“I found out only after it was over with communism!”

• The former great striker, twice the goalscorer of the first league, scored in the Scots' gate for the return match (0-3 in the first leg), determining Sir Alex Ferguson, the then manager of Aberdeen, to try to transfer him to Scotland.
• Due to the secretomania imposed by the regime then in power, the nickname “Snake” says he learned of Sir Alex's interest at the direct match!
• Almost five decades later, Aberdeen again comes to a Romanian team, the FCSB champion following her in the Europa League play-off.

The glory period of FC Argeș, a double champion of Romania in the height of “Era Dobrin”, coincided with the gala matches with Real Madrid, Valencia or Nottingham Forest, but On the list of prestigious moments in the history of the club there are also “double” with Aberdeenteam coached at that time by the unmatched Sir Alex Ferguson.

In the fall of 1981, FC Argeș and Aberdeen measured their forces in the second round of the UEFA Cup. The Scottish earned, after a first leg in which Aberdeen was unfair on their own ground, score 3-0.

The return from Trivale was animated after the Pitesti led by 2-0, the goals Marin Radu II and Ilie Bărbulescu, but the Scots directed from the field by Gordon Strachan restored equality to two.

Marin Radu II, the Romanian who took the back on Sir Alex Ferguson: “I found out late, I knew absolutely nothing!”

Marin Radu, the striker who later passed the European Champions Cup with Steaua, recalled, in an interview with the soul Gazette, both the backstage of the match with the Scots and the anecdote related to the interest manifested by Ferguson.

“I found out much later what you say, much later, then I didn't know anything!

What I found out afterwards, their opinions, their statements, I found out after 10 years, after ending with communism! Then nobody said anything, everything was going to the federation or the Central Committee.

Indeed, there were two pretty good games on my part. I remember coming after an injury, I hadn't played for about two or three weeks. I entered with Aberdeen in Pitești and played 60 or 80 minutes. At the tour match, I had played a midfielder behind the peak, as he was playing in the old days, I did not play an attacker.

Then it was not a big difference between Aberdeen and FC Argeș, they were almost equal teams, ”confessed Marin Radu II, the one who awarded in 1981, for the second time in his career, the title of Golgeter of Romania.

Marin Radu II conquered trophies with Steaua and FC Argeș

Regret in Pitești: “I had opportunities, we could do 3-0”

The attacker with 190 goals on the first stage “descended” the match in Pitești:

“There were two games with Aberdeen … in Pitești I led 2-0, but it was over 2-2. I think we could win that match, especially since we drove. I remember that some mistakes were made on defense phase.

But we could mark again, we had a big opportunity to do 3-0 at one point … after which they gave us a goal with a fixed phase, they had a very high central defender. I remember jumping with him to my head and as if I jumped from a block, it was so big! He deflected on his back and put one in the gate. We wanted to beat them, but they did 2-2 and we had no chance, because we had lost 3-0 in return.

I approached the game quite well, since I drove 2-0. I had a chance at some point … but some mistakes were made, especially at the fixed phases. I do not know details from the locker room, in the old days, things were much stricter then, they did not stand out ”, recalled the former great footballer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4QXFVPAKVQ

Sir Alex Ferguson, about the move from Pitești: “I was led by 2-0, but I returned and equalized”

The legendary Scottish manager remembered several years ago from the 1981 FC Argeș duel:

“I had won the tour with 3-0 and in return I was led 2-0 at the break, but I returned and equalized.” Ferguson trained Aberdeen in 1981 and eliminated the Arges from the UEFA Cup almost 44 years ago.

FC Argeș: Gheorghe Cristian – Ilie Bărbulescu, Constantin Stancu, Cârstea, Eduard Augustin – Nicolae Kallo, Stelian Badea, Constantin Ignat – Dumitru Baluța (min. 81 Petre Nica), Marin Radu II, Viorel Turcu (min. 68 Viorel Moiceanu)
Coach: Alexandru Constantinescu

Aberdeen FC: Jim Leighton – Stuart Kennedy, Alex Mcleish, Willie Miller, Doug Rougvie (min. 33 Neil Simpson) – Gordon Strachan, Neale Cooper, Johnmcmaster (min. 69 John Hewitt), Andy Watson – Mark McGhee, Peter Weir
Coach: Alex Ferguson

What the “Sport” wrote, after the return match between FC Argeș and Aberdeen

FC Argeş Na had yesterday, at the end of the return match with FC Aberdeen, not even the satisfaction of Victoria, although, without any exegere, he could have even the qualification in the third round of the UEFA Cup, which he was very close to.

Mobilizing as we would have wanted in the first half of the match in Aberdeen, exceeding the level of their last evolutions in the championship, the Pitesti people created at one point an advantage of two goals and extremely little was missing, even before the break, to get the third, which would have to continue-to continue-

Unfortunately, however, a great chance of the guest's goalkeeper, Leighton, whose savory foot hit the ball shot by Kalle in min. 53 and then the flagrant mistakes of Stelian Badea (at the first goal of the Scots) and Gheorghe Cristian (the second) directed the match to an equal result, 2-2, which clearly fails the locals.

– Chronicle of the newspaper “Sport”, after FC Argeș – Aberdeen

2 titlesby the Golgheter of the first division has Radu II: in 1979, when he scored 22 times, and in 1981 with 28 successes

23 partiesRadu II disputed in the European Cups: 13 for FC Argeș, 10 for Steaua. Scored 4 times (3+1)