Marian Popescu (14 August 1947 – 19 November 2016) 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 ...

Career

Marian Popescu was born on 14 August 1947 in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, starting to play junior level football in 1965 at local club,

Rapid 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 ...

. One year later he signed with Universitatea Craiova where 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 on 6 November 1966 in a 4–1 away loss in front of Steaua București. After one season he left Craiova and returned to Rapid where he made his debut in European competitions, playing in both legs of the 7–4 loss on aggregate in front of

OFK Beograd OFK Beograd ( sr-Cyrl, ОФК Београд – Омладински фудбалски клуб Београд, English language, English: ''Belgrade Youth Football Club''), also known in English as OFK Belgrade and currently referred to as OFK ...

from the first round of the

1968–69 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup The eleventh Inter-Cities Fairs Cup was played over the 1968–1969 season. The competition was won by Newcastle United over two legs in the final against Újpest Újpest (; , ) is the 4th District in Budapest, Hungary. It is located on the ...

. He left Rapid after a half of year to go at

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 ...

side,

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ) or simply CFR, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I. Founded as ''Kolozsvári Vasut ...

which he helped them earn promotion to the first league. He arrived at Argeș Pitești in 1970 where in the 1971–72 season he helped the club win the first title in its history, Popescu scoring two goals in the 30 appearances given to him by coaches

Titus Ozon Titus Ozon (13 May 1927 – 24 November 1996) was a Romanian international football striker and manager. He was considered one of the greatest talents in postwar Romanian football, famous for his extraordinary ability to dribble. Career Ozon wa ...

and

Florin Halagian Florin Vașken Halagian (7 March 1939 – 12 August 2019) was a Romanian football player and manager of Armenian descent, hence the nickname ''Armeanul'' (The Armenian). With 878 games, he is the manager who has the most matches in the Liga I, R ...

. Afterwards he played four games in the

1972–73 European Cup The 1972–73 season of the European Cup football club tournament was won for the third consecutive time by Ajax in the final against Juventus at Red Star Stadium in Belgrade. The win by Ajax resulted in the fourth consecutive championship by a ...

, eliminating Aris Bonnevoie in the first round, then in the following one they won a home game with 2–1 against

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

but lost the second leg with 3–1. In 1975, Popescu went to play for FC Constanța where on 31 March 1976 he made his last Divizia A appearance in a 1–0 win over FCM Reșița in which he scored the goal, gaining a total of 199 matches with 17 goals scored in the competition, also having a total of seven games in European competitions, including two games in the

Inter-Cities Fairs Cup The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, most commonly referred to as the Fairs Cup and sometimes as the European Fairs Cup or Fairs Cities' Cup, was a European football competition played between 1955 and 1971. The Fairs Cup was the idea of FIFA vice-presid ...

. Afterwards he went at Muscelul Câmpulung where coach was his former Argeș teammate, Ion Barbu and he was colleague with other former Argeș teammates like Constantin Radu, Vasile Stan and Radu Jercan, managing to promote the team from the third league to the second where he spent two more seasons before retiring in 1979, scoring 10 goals in the first one.

Death

Popescu died on 19 November 2016 at age 69 in his hometown, Bucharest.

Honours

CFR Cluj *

: 1968–69 Argeș Pitești *

: 1971–72 Muscelul Câmpulung *

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 ...

: 1976–77

References

External links

Marian Popescu
at Labtof.ro {{DEFAULTSORT:Popescu, Marian 1947 births 2016 deaths Romanian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Liga I players Liga II players FC Argeș Pitești players CFR Cluj players FC Rapid București players FCV Farul Constanța players CS Universitatea Craiova players Footballers from Bucharest 20th-century Romanian sportsmen