Andrei Mercea (16 March 1925 – 24 January 2002) was 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 football forward.

Club career

Andrei Mercea was born on 16 March 1925 in

Arad, Romania Arad () is the capital city of Arad County, at the edge of Crișana and Banat. No villages are administered by the city. It is the third largest city in Western Romania, behind Timișoara and Oradea, and the List of cities and towns in Romania, 1 ...

and started playing junior level football at local clubs SG Arad and Gloria Arad. He started his senior career, making 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 15 September 1946, playing for ITA Arad in a 8–4 victory against Dermagant Târgu Mureș, by the end of the season making a total of 17 appearances in which he scored four goals which helped the club win the title. In the following season, he won The Double, scoring 12 goals scored in the 25 games he was used by coach Petre Steinbach, but he did not play in the 3–2 victory against CFR Timișoara from the

1948 Cupa României final The 1948 Cupa României Final was the 11th final of Romania's most prestigious Association football, football cup competition. It was disputed between FC UTA Arad, ITA Arad and FC CFR Timișoara, CFR Timișoara, and was won by Arad after a game ...

. In 1948 he went to play for CSCA București where on 21 November 1948, coach

Colea Vâlcov Nicolae 'Colea' Vâlcov (23 February 1909 – 31 March 1970) was a Romanian football player and manager. Vâlcov was born in Bolgrad, Russian Empire. He was part of the famous offensive line of Venus București in the 1930s, together with his ...

used him in the first ever CSCA București – Dinamo București derby which ended with a 1–0 loss. After one season, Mercea returned in Arad, winning the 1950 Divizia A title, being used by coach Francisc Dvorzsák in 22 matches in which he scored 12 goals, also scoring in the 1950 Cupa României final which was lost with 3–1 in front of CCA București. Mercea helped ''

The Old Lady ''The Old Lady'' () is a 1932 Italian comedy drama film directed by Amleto Palermi and starring Emma Gramatica, Maurizio D'Ancora and Armando Falconi. It also features Vittorio De Sica in his first sound film. Katz p.498 The film's sets were d ...

'' win the 1953 Cupa României, being used by coach Coloman Braun-Bogdan in the 1–0 victory in front of CCA București from the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

, Braun-Bogdan also using him in 24 matches in which he scored once in the 1954 Divizia A season when he and the club won the fourth title together. He made his last Divizia A appearance on 15 June 1958, playing for UTA in a 2–1 victory against

Rapid București Rapid(s) or RAPID may refer to: Hydrological features * Rapids, sections of a river with turbulent water flow * Rapid Creek (Iowa River tributary), Iowa, United States * Rapid Creek (South Dakota), United States, namesake of Rapid City Sport ...

, gaining a total of 230 matches played with 57 goals scored in the competition. Andrei Mercea spent the last years of his career playing for

AMEF Arad Vagonul Arad was a football club based in Arad, Romania. It was founded in 1911 and it soon became one of the best teams from Arad. It was affiliated to Astra Arad rail equipment manufacturing company. It was dissolved in 2006. History 191 ...

and Teba Arad in the lower leagues of Romania.

International career

Andrei Mercea played six matches and scored two goals for Romania's national team, making his debut on 6 June 1948 under coach Petre Steinbach in a 9–0 loss 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 ...

at the 1948 Balkan Cup, a competition in which he would make two more appearances. His last three matches for the national team were friendlies in which he scored two goals against

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, making his last appearance on 25 May 1952 in a 1–0 victory against Poland. He was part of Romania's squad at the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics (, ), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad (, ) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952, were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1952 in Helsinki, Finland. After Japan declared in ...

International goals

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

Death

He died on 24 January 2002 at age 76 and a book about him was written by Radu Romănescu, called ''Andrei Mercea – Campionul care desena inimi'' ''(Andrei Mercea – The champion that drew hearts)'', being released on 18 April 2018.

Honours

UTA Arad *

: 1946–47, 1947–48,

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 ...

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

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 ...

: 1947–48,

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...

, runner-up

Notes

References

External links

*
Andrei Mercea
at Labtof.ro {{DEFAULTSORT:Mercea, Andrei 1925 births 2002 deaths Romanian men's footballers Romania men's international footballers Men's association football forwards Olympic footballers for Romania Footballers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Liga I players Liga II players FC UTA Arad players FCSB players Vagonul Arad players Footballers from Arad, Romania 20th-century Romanian sportsmen