Anghel Iordănescu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anghel Iordănescu
Personal information
Full name	Anghel Iordănescu
Date of birth	May 4, 1950
Place of birth	Iaşi, Romania
Nickname	Tata Puiu (Father Puiu) Generalul (The General)
Position	Striker
Youth clubs
1962-1968	Steaua Bucharest
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1968-1982 1982-1984	Steaua Bucharest OFI Crete	317 (155)  ? (?)
National team**
1971-1981	Romania	64 (26)
Teams managed
1984-1986 1986-1990 1990-1992 1992-1993 1993-1998 1998-1999 1999-2000 2000-2001 2001-2002 2002-2004 2004-2006 2006-	Steaua Bucharest (assist) Steaua Bucharest Anorthosis Famagusta Steaua Bucharest Romania Greece Al-Hilal Rapid Bucharest Al Ain FC Romania Al-Ittihad Al Ain FC
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of September 26, 2006. ** National team caps and goals correct as of June 30, 2006.

Anghel Iordănescu (born May 4, 1950 in Iaşi) is a former Romanian football player, currently a football manager. Iordănescu is currently the coach of Al Ain FC in the United Arab Emirates.

[edit] Career as player

Iordănescu was a bright striker with a well-developed scoring technique, who scored many goals and helped the teams he played for achieve impressive performances. In Romania he played only for Steaua Bucharest, a team he joined as a youth in 1962, aged 12. Six years later he made his first appearance in Steaua's first team, followed by his first appearance for Romania in 1971.

In Romania he played only for Steaua Bucharest between 1968 and 1982. During this period of time he scored a massive 146 goals, being the team's best scorer in its whole history.

With Steaua, Iordănescu won two championships (in 1976 and 1978) and four Romanian Cups (in 1970, 1971, 1976, and 1979). In 1981-82 he was Divizia A's top scorer.

In 1982 he left Romania to play for OFI Crete in Greece, but returned to Steaua two years later to become the team's assistant coach. Together with Emerich Jenei, then head coach, he won the championship in 1985 and led the team to its European Cup triumph in 1986, playing as a substitute in the final against FC Barcelona.

[edit] Career as coach

Emerich Jenei was appointed as Romania's manager in the summer of 1986, leaving Iordănescu as Steaua's new head coach. From his new position he led the team to victory in three championships (1987, 1988 and 1989) as well as three Romanian Cups in the same years. At the international level, Steaua and Iordănescu reached the European Cup semifinal in 1988 and the final one year later.

In 1990 he left Steaua for the second time as he signed a two-year contract with the Cypriot team Anorthosis Famagusta. Released from this contract, he returned to Steaua in 1992 to lead the team to the Cup Winners' Cup quarterfinals in 1993 and then a new championship.

In the summer of 1993 he was asked to replace Cornel Dinu as Romania's coach and managed to qualify the team for the 1994 World Cup, where Romania reached the quarterfinals, the best-ever performance of Romanian football at the national team level.

He continued as Romania's coach after the World Cup and led the team to new qualifications, for Euro 1996 and the 1998 World Cup.

After losing against Croatia in the second round of 1998 World Cup, he resigned and took over the managerial position of Greece, from where he would be sacked in 1999, as he failed to qualify the team for Euro 2000.

In 2000 he was appointed as head coach of Al-Hilal, the Saudi Arabian club, where he won the AFC Champions League, the Supercup and the Prince Cup. Despite these performances he left the club after one year to take over Rapid Bucharest, hoping to have the same kind of performances as he once had with Steaua. However, this was not to be the case and he was sacked after a few weeks in charge, causing him to sign with Al Ain FC from the United Arab Emirates.

Romania failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup and Iordănescu was called to replace Gheorghe Hagi, therefore becoming the national football team's coach for the second time. His main objective was to qualify the team for the Euro 2004, but he failed to do so. Saying that there was no one else both better than he and available to take charge of the national team, the Romanian Football Federation gave him credit for the 2006 World Cup qualifying stage but after a poor performance in Armenia he was finally sacked.

After his second stint as team Romania's coach, he returned to Saudi Arabia, where he signed with Al-Ittihad and won his second AFC Champions League, in 2005, but one year later he was sacked because of the team's poor performances. Just as the 2006-2007 UAE League started, Anghel Iordănescu went back to coach Al Ain FC.

[edit] Trivia

• Iordănescu is a General in the Romanian Army.

Preceded by: Emerich Jenei	Steaua Bucharest Coach 1986-1990	Succeeded by: Costică Ştefănescu
Preceded by: Emerich Jenei	Steaua Bucharest Coach 1992-1993	Succeeded by: Emerich Jenei

	Romania squad - 1994 World Cup Quarter-finalists
1 Prunea | 2 Petrescu | 3 Prodan | 4 Belodedici | 5 Lupescu | 6 Popescu | 7 Munteanu | 8 Chiriţă | 9 Răducioiu | 10 Hagi | 11 Dumitrescu | 12 Stelea | 13 Selymes | 14 Mihali | 15 Panduru | 16 Vlădoiu | 17 Moldovan | 18 Gâlcă | 19 Papură | 20 Stîngă | 21 Ivan | 22 Preda | Coach: Iordănescu

	Romania squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup
1 Stângaciu | 2 Petrescu | 3 Dulca | 4 Doboş | 5 Gâlcă | 6 Gheorghe Popescu | 7 Lăcătuş | 8 Munteanu | 9 Moldovan | 10 Hagi | 11 Ilie | 12 Stelea | 13 Ciobotariu | 14 Niculescu | 15 Marinescu | 16 Gabriel Popescu | 17 Dumitrescu | 18 Filipescu | 19 Stîngă | 20 Selymes | 21 Craioveanu | 22 Prunea | Coach: Iordănescu