Mircea Dridea

Mircea Dridea (born 7 April 1937) is a Romanian former professional football player and manager, who is the current honorary president of Liga I club Petrolul Ploiești.

Club career Dridea was born on 7 April 1937 in Ploiești and at age 15 he was a category one chess player. He was brought by his brother Virgil to play football in 1952 at the junior squads of Petrolul Ploiești where his first coach was Emil Avasilichioaie. In the first one he played 11 matches in which he scored four goals and in the second he netted 14 goals in 18 games, being the top-scorer of the team. He scored a hat-trick in the 6–1 victory against Siderurgistul Galați in the 1963 Cupa României final. Subsequently, he won another championship in the 1965–66 season, being used by coach Constantin Cernăianu in 25 games in which he scored 11 goals. He scored Petrolul's first two goals in the European Cup during a 4–2 loss to Wismut Karl Marx Stadt, the first goal in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in a 4–1 loss to Fenerbahçe and the first goal in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in a 4–0 win over Spartak Brno. His most important goal scored was in the first round of the 1966–67 European Cup against Liverpool from a free kick in a 3–1 victory, but they did not manage to qualify to the next round.

Dridea made his last Divizia A appearance on 20 June 1971 in Petrolul's 1–1 draw against CFR Timișoara, totaling 273 matches with 142 goals in the competition.

International career Dridea played 15 games and scored eight goals for Romania, making his debut under coach Augustin Botescu on 30 August 1959 in a friendly that ended with a 3–2 away win over Poland in which he scored a hat-trick.

He played in a 2–0 home victory against Portugal in the 1966 World Cup qualifiers after which opponent Eusébio said that he considered Dridea the man of the match. Dridea went to coach for a second spell in Morocco at Kénitra, afterwards returning to Romania at Progresul Brăila. They were opponents as managers in the 1981–82 Divizia B season when Dridea coached Petrolul and Virgil coached Metalul Plopeni.

Honours Player Petrolul Ploiești Divizia A: 1957–58, 1958–59, 1965–66 Cupa României: 1962–63

Manager Petrolul Ploiești Divizia B: 1981–82 Metalul Plopeni Divizia C: 1992–93