Marian Popa

Club career

"Marian Popa was a strong box striker, he protected the ball well, was opportunistic. Good football player. As a man, I have always found him a special character." — Ilie Stan, former Steaua teammate Afterwards Farul sent him to Steaua București in exchange for Gheorghe Butoiu and Ioan Tătăran. There, he started to play in European competitions, making his debut in a 5–0 away loss to Montpellier in the 1990–91 European Cup Winners' Cup second round in which he received a red card. In the following season he played six games in the 1991–92 UEFA Cup campaign, helping the team get past Anorthosis Famagusta and Sporting Gijón, scoring two goals against the latter, reaching the round of 16 where they were defeated by Genoa. In the same season he won the Cupa României, being used by coach Victor Pițurcă in the first 54 minutes until he was replaced by Ion Vlădoiu in the penalty shoot-out victory against Politehnica Timișoara in the final.

In 1992, Popa was close to a move to La Liga team Logroñés, but eventually went back to Farul. He made a comeback to Steaua, managing to win the 1994 Supercupa României as coach Dumitru Dumitriu sent him in the second half to replace Adrian Ilie, then he scored the golden goal in extra time which brought the victory against Gloria Bistrița. During the 1994–95 season, Popa scored seven goals in the 14 league games Dumitriu used him as Steaua won the title. In the same season he made four appearances in the Champions League campaign of which three were in the group stage. Popa would go for another spell at Farul, then he joined FC Brașov where on 7 September 1996 he made his last Divizia A appearance in a 2–1 away loss to Chindia Târgoviște, totaling 168 matches with 73 goals in the competition. His fifth and last Nemzeti Bajnokság I game took place on 30 November in a 1–0 home loss to Vác, retiring afterwards from professional football. His second game was also a win against Israel, a 1–0 at home.

After retirement After he ended his playing career, Popa had several businesses and coached juniors at Farul Constanța and Metalul Mangalia, and the Municipal Constanța futsal team. For a while he was president of Portul Constanța.

Honours Metalul Mangalia Divizia B: 1983–84 Farul Constanța Divizia B: 1987–88 Steaua București Divizia A: 1994–95 Cupa României: 1991–92 Supercupa României: 1994 Săgeata Stejaru Divizia D: 1996–97