Lucian Marinescu

Lucian Cristian Marinescu (born 24 June 1972) is a Romanian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder, who works as football agent.

Club career Marinescu was born on 24 June 1972 in Bucharest, Romania. He began playing senior-level football in 1993 at CSM Reșița in Divizia B. In the 1996–97 season he scored 13 goals that helped Reșița earn promotion to the first league. By the end of the season, Marinescu netted 13 league goals and won the Cupa României, with Lucescu using him the entire match in the 1–0 victory against Universitatea Craiova in the final in which he scored the goal from a penalty. He also represented The Railwaymen in the 1997 Intertoto Cup, playing in two games in the group stage, a 2–0 win over Žilina and a 1–1 draw against Austria Vienna.

Salamanca paid €1.3 million for Marinescu's transfer from Rapid in 1998, making his La Liga debut on 30 August under coach Miguel Ángel Russo in a 3–1 win against Deportivo La Coruña. He was a colleague of fellow Romanians Bogdan Stelea and Cătălin Munteanu, and during that time the team was nicknamed "Salamanca Rumana", because Ovidiu Stîngă and Gabriel Popescu also played for the club around that period. He scored a total of 11 goals until the end of the season, including a double in a 3–3 draw against Porto, helping his side finish in 14th place and avoid relegation.

International career Marinescu earned eight caps for Romania, making his debut on 19 November 1997 when coach Anghel Iordănescu sent him in the 67th minute to replace Iulian Filipescu in a friendly 1–1 draw against Spain.

He was selected by Iordănescu to be part of the squad that went to the 1998 World Cup final tournament where he played in all four games. In order to celebrate, the players dyed their hair blonde and presented themselves like that at the game.

Sports agent career After ending his playing career, he worked as a sports agent.

Career statisticss

Honours CSM Reșița Divizia B: 1996–97

Rapid București Cupa României: 1997–98