Alexandru Sătmăreanu

Alexandru Ștefan Sătmăreanu (born 9 March 1952) is a Romanian former footballer who played as a defender.

Club career Crișul Oradea Sătmăreanu was born on 9 March 1952 in Oradea, Romania. He began his career in his hometown at Crișul, making his Divizia A debut on 21 September 1969 under coach Ladislau Vlad in a 2–1 away victory against ASA Târgu Mureș. The team was relegated at the end of that season to Divizia B, but he stayed with the club, helping it get promoted back to the first division after only one season. In the first one he played 16 games under coach Ion Nunweiller and in the second Nicolae Dumitru used him in 29 games, scoring three goals. Sătmăreanu also represented The Red Dogs in 20 games in European competitions in which he scored two goals, including the only goal of Dinamo's 1–0 home victory against Real Madrid in the 1975–76 European Cup. For the way he played in 1977, Sătmăreanu was placed third in the ranking for the Romanian Footballer of the Year award. On 3 November 1979, he made his last Divizia A appearance in 1–1 draw against FCM Galați, totaling 223 matches with 18 goals in the competition. Sătmăreanu made his Bundesliga debut on 17 January 1981 under coach Jürgen Sundermann in a 2–1 away win over Nürnberg. He made a total of 12 appearances with two goals scored against Bayer Uerdingen and Borussia Dortmund in his first season, helping the team finish in third place. In the following season he appeared in both legs of Stuttgart's 5–3 aggregate loss to Hajduk Split in the first round of the 1981–82 UEFA Cup. He made his last Bundesliga appearance on 8 April 1982 in a 2–0 away loss to Eintracht Braunschweig, totaling 32 matches with three goals in the competition.

Late career After two seasons with Stuttgart, Sătmăreanu went to play in the United States for the North American Soccer League team Fort Lauderdale Strikers where he was known as Alexander Szatmar. In 1984, he returned to Germany to play for FSV Salmrohr in the third league for one year, before ending his career. He played six games in the Euro 1976 qualifiers and four during the 1978 World Cup qualifiers.

Honours Crișul Oradea Divizia B: 1970–71 Romania Balkan Cup: 1977–80, runner-up 1973–76 Individual Romanian Footballer of the Year (third place): 1977