Costică Toma (1 January 1928 – 13 May 2008) was a

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, a ...

n international football

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting ...

and later manager.

Playing career

He was born in

Brăila Brăila (, also , ) is a city in Muntenia, eastern Romania, a port on the Danube and the capital of Brăila County. The ''Sud-Est'' Regional Development Agency is located in Brăila. According to the 2011 Romanian census there were 180,302 pe ...

, into a family coming from

Muralto Muralto is a municipality in the district of Locarno, in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. Geography Muralto has an area, , of . Of this area, or 71.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 3.3% is forested. Of the rest of the l ...

, Switzerland. Toma began his football career in 1940, when he played for FC Suter as a striker. After a period when he played as a youth for Capșa București, he moved to Iași. He played only a season at CS ta, and after two months at Câmpulung Moldovenesc, he moved to

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 ...

. He played twelve years for the Army club, and was a part of the Steaua Golden Team. He had at Steaua a famous and a fair-play rivalry with Ion Voinescu. It was said that Toma and Voinescu were the best couple of goalkeepers that a Romanian football club ever had. Toma won also 16 caps for

. Toma retired from professional football in 1961.

Coaching career

Despite being a great goalkeeper, Toma was not a successful manager. He managed only lower league sides and also a large number of youth teams.

Honours

;Steaua București *

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 ...

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh ...

, 1953,

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, are kille ...

, 1959–60, 1960–61 * Cupa României:

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yiji ...

Personal life

Toma was married and had two children living today in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situ ...

, Switzerland. He died 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 ...

in 2008, and was buried in the city's Ghencea Military Cemetery.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Toma, Costica 1928 births 2008 deaths Sportspeople from Brăila Romanian footballers Romania men's international footballers Liga I players Liga II players FC Steaua București players Men's association football goalkeepers Burials at Ghencea Cemetery