Gavril Pele "Gabi" Balint (born 3 January 1963) is 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 ...

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 and former player, who was part of the hugely successful Steaua team of the 1980s.

Club career

Born in

Sângeorz-Băi Sângeorz-Băi (also spelled ''Sîngeorz-Băi'', ; Hungarian: ''Oláhszentgyörgy''; ) is a spa resort and town in the mountain region of Bistrița-Năsăud County in Transylvania, Romania. The town administers two villages, Cormaia (''Kormája ...

Bistrița (; , archaic , Transylvanian Saxon: , ) is the capital city of Bistrița-Năsăud County, in northern Transylvania, Romania. It is situated on the Bistrița River. The city has a population of 78,877 inhabitants as of 2021 and administers s ...

, Balint 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 with Steaua București in 1981 where he played until 1990 winning the league titles in 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1989, the

Romanian Cup Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

in 1985, 1987 and 1989, the 1985–86 European Cup and the

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 ...

in 1987. At the end of the 1989–90 season, Balint became the top goalscorer of the

with 19 goals. He scored the second and last goal at the penalties shoot-out during the 1986 European Cup final, helping his team, Steaua to win the trophy. In 1990, he was bought by Real Burgos for $1,000,000. He played for the Spanish side until his retirement in 1993.

International career

Balint was capped 34 times by

, and scored 14 goals. He played at 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 ...

where he scored twice, against

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

and

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

International goals

:''Romania's goal tally first.''

Managerial career

Balint started his coaching career in 1994, aged 31, when he was appointed as assistant coach of

under Anghel Iordănescu's regime. Four years later comes his first chance as head coach after taking charge at Sportul Studențesc, but in May 2000 he is called again to join the coaching staff of

as the squad prepared for the

UEFA Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

. In the summer of 2000, Balint was requested by

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 ...

as his assistant for

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul including basketball, wheelchair ...

, however he left the job after only one season, to join again

as assistant coach, this time under

Gheorghe Hagi Gheorghe Hagi (; born 5 February 1965) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player, who is currently the owner of Liga I club Farul Constanța. Deployed as an attacking midfielder, Hagi was considered one of the best players in ...

. After Hagi resigned, Balint went to Sheriff Tiraspol for his second job as head coach, taking the team in 2002. In 2003, he returned to Romania and signed for Sportul Studențesc, now in

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 ...

and helped the team win promotion back to

Liga I 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 ...

. Balint returned as assistant coach for Galatasaray in 2004 to work again with Gheorghe Hagi. In 2005, he was appointed assistant coach of FCU Politehnica Timișoara, working again with Hagi. When Hagi left, a few months later, Balint resigned also. Two years later, Balint returned to FC Timișoara, this time as a head coach. In 2010, he became the head coach of the Moldova national team, but after the campaign for the

UEFA Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th UEFA European Championship, European Championship for List of men's national association football teams#UEFA (Europe), men's ...

, his contract ended and was not renewed. He then became a television pundit, signing a contract with Digi Sport. In April 2013, Balint returned to coaching, signing a contract for one and a half years with

FC Vaslui Fotbal Club Vaslui, commonly known as FC Vaslui, or simply as Vaslui (), was a Romanian professional football club based in Vaslui, Vaslui County, founded in 2002 and dissolved in 2014. Its official club colours were yellow and green, hence t ...

. In 2014 he was named head coach of

side CS Universitatea Craiova and helped the club win

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

for the top-flight

Career statistics

: 264 games, 69 goals *

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 ...

: 83 games, 28 goals *

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 ...

: 30 games, 6 goals *

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 ...

: 2 games, 0 goals *

Romania national football team The Romania national football team () represents Romania in men's international Association football, football, and is administered by the Romanian Football Federation (), also known as FRF. They are colloquially known as ''Tricolorii'' ("the T ...

: 34 caps, 14 goals

As a manager

Honours

As a player

* Steaua București ** Romanian League: *** Winner: 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89 *** Runner-up: 1983–84, 1989–90 **

: *** Winner: 1984–85, 1986–87, 1988–89 *** Runner-up: 1983–84, 1985–86, 1989–90 **

: *** Winner: 1985–86 *** Runner-up: 1988–89 **

: *** Winner: 1986 ** Intercontinental Cup: *** Runner-up: 1986 *

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members' men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when i ...

: *** Third-place:

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...

As a manager

* Sheriff Tiraspol ** Divizia Națională: *** Winner: 2002–03 **

Moldovan Super Cup The Moldovan Super Cup () is the national football (soccer), football super cup competition in Moldova, officially having the winners of the previous season's Moldovan Liga and Moldovan Cup face-off against each other. In case when the national cu ...

: *** Winner: 2003 ** CIS Cup *** Winner:

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

Trivia

* Balint has a passion for music and Harley Davidson. He even produced his own CD. * He is named Pele because his father was a fan of the three time

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

winner

Pelé Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; 23 October 1940 – 29 December 2022), better known by his nickname Pelé (), was a Brazilian professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. Widely reg ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Balint, Gavril 1963 births Living people People from Sângeorz-Băi Footballers from Bistrița-Năsăud County Romanian men's footballers Romania men's international footballers Romania men's youth international footballers FCSB players UEFA Champions League–winning players Real Burgos CF footballers 1990 FIFA World Cup players Liga I players La Liga players Men's association football forwards Romanian football managers Romanian expatriate football managers FC Sheriff Tiraspol managers Moldova national football team managers FC Politehnica Timișoara managers FC Bihor Oradea (1958) managers FC Vaslui managers Romanian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate football managers in Moldova Expatriate football managers in Turkey Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey FC Sportul Studențesc București managers CS Universitatea Craiova managers Moldovan Super Liga managers 20th-century Romanian sportsmen