Emil Dumitriu

Emil Dumitriu (born 5 November 1942), commonly known as Nichi Dumitriu or Dumitriu II, is a Romanian former footballer who played as a forward.

Club career Dumitriu was born on 5 November 1942 in Bucharest, Romania and began playing junior-level football in 1957 at Locomotiva București, then joined Progresul CPCS București. He made his Divizia A debut on 25 March 1962, playing for Jiul Petroșani under coach Bazil Marian in a 3–2 victory against UTA Arad. In the following season he played in the first half for Viitorul București, going for the second half to Rapid București. He made four appearances in European competitions for Rapid (including one in the Inter-cities Fairs Cup), most notably helping The Railwaymen eliminate Trakia Plovdiv in the 1967–68 European Cup and advance to the following round where they were eliminated by Juventus. He also won two Balkans Cups, netting a brace in the 2–0 win in the second leg against Farul Constanța in the final of the 1964–66 edition. He suffered a lung illness which kept him off the field for one and a half years and in 1968, Stănescu took him to Steagul Roșu Brașov, aiming to help him relaunch his career. Afterwards he returned for two seasons to Rapid where he made his last Divizia A appearance on 10 March 1974 in a 2–0 away loss to Argeș Pitești, totaling 235 matches with 68 goals in the competition. Under the guidance of coaches Nicolae Dumitrescu and Gheorghe Ola, Dumitriu helped Romania's under-18 national team win the 1962 European championship. He scored a goal in the 4–0 win over Turkey in the semi-finals and another one in the 4–1 victory against Yugoslavia in the final. He appeared in a friendly match for Romania's Olympic team, that ended in a 2–1 away victory against Yugoslavia. He was selected by coach Silviu Ploeșteanu to be part of the squad for the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, but he did not play in any games due to an injury sustained during a training session caused by his teammate Mircea Petescu.

Dumitriu played six games and scored three goals for Romania, making his debut under coach Ilie Oană on 23 October 1965 in a 2–1 away loss to Turkey in the 1966 World Cup qualifiers. He played two games in the Euro 1968 qualifiers in which he scored a hat-trick in a 7–0 victory against Cyprus after which the opponents captain Kostas Panayiotou said:"Dumitriu's game is simply confusing. He is an opponent who creates nightmares".

International goals Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Dumitriu goal. In 1987, he settled in Athens, Greece, where he married a Greek woman.

Honours Rapid București Divizia A: 1966–67 Balkans Cup: 1963–64, 1964–66 Chimia Râmnicu Vâlcea Divizia B: 1973–74 Progresul București Divizia B: 1975–76 Romania U18 UEFA European Under-18 Championship: 1962 Individual Gazeta Sporturilor Romanian Footballer of the Year (fourth place): 1966