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
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 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
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 ...
,
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
UEFA Cup
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star.
Computer scientists and Mathematici ...
, 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
*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 ...
(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 ...
*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 ...
: 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
*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: 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