Constantin Rădulescu (footballer, Born 1934)

Constantin "Costică" Rădulescu (17 April 1934 – 8 July 2002) was a Romanian footballer and manager.

Playing career

Rădulescu was born on 17 April 1934 in Comarnic and started his playing career in 1948 at local club, Vulturii. In 1949 he moved to Dinamo Brașov where he stayed until 1958, in the last year the team was playing in Cluj. He then signed with Dinamo Bacău, a team for which he would play the rest of his career which ended in 1966 when he scored a hat-trick against Chimia Râmnicu Vâlcea, a game he did not finish on the field as he suffered a commotion. Even though he was a fan of Rapid București, he never got to play for them.

Managerial career

Rădulescu started his coaching career at Dinamo Bacău in 1966 at the request of his former coach, Constantin Teașcă who left the team, managing to promote it from Divizia B to Divizia A in his first year. While coaching Bacău, Rădulescu together with Valeriu Neagu led them in the 1969–70 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup campaign where they eliminated Floriana, Skeid and Kilmarnock, reaching the quarter-finals where they were eliminated by Arsenal who would eventually win the competition. In 1974 during a match against Dinamo București, a general brawl ensued in which Rădulescu hit Dinamo's president Paul Moga who had previously cursed him and following that scandal, eight players were suspended, and Rădulescu was forbidden to coach any Divizia A or Divizia B team for three years. Thus he took over the Divizia C club, CS Botoșani where General Marin Dragnea promised him that he would lift his suspension if he promoted the team to Divizia B which he achieved.

In 1975 he went to coach Politehnica Timișoara, finishing the first season on the fifth place and from 1977 until 1979 he worked as Angelo Niculescu's assistant, together being close to win the championship in the 1977–78 season but eventually finished on the third position. After Niculescu left the club, he worked again as head coach but got replaced after 15 rounds with Ion "Jackie" Ionescu. In the following years, Rădulescu coached UM Timișoara, CSM Suceava, CS Târgoviște and SC Bacău before arriving at Oțelul Galați in 1984 where he stayed for four years, earning a fourth place in the 1987–88 season which granted the team the qualification to the 1988–89 UEFA Cup where they were eliminated in the first round by Juventus, however before the double with the Italians he was replaced with Cornel Dinu. He returned to Politehnica Timișoara in 1988 which was playing in Divizia B, promoting after one year and finished the next season on the fifth place which earned them a spot in the 1990–91 UEFA Cup where they got past in the first round Atlético Madrid with 2–1 on aggregate, being eliminated in the next round by Sporting Lisabona. He left Politehnica in 1991 after a conflict with the players who were unsatisfied with his training methods but after two spells at Farul Constanța and Vega Caransebeș he returned at Politehnica which was again in Divizia B, helping it promote after one season having 14 points above the team from the second place, Corvinul Hunedoara. In the 1995–96 Divizia A season he started the championship well, including earning a 9–1 victory in the fifth round against Politehnica Iași but the following results were poorer and eventually he was dismissed.

His last spell as coach was at UM Timișoara which he helped promote from Divizia C to Divizia B and led them in the 1998–99 Cupa României campaign where they eliminated Divizia A teams Astra Ploiești and Național București, reaching the quarter-finals where they were defeated by Dinamo București. Also during this period Rădulescu told his players his most famous quote about their football careers:"Everything passes, money passes, but these...these you should tell them to your children and grandchildren". Before a Divizia B game with UTA Arad he got a call from somebody who told him that four or five of his players got bribed to lose the game, the match ended with a 5–0 loss and he resigned from UM Timișoara. Afterwards he ended his career in which he has a total of 426 matches as a coach in Divizia A consisting of 176 victories 82 draws and 168 losses.

Death

Rădulescu died on 8 July 2002 at age 68 in Timișoara after suffering from peritonitis and in October 2019 a street from Timișoara was named after him.

Honours

Manager

Dinamo Bacău
*Divizia B: 1966–67
CS Botoșani
*Divizia C: 1974–75
Politehnica Timișoara
*Divizia B: 1988–89, 1994–95
Oțelul Galați
*Divizia B: 1985–86
UM Timișoara
*Divizia C: 1996–97

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Radulescu, Constantin
1934 births
2002 deaths
Romanian men's footballers
Men's association football midfielders
Liga I players
Liga II players
Unirea Tricolor București players
FCM Bacău players
Romanian football managers
FCM Bacău managers
FC Politehnica Timișoara managers
CSM Cetatea Suceava managers
FCM Târgoviște managers
ASC Oțelul Galați managers
FCV Farul Constanța managers
People from Comarnic
Footballers from Prahova County
20th-century Romanian sportsmen