Eugen Trică (born 5 August 1976) is a Romanian football

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

and former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

. He played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

Club career

Eugen Trică was born on 5 August 1976 in the village of Teslui from Romania where he spent the first years of his life, being raised mainly by his grandparents until age 7 when he had to move to

Craiova Craiova (, also , ) is the largest city in southwestern Romania, List of Romanian cities, the seventh largest city in the country and the capital of Dolj County, situated near the east bank of the river Jiu River, Jiu in central Oltenia. It i ...

in order to go to school. Shortly after arriving in Craiova, his father noticed his talent while seeing him play football in the neighborhood so he took him to local club Universitatea Craiova where he started his career as a youth, being promoted in the first team in 1995, making his

Liga I 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 17 June 1995 in a 5–4 loss against Electroputere Craiova. He played 91 Liga I games for "U" Craiova in which he scored 14 goals, managing to reach the

1998 Cupa României final The 1998 Cupa României Final was the 60th final of Romania's most prestigious cup competition. The final was played at the Stadionul Naţional in Bucharest on 6 May 1998 and was contested between Divizia A sides Rapid București and Universitatea ...

in 1998 which was lost in front of Rapid București, also during this period he earned the nickname ''José'' after teammate Ionel Gane compared him to José Mari Bakero. He then joined Steaua București in 1998, winning in his first season the 1998–99 Cupa României, being introduced by coach Emerich Jenei to replace Cristian Ciocoiu in the

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...

of the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

against Rapid București which was won at the penalty shoot-out where he scored a goal. He also won a championship with ''The Military Men'' in the 2000–01 season, being used by coach Victor Pițurcă in 30 games in which he scored 7 goals, also scoring two goals in Steaua's 2–1 victory against Dinamo București in the

2001 Supercupa României 2001 Supercupa României was the 5th edition of Romania's season opener cup competition, Supercupa României. The match was played in Bucharest at Stadionul Naţional (1953), Stadionul Naţional on 2 March 2002, and was contested between 2000–01 ...

. Litex Lovech was the third club Trică played for after being transferred in 2003, where he scored 22 goals in 54 league matches, winning the Bulgarian Cup in 2004. He joined the squad of Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2005, but after only a few months he returned to Bulgaria, this time at

CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sports Club of the Army'' ...

where he played alongside fellow Romanians Florentin Petre and Alexandru Pițurcă, managing to win the 2005–06 Bulgarian Cup and the 2006 Bulgarian Supercup. Trică was one of the highest scoring foreign players in the Bulgarian league as in the 98 appearances made in the competition he had 39 goals to his name. In 2007, Trică returned to Romania, signing with

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ) or simply CFR, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I. Founded as ''Kolozsvári Vasut ...

, where he was part of the team that won for the first time in the club's history the championship and the cup in 2008 with Trică being the team's top scorer, netting the goal 13 times in the 31 league matches coach Ioan Andone used him. He also played five games in the 2008–09 Champions League group stage with '' The Railway Men'', in the first one providing Emmanuel Culio with two assists for the goals that obtained the team a historical 2–1 victory on

Stadio Olimpico Stadio Olimpico (; ), colloquially known as l'Olimpico (The Olympic), is an Italian multi-purpose sports venue located in Rome. Seating over 70,000 spectators, it is the largest sports facility in Rome and the second-largest in Italy, after ...

against

AS Roma Associazione Sportiva Roma (''Rome Sport Association''; Italian pronunciation: Help:IPA/Italian, ) is a professional Association football, football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier ...

. Trică moved in 2009 to Anorthosis in Cyprus, but after the end of the season, he returned to

where he won the 2009 Supercupa României. In 2009, Trică came back to his first club, Universitatea Craiova, but after a year, in 2010, he joined Concordia Chiajna, a team from the second Romanian division which he helped promote to Liga I for the first time in history and after a few games in the first division for Concordia, in October 2011, Trică decided to end his playing career. Through his career, Eugen Trică earned a total of 289 matches with 51 goals scored in Liga I and 30 appearances with 7 goals in European competitions.

International career

Eugen Trică played four games 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 3 March 1999 when coach Victor Pițurcă introduced him in the 74th minute to replace Dennis Șerban in a friendly which ended with a 2–0 victory against

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

. His following game was a 1–0 victory in a friendly against

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

and the last two were appearances at the successful Euro 2008 qualifiers, a 3–1 victory against

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

and a 1–0 loss against

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

Managerial career

Eugen Trică started his coaching career in 2012 at Juventus București, after which he coached various other teams, including as an assistant coach, his biggest performances being a runner-up position in a

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 ...

final with

and two promotions from the third league to the second and from the second to the first with FC U Craiova. On 22 September 2022, he became the head coach of

Liga II 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 Liga II, 2006–07 football season. It is currently Sponso ...

side Concordia Chiajna.

Personal life

Eugen Trică was married to Lorena, daughter of Ilie Balaci, one of the best Romanian football players from the past. They divorced in 2015. Their son, Atanas Trică is also a footballer.

Playing statistics

Honours

Player

Universitatea Craiova *

runner-up: 1997–98 Steaua București *

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 ...

: 2000–01 *

: 1998–99 *

Supercupa României The Supercupa României () is a Romanian football (soccer), football championship contested by the winners of the Liga I and the Cupa României. It is usually played at the Arena Națională in Bucharest. The competition started off in 1994 Supe ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

Litex Lovech *

Bulgarian Cup The Bulgarian Cup () is a Bulgarian annual football competition. It is the country's main cup competition and all officially registered Bulgarian football teams take part in it. The tournament's format is ''single-elimination'', with all matche ...

: 2003–04 CSKA Sofia *

: 2005–06 * Bulgarian Super Cup:

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

CFR Cluj *

: 2007–08 *

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

Manager

CFR Cluj *

runner-up: 2012–13 FC U Craiova *

: 2020–21 *

Liga III The Liga 3, most often spelled as Liga III, is the third level of the Romanian football league system. It was founded in 1936 and was called Divizia C until 2006. An exception was the seasons 1992–93 to 1996–97, in which the league was call ...

: 2019–20

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Trica, Eugen 1976 births Living people Footballers from Dolj County Romanian men's footballers Romania men's under-21 international footballers Romania men's international footballers Romanian expatriate men's footballers Men's association football midfielders FC U Craiova 1948 players FCSB players PFC CSKA Sofia players Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. players Expatriate men's footballers in Israel FC Lovech players CFR Cluj players Anorthosis Famagusta FC players CS Concordia Chiajna players Liga I players Liga II players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Cypriot First Division players Expatriate men's footballers in Bulgaria Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Israel Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Romanian football managers Romanian expatriate football managers Liga I managers Liga II managers Oman Professional League managers ASC Daco-Getica București managers CFR Cluj managers FC UTA Arad managers CS Sportul Snagov managers FC U Craiova 1948 managers AFC Turris-Oltul Turnu Măgurele managers ACS Viitorul Târgu Jiu managers FC Metaloglobus București managers CS Concordia Chiajna managers CSM Alexandria managers Sohar SC managers PFC Litex Lovech managers Expatriate football managers in Oman Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Oman