Marcel Pigulea

Marcel Pigulea (born 24 May 1943) is a Romanian former football player and manager.

Club career Pigulea was born on 24 May 1943 in Albulești, Romania and began playing junior-level football in 1955 at Progresul Strehaia, starting to play for the senior squad a few years later. In 1961 he went for two years at Dunărea Giurgiu, followed by one season at Flacăra Roșie București and another one at Metalul București, all of them being in the lower leagues of Romania.

In 1968, Pigulea joined Argeș Pitești where on 8 September coach Ion Bălănescu gave him his Divizia A debut in a 2–1 away loss to Petrolul Ploiești. Afterwards he played four games in the 1972–73 European Cup, eliminating Aris Bonnevoie in the first round, then in the following one they won a home game with 2–1 against Real Madrid but lost the second leg with 3–1. Years later in an interview for the Adevărul newspaper, Pigulea talked about the victory against the Spaniards:"It was an incredible victory for us and for Romanian football. Even now I still have the newspapers somewhere in the attic with the articles written in October 1972 about our victory against Real Madrid. We hoped, we believed, but we did not imagine that we would beat Real. The whole team played very well, and Dobrin was in top form." In his last season at Argeș, he played in both legs of the 6–2 loss on aggregate to Fenerbahçe in the first round of the 1973–74 UEFA Cup.

Pigulea ended his playing career after spending two seasons at Divizia A club FCM Reșița, totaling 182 matches with two goals in the competition.

Managerial career Pigulea started coaching in 1976 at Chimia Râmnicu Vâlcea which he helped gain promotion to the first league two years later. In 1981 he left Râmnicu Vâlcea to coach Politehnica Timișoara for one year. Since 1985, Pigulea coached several clubs, starting with Dunărea Galați, followed by a second spell at Chimia Râmnicu Vâlcea, subsequently working for Gloria Buzău and UTA Arad. In the early 1990s he started coaching Romania's under-18 side once again, this time promoting players such as Ionuț Luțu, Mugur Bolohan, Cristian Ciocoiu and Constantin Schumacher. In 1999, Pigulea founded the private school "Clubul Pro Luceafărul" where players such as Răzvan Marin, Ianis Hagi and Nicolas Popescu took their first steps in football.

Honours Player Argeș Pitești Divizia A: 1971–72

Manager Chimia Râmnicu Vâlcea Divizia B: 1977–78