Marian Popa (born 3 March 1964) 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 ...

n former football striker.

Club career

Marian Popa was born on 3 March 1964 in

Constanța Constanța (, , ) is a city in the Dobruja Historical regions of Romania, historical region of Romania. A port city, it is the capital of Constanța County and the country's Cities in Romania, fourth largest city and principal port on the Black ...

and started playing football at age 11 for the youth side of FC Constanța under the guidance of coach Adam Munteanu, later working with Constantin Tâlvescu. In 1982, he started his senior career at

Divizia C The Liga 3, most often spelled as Liga III, is the third level of the Romanian football league system. It was founded in 1936 and was called Divizia C until 2006. An exception was the seasons 1992–93 to 1996–97, in which the league was call ...

club, Voința Constanța and after one year he moved to Metalul Mangalia. In 1987 he went at Farul Constanța 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 ...

where he was coached by

Emanoil Hașoti Emanoil Hașoti (14 September 1932 – 3 July 1993) was a Romanian football forward and a manager. Club career Emanoil Hașoti was born on 14 September 1932 in Kavarna, Kingdom of Romania in a family of Aromanians which were forced to leave th ...

, scoring six goals in his first season that helped the club earn promotion

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 ...

, a competition in which he would make his debut on 21 August 1988 in a 3–0 home win over ASA Târgu Mureș. In the 1989–90 season, Popa scored a personal record of 15 goals which placed him second in the top-scorer of the season ranking with four goals behind Steaua București's

Gabi Balint Gavril Pele "Gabi" Balint (born 3 January 1963) is a Romanian football manager and former player, who was part of the hugely successful Steaua team of the 1980s. Club career Born in Sângeorz-Băi, Bistrița, Balint made his Divizia A debut wit ...

. Afterwards he was transferred to Steaua where he started to play in European competitions, making his debut in a 5–0 away loss to

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

from the

1990–91 European Cup Winners' Cup The 1990–91 season of the European Cup Winners' Cup was won by Manchester United against Barcelona. The victory for United was significant as it was the season English clubs returned to European football, after completing a five-year ban as a res ...

second round in which he received a red card. In the following season he played six games in the

1991–92 UEFA Cup The 1991–92 UEFA Cup was the 21st season of Europe's then-tertiary club football tournament organised by UEFA. The final was played over two legs at Stadio Delle Alpi, Turin, Italy, and at Olympisch Stadion, Amsterdam, Netherlands. The compe ...

campaign, helping the team get past

Anorthosis Famagusta Anorthosis Famagusta (), commonly known as Anorthosis in English or Anorthosi in Greek, is a Cypriot football club, part of the Famagusta multi-sport club founded in 1911 in Varosha, Famagusta.

and

Sporting Gijón Sporting may refer to: *Sport, recreational games and play *Sporting (neighborhood), in Alexandria, Egypt Sports clubs *Alexandria Sporting Club, a sports club from Alexandria, Egypt *BFA Sporting, a football club from Beirut, Lebanon *Real Sporti ...

, scoring two goals against the latter, reaching the round of 16 where the campaign ended at the hands of

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

. In the same season he won the first trophy of his career, the

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 ...

, being used by coach

Victor Pițurcă Victor Pițurcă (; born 8 May 1956) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player. Club career Victor Pițurcă was born on 8 May 1956 in Orodel, Dolj County, Romania, starting to play football in 1964 at the youth center of U ...

in the first 54 minutes until he replaced him with

Ion Vlădoiu Ion "Jean" Vlădoiu (born 5 November 1968) is a Romanian former professional footballer who played as a striker, currently assistant coach of Liga I club Unirea Slobozia. He is one of the few who played for the biggest teams of Romania – S ...

in the victory at the penalty shoot-out against Politehnica Timișoara 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 ...

. In 1992, Popa was close to a move at 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 ...

team, Logroñés but eventually went back to Farul where he scored 14 times in 18 matches from the 1992–93 season which helped the team avoid relegation, including six goals netted in a match against Oțelul Galați which ended with a 6–3 victory. He made a comeback at Steaua, managing to win the

1994 Supercupa României The 1994 Supercupa României was the first edition of Romania's season opener cup competition. The match was played in Bucharest at Stadionul Național on 20 August 1994, and was contested between Divizia A title holders, Steaua București and Cu ...

as coach

Dumitru Dumitriu Dumitru Dumitriu (born 19 November 1945 in Bucharest), commonly known as Țiți Dumitru or Dumitriu III, is a retired Romanian footballer and coach. He is the younger brother of Emil Dumitriu ''(Dumitriu II)'' who was an International footballe ...

sent him on the field in the second half in order to replace

Adrian Ilie Bucurel Adrian Ilie (born 20 April 1974) is a Romanian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Nicknamed ''The Cobra'', he is best known for his spell with Valencia in Spain. He played for the Romania national team in one Worl ...

