Lajos Sătmăreanu (also known as Ludovic Sătmăreanu, , born 21 February 1944) is a

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 ...

n former

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player of Hungarian ethnicity.

Club career

Lajos Sătmăreanu, nicknamed '' Facchetti of the

Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains ...

'' was born on 21 February 1944 in

Salonta Salonta (; , colloquially , ; ) is a municipiu, city in Bihor County, in the geographical region of Crișana, north-western Romania, near the Hungarian border. Population According to the 2021 Romanian census, 2021 census, Salonta has a popu ...

and started to play football in 1958 at local club, Recolta. He made 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 17 March 1963, playing for

Crișana Oradea Crișana Oradea was a association football, football club based in Oradea, Romania. It was founded in 1929 and dissolved in 1954. History The club was founded in 1929. The players from the first year of existence were: Putirică, Combi, Aurel, ...

in a 4–2 away loss against Steaua București, shortly afterwards moving to play at neighboring team, Flamura Roșie in Divizia B for one season. After another Divizia B season, this time spent at ASA Târgu Mureș, Sătmăreanu went to play at Steaua for 10 seasons, winning one league title in the 1967–68 season, being used by coach Ștefan Kovács in 26 matches and also winning five

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 ...

, scoring the last goal of the 4–0 victory against UTA Arad from the 1966 final. For the way he played in 1968, Sătmăreanu was placed third in the ranking for the Romanian Footballer of the Year award, in the following year being fourth. German club

Hertha BSC Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC () or Hertha Berlin, is a German professional football club based in Berlin. Hertha BSC plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football league system, German footbal ...

wanted to sign Sătmăreanu after his performance at the 1970 World Cup, but Romania's communist regime refused to let him go. During his period spent with '' The Military Men'' he also played 20 games in European competitions, taking part in the

1971–72 European Cup Winners' Cup The 1971–72 season of the European Cup Winners' Cup football club tournament was won by Rangers, who defeated Dynamo Moscow in the final. Preliminary round First leg ---- Second leg ''4–4 on aggregate; Austria Wien won on away goa ...

campaign, playing all six games as the team reached the quarter-finals by eliminating Hibernians and

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, being eliminated after 1–1 on aggregate on the

away goal rule Away may refer to: Film and television * ''Away'' (2016 film), a British film directed by David Blair * ''Away'' (2019 film), a Latvian animated silent film by Gints Zilbalodis * Away (2025 film), a drama film by Gerard Oms * ''Away'' (TV series ...

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

. In 1975 he went to play at fellow Divizia A team, Bihor Oradea, leaving after half of season to go play in Divizia B for Progresul București, helping the team earn the promotion to the first league, making his last Divizia A appearance on 8 June 1977 in a 2–1 home victory against FCM Reșiţa, having a total of 306 matches with six goals scored in the competition.

International career

Lajos Sătmăreanu played for

in 42 matches, scoring one goal, making his debut under coach Bazil Marian in a 1–1 friendly against

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

, which took place in

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

Estadio Gran Parque Central The Estadio Gran Parque Central is the stadium of Club Nacional de Football. It is located in Montevideo, Uruguay, near Nacional headquarters (exactly between the streets Carlos Anaya, Jaime Cibils, General Urquiza and Comandante Braga), in the L ...

. He played six games at the successful 1970 World Cup qualifiers, also being used by coach Angelo Niculescu in all the minutes of the three group matches from the

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as Romania did not advance to the next stage. Sătmăreanu also played nine matches at the 1972 Euro qualifiers, scoring one goal in the first

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

game out of three against

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much 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 south, Croatia and ...

, who eventually defeated Romania in the third game, advancing to the

. He played four matches at the 1974 World Cup qualifiers, his last one being a 1–0 victory against

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

. For representing his country at the 1970 World Cup, Sătmăreanu was decorated by

President of Romania The president of Romania () is the head of state of Romania. The president is directly elected by a two-round system, and, following a modification to the Romanian Constitution in 2003, serves for five years. An individual may serve two ter ...

Traian Băsescu Traian Băsescu (; born 4 November 1951) is a Romanian politician who served as the president of Romania from 2004 to 2014. Prior to his presidency, Băsescu served as Romanian minister of transport on multiple occasions between 1991 and 2000, ...

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 Sătmăreanu goal''.

Coaching career

Lajos Sătmăreanu worked as a coach at the juvenile level, mostly at Steaua București where between 1977 and 2011 he taught and formed generations of players, which include Daniel Gherasim, Dan Petrescu, Marius Mitu,

Robert Niță Robert Ionel Niţă (born 2 April 1977 in Bucharest) is a retired Romanian football player. Career Robert Niţă was born in Bucharest, and his first club was Steaua București in Romania. He later joined Corvinul Hunedoara, Cimentul Fieni an ...

and George Ogăraru. Afterwards he coached juniors at Școala Privată de Fotbal "Vasile Matincă" for a short while, then he coached senior team Argeșul Mihăilești in the Romanian lower leagues for a few years, before returning to coaching juniors in 2016 at

CSA Steaua București Clubul Sportiv al Armatei Steaua București, commonly known as CSA Steaua București () or simply Steaua, is a major Sports club, multi-sports club based in Bucharest and run by the Ministry of National Defence of Romania, Ministry of National D ...

Honours

Steaua București *

: 1967–68 *

: 1965–66, 1966–67, 1968–69, 1969–70, 1970–71 Progresul București * Divizia B: 1975–76 Individual * Romanian Footballer of the Year (''third place''): 1968, (''fourth place''): 1969

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Satmareanu, Lajos 1944 births Living people People from Salonta Romanian sportspeople of Hungarian descent Men's association football defenders Footballers from Oradea Romanian men's footballers Olympic footballers for Romania Romania men's international footballers Liga I players Liga II players FCSB players FC Bihor Oradea (1958) players ASA Târgu Mureș (1962) players FC Progresul București players Club Atletic Oradea players 1970 FIFA World Cup players Romanian football managers FC Bihor Oradea (1958) managers Footballers from Bihor County 20th-century Romanian sportsmen