Marius Mihai Lăcătuș (; born 5 April 1964) is a Romanian professional

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. He is the most successful footballer of Steaua București and was part of their

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

victory in 1986. Lăcătuș is the all-time top scorer for Steaua with 16 goals in European competitions. He played as a deep lying striker or

inside forward In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than Midfielder, midfielders and Defender (association football), d ...

for Steaua București most of his career, being the team's captain between 1994 and 1999. He also played for Italian side

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

and Real Oviedo in Spain. Lăcătuș is the most decorated player in the history of the Romanian First League. He has won the league a record ten times. Following him in the all time table are: Giedrius Arlauskis, Ciprian Deac, Adrian Bumbescu,

Mircea Lucescu Mircea Lucescu (; born 29 July 1945) is a Romanian professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player, currently the head coach of the Romania national football team, Romania national team. He i ...

, Dumitru Stângaciu and

Tudorel Stoica Tudorel Stoica (born 7 September 1954, in Brăila, Brăila County, Romania) is a Romanian former footballer who played as a midfielder. He is the most capped player in the history of Steaua București. He is one of the most famous and succe ...

, all with 7 championships won. On 7 July 2021,

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 ...

retired his shirt number 7 at the inauguration match of the new Steaua Stadium.

Club career

Lăcătuș was an iconic player for Steaua București's supporters. Even now, many years after leaving the club as a player, the supporters shout his name at home games. The supporters loved him for his spectacular way of playing football, as well as for his commitment during the games. He was nicknamed ''Fiara'' (The Beast). He was the first player to score in the penalty shoot-out of the 1986 European Cup final against

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

, won by Steaua. After the

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second ...

in Italy, where he scored two goals against the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, Lăcătuș signed for the Italian club

and then moved to Real Oviedo in Spain. In 1994, he returned to Steaua and played for the club until 1999, when he signed for FC Național București, where he played only half a season before retiring. On 25 March 2008, he was decorated by the president of Romania,

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, ...

with Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" — (Order of Sporting Merit) class II for his part in winning the 1986 European Cup Final. Lăcătuș played a total of 414 games in the Romanian

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 ...

(now Liga I), scoring 103 goals; 21 games in the Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

where he scored three times and also 51 games in the Spanish

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

, scoring 7 goals. He also made 72 appearances in the

Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renamed the UEFA Cup Winne ...

and the

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, scoring 16 goals.

International career

Lăcătuș was capped 83 times, scoring 13 goals for the Romania national team, and played for his country in the

1990 World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second ...

, Euro 1996 and the 1998 World Cup. In 1995, against France, he scored Romania's 800th goal.

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Lăcătuș goal.''

Honours

Player

Steaua București *

(10): 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98 (record) *

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 ...

(7): 1984–85, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89, 1995–96, 1996–97, 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 ...

(3):

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

: 1985–86; runner-up: 1988–89 *

European Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions: the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was original ...

: 1986 * Intercontinental Cup runner-up: 1986

Manager

Vaslui *

runner-up: 2009–10 CSMS Iași *

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 ...

: 2013–14

References

External links

* *
Marius Lăcătuș statistics as coach
at Labtof.ro {{DEFAULTSORT:Lacatus, Marius 1964 births Living people Men's association football forwards Men's association football wingers Footballers from Brașov Romanian men's footballers Olympic footballers for Romania Romania men's international footballers Romania men's under-21 international footballers Liga I players FC Brașov (1936) players FCSB players UEFA Champions League–winning players FCSB presidents 1990 FIFA World Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players ACF Fiorentina players Serie A players La Liga players Real Oviedo players Romanian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Spain UEFA Euro 1996 players Romanian football managers Liga I managers Liga II managers FCSB managers FCSB non-playing staff FC Progresul București players ASC Oțelul Galați managers FC Brașov (1936) managers FC Vaslui managers ASA 2013 Târgu Mureș managers FC Politehnica Iași (2010) managers CSM Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț managers CSA Steaua București managers 20th-century Romanian sportsmen Association football players with retired numbers