, then he scored the

golden goal The golden goal is a sports rule used in association football, Australian rules football, bandy, field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, and rugby league to decide the winner of a match (typically a knock-out match) in which scores are equal at the ...

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

which brought the victory against Gloria Bistrița. During the 1994–95 season, Popa scored seven goals in the 14 league games Dumitriu used him as Steaua won the title, also he made four appearances in the Champions League campaign of which three were in the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

. Popa would go for another spell at Farul, then he went at FC Brașov where on 7 September 1996 he made his last Divizia A appearance in a 2–1 away loss to Chindia Târgoviște, having a total of 168 matches with 73 goals scored in the competition. In 1996 he had his only experience outside Romania at Hungarian side,

Budapesti VSC Budapesti Vasutas Sport Club-Zugló commonly known as BVSC-Zugló is a professional football club based in Zugló, Budapest, Hungary, that competes in the Nemzeti Bajnokság II. The club was founded in 1911. Its football section became closed ...

. He made his

Nemzeti Bajnokság I The Nemzeti Bajnokság (, ), also known as NB I or Fizz Liga after its title sponsor, OTP Bank's webshop subsidiary, is a professional association football league in Hungary and the highest level of the Hungarian football league system. Twelve ...

on 20 October as coach

László Dajka László Dajka (born 29 April 1959) is a Hungarian football manager and former player who manages Nemzeti Bajnokság II club Budafok. Playing career Dajka was born in Nyíregyháza. In the season 1980–81, he participated into the European Cha ...

used him in the first half of a 3–1 home win over

Győr Győr ( , ; ; names of European cities in different languages: E-H#G, names in other languages) is the main city of northwest Hungary, the capital of Győr-Moson-Sopron County and Western Transdanubia, Western Transdanubia region, and – halfwa ...

, replacing him for the second half with his compatriot Constantin Stănici. His fifth and last Nemzeti Bajnokság I game took place on 30 November in a 1–0 home loss with

Vác Vác (; ; ; ) is a thousand-year old city in Pest county in Hungary with approximately 35,000 inhabitants. The archaic spelling of the name is ''Vácz''. Location Vác is located north of Budapest on the eastern bank of the Danube river, below t ...

, retiring afterwards from professional football. Afterwards, Popa would play for a short while for Săgeata Stejaru, helping the club promote from Divizia D to Divizia C.

International career

Popa played two friendly games at international level for

, making his debut on 25 April 1990 when coach

Emerich Jenei Emerich Alexandru Jenei (also known as Emeric Jenei or Imre Jenei; 22 March 1937) is a Romanian former football player and manager. He is considered one of Romania's best managers, alongside Ştefan Kovács, Mircea Lucescu, and Anghel Iordăn ...

sent him on the field in the 81st minute in order to replace Michael Klein in a 4–1 away win over

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. His second game was also a win against Israel, a 1–0 at home.

After retirement

After he ended his playing career, Popa had several businesses and coached juniors at Farul Constanța and Metalul Mangalia and the

futsal Futsal is a variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game of association football, and i ...

team, Municipal Constanţa, also for a while he was president at Portul Constanța.

Honours

Metalul Mangalia *

: 1983–84 Farul Constanța *

: 1987–88 Steaua București *

: 1994–95 *

: 1991–92 *

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 ...

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 ...

Săgeata Stejaru * Divizia D: 1996–97

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Popa, Marian 1964 births Living people Romanian men's footballers Romania men's international footballers Men's association football forwards Liga I players Liga II players Liga III players Nemzeti Bajnokság I players FC Callatis Mangalia players FCV Farul Constanța players FCSB players FC Brașov (1936) players Budapesti VSC footballers Romanian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Hungary Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Hungary Footballers from Constanța Romanian sports executives and administrators Romanian businesspeople 20th-century Romanian sportsmen