Dan Sabin Anca (7 January 1947 – 20 October 2005) 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

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

and

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 ...

for Universitatea Cluj.

Playing career

Club career

Dan Anca was born on 7 January 1947 in

Turda Turda (; , ; ; ) is a Municipiu, city in Cluj County, Transylvania, Romania. It is located in the southeastern part of the county, from the county seat, Cluj-Napoca, to which it is connected by the European route E81, and from nearby Câmpia ...

, starting to play junior level football in 1959 at local club, Chimia. When he was 14 he started to play for Chimia at senior level in the Romanian lower leagues, also he played for a few months at

Unirea Dej Fotbal Club Unirea Dej, commonly known as Unirea Dej, is a Romanian professional football club based in Dej, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga III, the third tier of the Romanian football. It is one of Romania's oldest football teams, f ...

during his military service. He went to play for Universitatea Cluj in 1964, after two of the club's officials, Dr.

Mircea Luca Mircea Luca (3 August 1921 – 29 July 2008) was a Romanian football defender, manager and president at Universitatea Cluj. Playing career Mircea Luca was born on 3 August 1921 in Zalău, Kingdom of Romania and he started to play football i ...

and Dr. Ioanete came to his home to convince his parents to allow him to come to the team. He would spend the rest of his senior career with "U", 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 under coach Andrei Sepci on 8 November 1964 in a 3–1 home loss in front of

CSMS Iași A Cyber Security Management System is a form of Information security management system, particularly focussed on protecting automation and transport systems. The EU Cybersecurity Act, of 2019, led to the creation of UNECE working groups which develo ...

and at the end of the season the club won the 1964–65 Cupa României, however he was not used by Sepci in the 2–1 victory 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 ...

against Argeș Pitești. He scored his first goals for the club in the 1967–68 season, scoring the only goal of a victory against Steagul Roșu Brașov, one goal in a 2–0 victory in front of Dinamo Bacău and his team's goal in a 1–1 in front of Steaua București on the Ghencea stadium. Anca played 30 games and scored 7 goals in the 1971–72 season, helping '' The Red Caps'' finish on the 3rd position in the championship which earned the team a spot in the

1972–73 UEFA Cup The 1972–73 UEFA Cup was the second season of the UEFA Cup, the third-tier club football competition organised by UEFA. The 1973 UEFA Cup final was played over two legs at Anfield, Liverpool, England, and at Bökelbergstadion, Mönchengladb ...

where he played in the both matches from the first round as

Levski Sofia PFC Levski Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system. The club was founded on 24 May 1914 by a group of high sc ...

defeated them with 6–5 on aggregate. At the end of the 1975–76 season, the team relegated to

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 ...

but Anca stayed with the club, helping it obtain promotion back to the first league after three years, making his last

appearance on 11 November 1979 in a 2–0 away loss in front of

FC Baia Mare Minaur Baia Mare, known also as ''Minerul Baia Mare'', is a Romanian football club, based in Baia Mare, Maramureș County, northern Romania, founded in 1947. It currently plays in Romania's third division, Liga III. It played for seven seasons ...

, having a total of 318 matches with 25 goals scored in the competition.

International career

Dan Anca appeared at international level in 7 matches for

, making his debut on 15 January 1969 under 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 ...

in a friendly which ended 1–1 against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

played on the

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

from

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

where he had an appreciated performance, his direct opponent being

Bobby Charlton Sir Robert Charlton (11 October 1937 – 21 October 2023) was an English professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder, left winger or centre-forward. Widely considered one of the greatest players of all time, he was a member ...

. He also played two games at the Euro 1972 qualifiers and one at the 1974 World Cup qualifiers, his last appearance being a friendly which took place on 18 April 1973 and ended with a 2–0 away loss in front of

Soviet Union 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 ...

Managerial career

As his playing career, Dan Anca spent his entire managerial career at Universitatea Cluj, he started at the end of the 1979–80 Divizia A season when he worked as

Gheorghe Staicu Gheorghe "Gigi" Staicu (18 December 1935 – 10 June 2021) was a Romanian professional football player and manager who played for Steaua București, having developed in the club's academy.

's assistant, also guiding the team together the whole following season. In the middle of the

1988–89 Divizia A The 1988–89 Divizia A was the seventy-first season of Divizia A, the top-level football league of Romania. The Dinamo versus Steaua football derby match played on 3 December 1988 was the subject of the 2014 Romanian documentary film '' The S ...

season he worked again as an assistant, this time with

Cornel Dinu Cornel Dinu (born 2 August 1948) is a Romanian retired professional footballer and manager who played as a sweeper or a defensive midfielder. He started out his playing career at hometown club Metalul Târgoviște in 1965, and went on to spen ...

as head coach and in the following season he replaced Dinu after the 9th round, leading the team as head coach until the 20th round when he was replaced with Ștefan Sameș. He worked on a few other occasions as head coach at "U" Cluj, his last spell taking place in the

2002–03 Divizia B The 2002–03 Divizia B was the 63rd season of the second tier of the Romanian football league system. The format has been maintained to two series, each of them having 16 teams. At the end of the season, the winners of the series promoted to Di ...

season, having a total of 112 matches led as a manager in the Romanian top-division,

consisting of 35 victories, 22 draws and 55 losses.

Personal life

His brother was also a footballer who played for Cimentul Turda and while Dan Anca was at Chimia, they played against each other. He was married with Floarea Anca who was an international

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player, having a son together. Anca died on 20 October 2005 at age 58 in his native

and the multi-use

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

Baza Sportivă Dan Anca Baza Sportivă Dan Anca, formerly known as Baza Sportivă DROMEX or Baza Sportivă Detunata, is a multi-use stadium in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The sport base was opened in 2011 on the place of old Baza Sportivă Detunata and it is used mostly for fo ...

from

Cluj-Napoca Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...

was named after him.

Honours

Player

Universitatea Cluj *

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 ...

: 1964–65 *

: 1978–79

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Anca, Dan 1947 births 2005 deaths Romanian men's footballers Romania men's international footballers Men's association football defenders Liga I players Liga II players FC Unirea Dej players FC Universitatea Cluj players Romanian football managers FC Universitatea Cluj managers Sportspeople from Turda Footballers from Cluj County 20th-century Romanian sportsmen