Florin Halagian

Club career Halagian was born on 7 March 1939 in Bucharest, Romania and began playing junior-level football in 1950 at local club Dinamo where he was taught by coaches such as Colea Vâlcov, Petre Steinbach and Ion Nedelescu. In 1957 he started his senior career at Divizia B club, Progresul CPCS București for which he scored four goals. Halagian made 23 appearances in his first top-league season, but the team was relegated at the end of it, and he was also teammate with a young Nicolae Dobrin. The team from Pitești managed to get promoted back to the first league after only one season, but he left them in the middle of that season to go and play for Dinamo București. His second game was a 1–0 loss to Germany. Over the course of the season, Argeș won both games against defending champions, Dinamo București, finishing in first place, thus Halagian, aged 33 became one of the youngest coaches who ever won the title. In the same season, the team finished the championship in third place, Halagian leaving afterwards.

He then returned to Argeș where after three mediocre seasons he finished the 1977–78 season in second place at equal points with Steaua București who had a better goal difference. Thus the team qualified to the 1978–79 UEFA Cup where in the first round they got past Panathinaikos with a 5–1 aggregate victory. However, they lost the second leg with 5–2, thus the campaign ended. Next season, Argeș participated in the 1979–80 European Cup where after defeating AEK Athens in the first round, they were eliminated by Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest who were the title holders and eventual winners of the competition. Halagian had a special relationship and respect with player Nicolae Dobrin about whom he said:"The player I loved and for whom I hold a special esteem is Gicu Dobrin. Thanks to him I became a respected coach, thanks to him I and FC Argeș were champions. He was a phenomenal player." Afterwards he led Romania's main squad in a single match which ended in a 1–1 draw against Cyprus in the Euro 1980 qualifiers.

After finishing twice in the league in third place, Halagian left Argeș to coach Olt Scornicești. There, with the help of some of his former players from Argeș like Ilie Bărbulescu, Marin Radu and Sevastian Iovănescu, he finished the 1981–82 season in fourth place on equal points with the third-place team, Mircea Lucescu's Corvinul Hunedoara which qualified to the UEFA Cup. However, after the first seven rounds of the season in which the team was undefeated, and an elimination from the European Cup Winners' Cup (a 1–0 aggregate loss to AS Roma, led by coach Sven-Göran Eriksson), Halagian was replaced by Emerich Jenei, and the team went on to win the title at the end of the season. Steaua also managed to win the 1985–86 European Cup and Halagian is considered to have a merit in this performance as he brought to the team some of the players that helped it achieve this performance.

In the spring of 1985, Halagian took over Universitatea Craiova with whom he finished the season in fourth place and reached the 1985 Cupa României final which was lost with 2–1 against his former team, Steaua. Shortly afterwards he made a comeback at Argeș Pitești where he reached, but lost the 1984–85 Balkans Cup final against Iraklis. Also from 1987 until 1988 he worked again in parallel for the Romanian Football Federation which first appointed him head coach at Romania's under-21 national team.

Halagian left Pitești after three years to coach Victoria București with whom he finished the 1988–89 season in third place. The team also eliminated Sliema Wanderers, Dinamo Minsk and Turun Palloseura in the 1988–89 UEFA Cup edition, the campaign ending in the quarter-finals where they were defeated by Dynamo Dresden. They also eliminated in the first round of the UEFA Cup with 2–1 on aggregate Sporting Lisbon which was led on the field by Luis Figo, losing in the following one with 5–3 on aggregate to Genoa. He then led The Red Dogs in the 1992–93 Champions League, eliminating Kuusysi Lahti in the first round. Dinamo faced Olympique Marseille in the second round, where they drew 0–0 in the first leg but lost the subsequent game with 2–0, the French ultimately winning the competition.

Afterwards he went for one season at Inter Sibiu where he finished in ninth place, followed by a brief three-match spell at Romania's under-21 team. Halagian also led The Bankers in the 1996–97 UEFA Cup edition, eliminating Partizan Belgrade and Chornomorets Odesa in the early rounds, the campaign ending after a 3–1 aggregate loss to Club Brugge. He then had a spell of two years at FCM Bacău after which he had several short spells at Argeș Pitești, FC Brașov, Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț and Argeș again, retiring in 2002 at age 64. In 2010 he worked for a while at Dacia Mioveni in the second league. In April 2011, Halagian had the last coaching spell of his career, returning to Gloria Bistrița, but was sacked three weeks later because of issues regarding players shaving before matches.

He is the manager who has the most matches in the Romanian first league with 878 games consisting of 432 victories, 176 draws and 270 losses, having 33 seasons of activity in the competition, and also totaling 44 matches in European competitions.

On 25 March 2008 he was decorated by the president of Romania, Traian Băsescu for all of his achievements as a football coach, and for forming a young generation of future champions with Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" — (The Order "The Sportive Merit") class III.

Managing style It was said about him that he was a strict and severe manager, having expectations for the footballers such as shaving before the matches but his reply in an interview was:"I don't think I was a rough coach because I loved all my players, no matter how good they were. I had discussions throughout my career with my players because I cared a lot about their dress and behavior outside the field of play. I would explain to them why the way they present themselves in front of people is extremely important, not only for them, but even for the club and the city. It really bothered me if their extra-sports life was unbalanced. I cared for many as if they were my children."

One of Halagian's famous quotes as coach was: Focu' la ei! (The fire at them!), explaining:"This is an expression that I invented to convey to the players on the pitch that the ball is good to be on the opponent half of the pitch, even if we have possession or not, I told them it is better to play there."

Halagian died on 12 August 2019 at age 80.

Quotes "The fire at them!" "I never leave, I'm waiting to be kicked out." "It doesn't matter if it's good or bad, the only important thing is that it's written about you."

Honours Player Dinamo Pitești Divizia B: 1960–61, 1962–63

Manager Argeș Pitești Divizia A: 1971–72, 1978–79, runner-up 1977–78 Balkans Cup runner-up: 1984–85 Steaua București Divizia A: 1984–85 Universitatea Craiova Cupa României runner-up: 1984–85 Dinamo București Divizia A: 1991–92, runner-up 1992–93 Național București Divizia A runner-up: 1995–96, 1996–97 Cupa României runner-up: 1996–97