an away friendly with

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which took place on 17 November 1982 that was lost with 4–1. He also played for the Romania's Olympic team.

International goals

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

Coaching career

After he ended his career, Sameș had a spell as head coach at Universitatea Cluj for the final rounds of the 1989–90 Divizia A season, helping the team finish on the 13th place. Afterwards he coached at Steaua's youth academy from 1992 until 2011.

Personal life and death

Sameș had two siblings, Petruța and Gheorghiță. Two times Champions League winner,

Miodrag Belodedici Miodrag Belodedici (; ; born 20 May 1964) is a Romanian former professional association football, footballer who played as a sweeper (association football), sweeper. Nicknamed ''The Deer'' due to his elegant Tackle (football move), tackles, he ...

claimed that Sameș was his childhood idol, the two being teammates for a short while at Steaua. In the early 1980s, his wife, son and father-in-law fled illegally from Romania's communist regime to

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

for which he was kicked out from Steaua, even do he was the team's captain. Sameș descended from the Bulgarian population in Dudești-Cioplea and at one point had the nickname "The Bulgarian". On 17 July 2011, Sameș died in a

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

hospital at the age of 59 after suffering from cancer.

Honours

Player

Steaua București *

: 1975–76, 1977–78 *

: 1975–76, 1978–79, runner-up 1976–77, 1979–80 Romania *

Balkan Cup The Balkan Cup (officially ''Coupe Balkanique de Football'') was an international association football competition contested on and off from 1929 to 1980 by countries from the Balkans region. The most successful team was Romania with four titles. ...

: 1977–80

Individual

* Romanian Footballer of the Year: 1979

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sames, Stefan 1951 births 2011 deaths Deaths from cancer in Romania Romanian men's footballers Olympic footballers for Romania Romania men's international footballers FCSB players CS Universitatea Craiova players FC Rapid București players FCV Farul Constanța players Men's association football defenders Liga I players Liga II players FC Universitatea Cluj managers Romanian football managers Footballers from Ilfov County 20th-century Romanian sportsmen Romanian people of Bulgarian descent