Virgil Economu
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Virgil Economu (21 November 1896 – 6 July 1978) was a Romanian
rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...
player,
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 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 ...
, journalist and a writer.


Life and career

Virgil Economu was born 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 ...
, being half Jewish from his mother's side. He spent his high school years in
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, and graduated the University of Agronomy from
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 ...
, where he also played
rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...
for the local team. In 1923 he founded the first school of football
referees A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titles ...
from Romania and started his coaching career. In the 1930s he was the deputy minister of Agronomy in Romania and he also worked in the press, being the director of the "Sportul Capitalei" newspaper, the head of the sports section from "Curentul" and a sports announcer. In 1937 Economu was hired as technical director at Romania's national team and in 1938 he founded the first coaching school from Romania, while in 1939 he was named head coach of the national team. In 1940, Romania had to play a friendly in
Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
against
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
but Economu did not receive an entrance visa because of his Jewish origin, but Romania's Football Federation president
Gabriel Marinescu Gabriel Marinescu (first name also Gavril or Gavrilă; November 7, 1886 – November 26/27, 1940) was a Romanian general. Born in Tigveni, Argeș County, he was the son of a teacher. He attended Saint Sava National College in Bucharest, the schoo ...
wrote a letter to Wilhelm Fabricius who was
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
's minister from Bucharest, in which he asked him to give Economu an entrance visa, claiming he is of ethnic Romanian origin. Economu received the visa and the game ended with a 9–3 victory for Germany. He also suffered discrimination in Romania because of his Jewish origins, being fired in October 1940 from the post of General Inspector at the Center for the Capitalization of Wheat and in December 1941 his name disappeared from the army records, where he was listed as a lieutenant in reserve, a decision published in Romania's Official Gazette. In 1945 he actively participated in the reorganization of the Romanian Football Federation and in the appearance of the "Sportul Popular" newspaper. From 1946 until 1947 he was the Romanian Football Federation's president and he named himself as head coach of the national team, leading it at the
1946 Balkan Cup The 1946 Balkan Cup was the 8th edition of this tournament. The participanting teams were Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania and for the first time ever, Albania, who ended up winning the tournament in their first try. Squads *The four men's nationa ...
, he has a total 14 games (4 victories, 3 draws, 7 losses) as Romania's coach. From 1953 until 1957 he was technical director at
CCA București CCA may refer to: Arts and culture * Canadian Centre for Architecture, museum and research centre in Montreal, Quebec * Canadian Comedy Awards, annual awards show * CCA, a London-based talent agency founded by Howard Pays and Freddy Vale * Capitol ...
. Between 1962 and 1966 he held the position of coordinating director at "23 August", which was the first center for children and juniors from Romania. From 1967 until 1968, Economu was
Ilie Savu Ilie Savu (9 January 1920 – 16 November 2010) was a Romanian footballer who played as a goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. He was FC Steaua București, Steaua București's first goalkeeper. Playing career Born in Cornățelu, ...
's counselor at Steaua București and from 1967 until 1974 he worked again for the Romanian Football Federation. He died on 6 July 1978 at the age of 81.


Writing

Virgil Economu wrote a total of six volumes, all of them being about football: * Fotbal – studiu documentar și critic ''(Football – documentary and critical study)'' (1935) * Fotbal – contribuții la studiul unei metode unitare de joc, cu aplicații la echipa C.C.A. ''(Football – contributions to the study of a unitary method of play, with applications to the C.C.A. team)'' (1958) * Fotbal – probleme de tactică in jocul modern ''(Football – tactical problems in the modern game)'' (1964) * Sistemul de patru fundasi ''(The four-defender system)'' (1965) * Fotbalul modern simplificat si 400 de intrebari si raspunsuri ''(Simplified modern football and 400 questions and answers)'' (1972) * Fotbal de la Mexico la Munchen ''(Football from Mexico to Munich)'' (1972)


Honours


Manager

Gloria CFR Arad *
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 ...
runner-up: 1929–30


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Economu, Virgil 1896 births 1978 deaths Romanian rugby union players Romanian football managers Romania national football team managers Presidents of the Romanian Football Federation Romanian sports executives and administrators Romanian sportswriters 20th-century Romanian writers Romanian male writers 20th-century Romanian male writers Jewish Romanian sportspeople Sportspeople from Bucharest 20th-century Romanian journalists Romanian expatriates in Austria Romanian expatriates in France