Alexandru Nicolae

Club career Nicolae was born on 17 March 1955 in Bucharest, Romania and began playing junior-level football in 1968 at ȘSE 2 București. Subsequently, he made his debut in the competition on 24 August 1978 under coach Ion Ionescu in a 1–0 loss to CS Târgoviște. Two years later, Nicolae joined Olt Scornicești for two seasons and despite having offers from Steaua București during this period, he chose in 1982 to pursue his dream of playing for Dinamo București. Coach Nicolae Dumitru played him 30 games in each of those seasons and in the first he also scored four goals, one of them in a 1–1 draw against rivals Steaua. Nicolae also won two Cupa României with The Red Dogs. Two years later, in the 1986 final, coach Mircea Lucescu also utilized him for the entire match, securing a 1–0 win against the same club, which had recently claimed the European Cup. Nicolae appeared in seven matches in the 1983–84 European Cup edition, as the club eliminated title holders Hamburg in the campaign, reaching the semi-finals where they were defeated by Liverpool. He also played one game against Sampdoria in the quarter-finals of the 1988–89 European Cup Winners' Cup where the Italians eliminated them on the away goals rule after 1–1 on aggregate.

In 1989, Nicolae alongside teammates Dumitru Moraru and Costel Orac were transferred from Dinamo to Victoria București. He returned for the second half of the season to Dinamo where he won The Double, coach Lucescu using him in five league games, but he did play in the 6–4 win over Steaua in the Cupa României final. Nicolae made his last Divizia A appearance on 11 May 1991 in Dinamo's 3–0 victory against Universitatea Craiova, totaling 301 games with 15 goals in the competition and 24 matches in European competitions. He played in four qualification matches for the Euro 1980 and 1984 tournaments, also appearing in one qualification match for the 1982 World Cup.