Mihai Ivăncescu (22 March 1942 – 1 February 2004) was a Romanian footballer who played as a right back for two

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, ...

teams, Steagul and Tractorul.

Club career

Mihai Ivăncescu was born on 22 March 1942 in Adâncata, Romania. He started to play football at junior level in 1956, aged 14 at Steagul Roșu Brașov. 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, playing for Steagul on 24 September 1961 under coach Silviu Ploeșteanu in a 2–1 home victory against

Dinamo București A dynamo is a magnetic device originally used as an electric generator. Dynamo or Dinamo may also refer to: Places * Dinamo (Moscow Metro), a station of the Moscow Metro, Moscow, Russia * Dinamo (Yekaterinburg Metro), a station of the Yekaterin ...

. After one season and a half he went to play at neighboring

team, Tractorul in

Divizia B 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 football season. It is currently sponsored by Casa Pariu ...

. He returned at Steagul in 1964, where he would remain for the following nine seasons, the highlights of this period being a fourth place in the 1964–65 Divizia A season and four games played in the

1965–66 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup The eighth Inter-Cities Fairs Cup was played over the 1965–66 season. The competition was won by Barcelona over two legs in an all-Spanish final against Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital ...

as the club eliminated

NK Zagreb Nogometni klub Zagreb (''Zagreb Football Club''), commonly known as NK Zagreb or simply Zagreb (), is a Croatian football club based in the capital city of Zagreb. It currently competes in the fifth tier league competition of Croatian footbal ...

, but got eliminated in the following round by Espanyol Barcelona against whom he scored two goals. Also at end of the 1967–68 Divizia A season, the club relegated to Divizia B, but Ivăncescu stayed with the club, promoting back to the first division after one year. He played his last Divizia A match on 28 April 1973 in a 1–0 home loss in front of Dinamo, a competition in which he has a total of 209 appearances with 13 goals scored. Afterwards, Ivăncescu returned to play in Divizia B for the last two seasons of his career at Tractorul Brașov and on 6 April 1976 on the Tractorul stadium he had his retirement match, playing the first round for Tractorul and the second for Steagul.

International career

Ivăncescu played three friendly games at international level 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 ...

, all of them being draws and all under the guidance of coach

Angelo Niculescu Angelo Niculescu (1 October 1921 – 20 June 2015) was a Romanian football player and manager. He is best remembered in Romania for being the national team's coach at the 1970 World Cup and for inventing the "temporizare" ("delaying") tactics ...

, making his debut on 24 December 1967 in a 1–1 against

DR Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

, his following two games being a 1–1 with

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and a 0–0 against

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. He was a member of Steagul Roșu Brașov's "Mexican trio", alongside Stere Adamache and

Nicolae Pescaru Nicolae Pescaru (27 March 1943 – 25 May 2019) was a Romanian football play and manager, who worked mostly for Steagul Roșu Brașov. Club career Nicolae Pescaru was born on 27 March 1943 in Breaza, Prahova County, Romania. He started to pla ...

who were part of Romania's 1970 Mexico World Cup squad, but he did not play in the tournament.

Refereeing career

After he retired, Ivăncescu became a football

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

, including arbitrating matches in the Romanian top-division,

Death

Ivăncescu died on 1 February 2004 at age 61 at the Brașov county hospital.

Honours

Steagul Roșu Brașov *

: 1968–69

Notes

References

External links

Mihai Ivăncescu
at Labtof.ro {{DEFAULTSORT:Ivancescu, Mihai 1942 births 2004 deaths Romanian men's footballers Romania men's international footballers Men's association football defenders 1970 FIFA World Cup players FC Brașov (1936) players Liga I players Liga II players Romanian football referees Footballers from Ialomița County 20th-century Romanian sportsmen