The death of the former coach of the Romanian national team was announced by the doctors at the Bucharest Emergency University Hospital. The death of the great coach occurred on Tuesday, around 8:30 p.m.
Mircea Lucescu, 80 years old, was hospitalized at the Bucharest University Hospital since March 29, after he was hurt before the training of the national football team.
He was supposed to be hospitalized on Friday, April 3, but he suffered an acute myocardial infarction, the University Hospital announced. In the night from Saturday to Sunday, Mircea Lucescu was transferred to Intensive Care, after his condition worsened.
The oldest national coach
Mircea Lucescu officially ended his mandate as coach of the national football team on April 2. After the duel in Istanbul on March 26, in which Romania lost the qualification for the World Championship, Mircea Lucescu broke the record for the oldest national team coach sitting on the bench for a match, according to Golazo. He was 80 years and 240 days old on the day of the match.
An important milestone established by Mircea Lucescu is the number of trophies. In his career he collected 35, being in third place globally. He is surpassed only by Sir Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola.
“Dying on the field is the most beautiful thing”
In an interview given in 2010 for Gazeta Sporturilor, Mircea Lucescu stated: “To die on the field, like Jock Stein, is the most beautiful thing that can happen to a coach. It means that he went through absolutely everything in life there, in the middle of the fight, on the field,” said Lucescu
“Those of us who have lived a life on the pitch are too old to leave football. Bobby Robson, for example, gave up for a while, then, arriving at a supermarket, he thought: “What am I doing here?” And he returned, even though he was sick…” Lucescu said.
“Coaches are like actors. They don't retire. I don't want to end up like Brigitte Bardot walking dogs,” he added.
Player Mircea Lucescu: 70 national team selections
Mircea Lucescu was born on July 29, 1945. As a footballer, he played mainly at Dinamo Bucharest, where he achieved the greatest successes of his playing career: five Romanian championship titles (1964-1965, 1970-1971, 1971-1972, 1974-1975, 1976-1977) and a Romanian Cup (1967-1968), according to news.ro.
He ended his career as a player at Corvinul Hunedoara (1977-1982), and at the same time he started coaching. He succeeded, right from the first year, in promotion to Division A, so that in the following years he ranked 3rd in the first division.
He was selected 70 times in the first Romanian national team, being its captain at the final tournament of the World Championship in Mexico 1970.
Coach Mircea Lucescu: he qualified Romania for EURO 1984
From the fall of 1981 to 1986, Mircea Lucescu was the coach of the Romanian national team, with which he managed to qualify for the European Championship in 1984. He then coached Dinamo Bucharest, with which he won a national title (1989-1990) and two Romanian Cups (1985-1986 and 1989-1990), also obtaining a qualification in the semi-finals Cup of Cups (1990).
Coach at Inter Milan
In the summer of 1990, he went to Italy, where he coached the Pisa, Brescia and Reggiana teams. Then, in 1997, he returned to Romania, being appointed coach of the Rapid Bucharest team, with which he won the Romanian Cup in 1998.
On November 30, 1998, he was installed as head coach at Internazionale Milano, but was dismissed after a few months (March 1999). He returned to Rapid, managing to win the championship, 1998-1999 edition.
The European Super Cup with Galatasaray and the UEFA Cup with Shakhtar
From the summer of 2000 to 2002, Mircea Lucescu coached the Galatasaray Istanbul team, with which he won the European Supercup (2000) and the Turkish championship (2002). In the summer of 2002, he moved to Beşiktaş, winning the championship in the first year.
On May 16, 2004, Lucescu took over the Ukrainian team Shaktior Donetsk. Under the management of Lucescu, Şahtior won eight national championship titles (2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014), five Ukrainian Cups (2004, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013) and seven Super Cups (2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015), but especially the UEFA Cup, won in 2009, after the final with Werder Bremen (2-1).
In 2013, Mircea Lucescu became the longest-serving coach in the history of the Ukrainian football club, and in 2014 he was named the best coach in Ukraine for the eighth time.
After leaving Şahtior, Lucescu coached Zenit St. Petersburg for one season, and then he was the Turkish coach for almost two years.
In July 2020, he returned to Ukrainian football, this time at Shakhtar's great rival, Dynamo Kyiv. He coached here until 2023 and won the Ukrainian Super Cup in 2020, the championship and the Ukrainian Cup in 2021.
In 2024, he returned after 38 years on the bench of the Romanian national football team. They managed to win League C group in the Nations League and get promoted to B, but missed out on the main goal: qualifying for the 2026 World Cup.
Decorations received
On May 22, 2009, Mircea Lucescu received, from the President of Romania, the National Order “Cross of Romania” in the rank of Knight, “as a sign of high appreciation of the entire football activity and the performances obtained as a coach.
On January 18, 2013, Lucescu received the title of honorary citizen of Hunedoara municipality.
In the top of the best coaches in history
He is among the top 100 coaches in the world (41st place) from the first decade of the 21st century (2001-2010), according to the ranking established by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS).
Also, France Football placed him 41st in the ranking of the best coaches in the history of football.
