György László "Gyuszi" Balint (born 29 March 1979) is a Romanian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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 player, who is currently in charge of

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 ...

club Oțelul Galați.

Club career

Balint was born in

Brașov Brașov (, , ; , also ''Brasau''; ; ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Kruhnen'') is a city in Transylvania, Romania and the county seat (i.e. administrative centre) of Brașov County. According to the 2021 Romanian census, ...

, Romania, into an ethnic Hungarian family. In his early career as a footballer, he played for Rapid Energia Braşov, Romradiatoare Braşov, before joining FC Brașov in 2001, where he played for four seasons in

. After the club's

relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

, he moved to

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 ...

, under player-coach Dorinel Munteanu, reaching the

2005 UEFA Intertoto Cup The 2005 UEFA Intertoto Cup finals were won by Lens, Marseille, and Hamburg. All three teams advanced to the UEFA Cup. First round First leg ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- -- ...

finals with his new club. The following season, he transferred to another Liga I club,

UTA Arad Asociația Fotbal Club UTA Arad (), commonly known as UTA Arad or simply UTA (''Uzina Textilă Arad''; ), is a Romanian professional football club based in the city of Arad, Arad County that competes in the Liga I. The team was founded in 1945 ...

. In 2007, he was brought by

Dan Petrescu Daniel "Dan" Vasile Petrescu (; born 22 December 1967) is a Romanian football manager and former player who is currently in charge of Liga I club CFR Cluj. As a player, Petrescu was deployed as a full-back or a winger and began his career a ...

Unirea Urziceni Fotbal Club Unirea Urziceni, commonly known as Unirea Urziceni (), was a Romanian professional Association football, football Club (organization), club based in Urziceni, Ialomița County. Unirea became Divizia A Final Tables, national champions ...

, a team that would win its first championship title in history two years later. After that, followed a short spell at

Diósgyőr Diósgyőr (Hungarian: Help:IPA/Hungarian, �dioːʒɟøːr is a historical town in Hungary, today it is a part of Miskolc. The medieval castle in Diósgyőr was a favourite holiday residence of Hungarian kings and queens; today it is a popular t ...

in the Hungarian First Division, before signing as a player-manager for

Unirea Tărlungeni Unirea may refer to: Places in Romania * Unirea, Alba, a commune * Unirea, Brăila, a commune * Unirea, Călărași, a commune * Unirea, Dolj, a commune and village * General Berthelot, a commune in Hunedoara, called ''Unirea'' from 1965 to 2 ...

in the Romanian

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 ...

, a club near his hometown of Braşov.

Coaching career

Under his management, Unirea Tărlungeni won its first-ever promotion to

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 ...

. In January 2015, he joined Liga I side FC Brașov as an assistant coach for the second part of the 2014–15 season, followed by an employment as head coach at

Academica Clinceni Club Sportiv LPS HD Clinceni, commonly known as Clinceni and formerly as ''Academica Clinceni'', is a Romanian Association football, football Club (organization), club based in Clinceni, Ilfov County, currently playing in the Liga IV - Ilfov Cou ...

in Liga II. In June 2017, he was appointed manager of

Târgu Mureș Târgu Mureș (, ; ; German language, German: ''Neumarkt am Mieresch'') is the seat of Mureș County in the historical region of Transylvania, Romania. It is the list of cities and towns in Romania, 16th-largest city in Romania, with 116,033 ...

after their relegation to the second division, where he spent only 3 months, resigning after six league games with the team sitting 3rd in the table. Shortly after, he took over the management of

Miercurea Ciuc Miercurea Ciuc (; ; ) is the county seat of Harghita County, Romania. It lies in the Székely Land, a mainly Hungarian-speaking ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, and is situated in the Olt River valley. The city administers three ...

, finishing second at the end of the 2017–18 season of Liga III, the highest ranking in the club's history. In June 2018, he accepted an offer from

Sportul Snagov Club Sportiv Sportul Snagov, commonly known as Sportul Snagov or simply as Snagov, was a Romanian professional football club from Snagov, Ilfov County, founded in 2007 as Damila Măciuca and dissolved in 2020. Last time the club played in the L ...

, a team that finished the 2017–18 Liga II season in 10th. Under his command, the team became the biggest surprise of the competition, finishing the first part of the 2018–19 season at the top of the table. Due to the club's financial issues, Balint left the club in January 2019, along with many important players. In 2019, he took charge of

. Under his command, UTA won the

2019–20 Liga II The 2019–20 Liga II (also known as 2019–20 Liga II Casa Pariurilor) was the 80th season of the Liga II, the second tier of the Romanian football league system. The season began on 3 August 2019 and ended on 2 August 2020. A total of 20 teams ...

title, marking the club's return to top division after 12 years.

Honours

Player

CFR Cluj *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

runner-up:

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

Unirea Urziceni *

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 ...

runner-up: 2007–08

Coach

Unirea Tărlungeni *

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

UTA Arad *

: 2019–20

Career statistics

Managerial

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Balint, Laszlo 1979 births Living people Romanian sportspeople of Hungarian descent Footballers from Brașov Romanian men's footballers Men's association football defenders Liga I players Liga II players Liga III players FC Brașov (1936) players CFR Cluj players FC UTA Arad players FC Unirea Urziceni players ACF Gloria Bistrița players Nemzeti Bajnokság I players Diósgyőri VTK players ASC Ciucaș Tărlungeni players Romanian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Hungary Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Hungary Romanian football managers LPS HD Clinceni managers ASA 2013 Târgu Mureș managers FK Csíkszereda Miercurea Ciuc managers CS Sportul Snagov managers FC Metaloglobus București managers FC UTA Arad managers CS Universitatea Craiova managers FC Petrolul Ploiești managers ASC Oțelul Galați managers Liga I managers Liga II managers