Mircea Rednic

Mircea Rednic (born 9 April 1962) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player who played as a defender.

Club career Corvinul Hunedoara Rednic, nicknamed "Puriul", was born on 9 April 1962 in Hunedoara and until he was 14 years old he played table tennis, handball, volleyball and chess before starting to play football at Corvinul Hunedoara's youth center under coach Remus Vlad. Coach Mircea Lucescu gave him his debut for Corvinul's senior squad in the 1979–80 Divizia B season.

Dinamo București In the summer of 1983, Rednic and teammate Ioan Andone were transferred from Corvinul to Dinamo București in exchange for five players, including Nicușor Vlad, Teofil Stredie and Florea Văetuș. Rednic also appeared in eight matches in the 1983–84 European Cup, helping the club get past title holders Hamburg and then Dinamo Minsk against whom he scored a goal, reaching the semi-finals where they were defeated by Liverpool. For the way he played in 1983, Rednic was placed fifth in the ranking for the Romanian Footballer of the Year award, and in the following year, he was fourth. He would reunite at Dinamo with his former coach from Corvinul, Mircea Lucescu. Their first achievement was the winning of the 1985–86 Cupa României where in the final he played the entire match, which ended with a 1–0 win against Steaua who had recently won the European Cup. Furthermore, referee Ion Crăciunescu eliminated Rodion Cămătaru and Claudiu Vaișcovici from Dinamo. In the following season he won another Double with the club, Lucescu giving him 19 appearances in which he scored one goal in the league, and also played the full 90 minutes in the 6–4 win over Steaua in the Cupa României final. In the same season, he made another European appearance by playing eight games in the 1989–90 European Cup Winners' Cup and scoring once against Panathinaikos, before the team was eliminated in the semi-finals following a 2–0 aggregate loss to Anderlecht.

Bursaspor, Standard Liège and Sint-Truidense After the 1989 Romanian Revolution, Rednic along with compatriots Claudiu Vaișcovici and Gheorghe Nițu went to play in Turkey for Bursaspor.

In 1991, coach Mircea Lucescu told him to go to Standard Liège because it was the team he would be coaching in the near future. He won the 1992–93 Belgian Cup with The Reds, as coach Haan used him the entire match in the 2–0 win over Charleroi in the final. During these years, Rednic played regularly for Standard and was teammates for short periods with compatriots Bogdan Stelea and Gheorghe Butoiu.

In 1996, after his period at Standard Liège ended, he moved to Sint-Truidense.

Rapid București In 1997, Rednic returned to Romania at Rapid București, at the advice of the team's coach, Mircea Lucescu. He spent the last three years of his career there, playing the entire match in the 1–0 win over Universitatea Craiova in the 1998 Cupa României final. Subsequently, he played in 32 matches in which he scored one goal in the 1998–99 season as the team won its first title after 32 years. He appeared in six games, helping the team finish the tournament in third position, winning the bronze medal.

Rednic played 83 matches and scored two goals for Romania, making his debut under coach Mircea Lucescu in a 0–0 draw against Switzerland in the 1982 World Cup qualifiers. He made eight appearances during the successful Euro 1984 qualifiers, including a 1–0 victory against World Cup holders Italy. Subsequently, coach Lucescu used him for the entirety of all three games in the final tournament which were a draw against Spain and losses to West Germany and Portugal, as his side failed to progress from their group.

Rednic played eight games in the 1986 World Cup qualifiers and four during the Euro 1988 qualifiers. He played one game during the Euro 1992 qualifiers and made his last appearance for the national team on 23 May 1991 in a 1–0 friendly loss to Norway.

Managerial career Rednic's first coaching experience came in December 1998 at Rapid București, while he was still an active player. He was appointed caretaker manager for one Divizia A game after Mircea Lucescu left to train Inter Milan, securing a 3–0 victory against Universitatea Cluj. Rednic started working as a full-time coach in 2000 when he was appointed at Rapid to replace Anghel Iordănescu.

Rednic's second spell at Rapid was one in which he won the first trophies of his coaching career. The first one was the 2001–02 Cupa României, following a 2–1 victory against Dinamo București in the final. Then he won the 2002 Supercupa României, after another 2–1 win over Dinamo. For the 2002–03 season, Rednic had Florin Bratu and Daniel Niculae form an offensive partnership, a move that proved to be successful as Rapid won the title. Subsequently, he led the team to win the 2003 Supercupa României by defeating once again Dinamo with a score of 1–0. He was close to helping Rapid get past Anderlecht in the 2003–04 Champions League second qualifying round after earning a 0–0 away draw in the first leg, but lost the second leg 2–3 despite leading 2–0 at halftime. Rapid dismissed him in the middle of the 2003–04 season while the club was still in the top positions, fighting to win the championship. He then returned in Romania as Universitatea Craiova's manager in the 2004–05 Divizia A season. That was a message to the leaders of Rapid who fired him. For this achievement, he deployed a central defensive partnership of Cosmin Moți and Ștefan Radu, while rotating the prolific strikers Ionel Dănciulescu, Claudiu Niculescu, and Ionel Ganea, as only two could start in any given match. In the first 13 rounds of that season, the team had 13 consecutive victories and won all four derbies against Steaua and Rapid, including the 4–2 victory against Steaua at the Ghencea stadium which was the first away victory for The Red Dogs in the derby after 18 years. In October 2007, Rednic returned for a third spell at Rapid which lasted until March 2008 when he resigned. In April 2008, Rednic started his second spell at Dinamo, leading the team to the top of the table for most of the 2008–09 season, only to finish in third place following three consecutive losses that ultimately prompted his departure from the club.

In August 2009, Rednic went to coach abroad, first at Russian second league side Alania Vladikavkaz with whom he finished the championship in third place, thus failing to gain promotion to the Russian Premier League. From July 2010 until December 2011, he managed Khazar Lankaran in Azerbaijan where he recruited numerous Romanians, bringing nine of them to the club. He managed to win the Azerbaijan Cup following a penalty shoot-out win over Inter Baku in the final, and finished the 2010–11 Azerbaijan Premier League season in second position. He was dismissed after a 1–0 loss to Inter Baku in the 15th round of the 2011–12 regular season. In March 2012, Rednic returned to Romania and signed a contract with Astra Ploiești until the end of the season. Afterwards, he decided not to continue with Astra, moving instead to their biggest rivals Petrolul Ploiești. In October 2012, Rednic left Petrolul to coach Standard Liège, bringing Romanian players Adrian Cristea and George Țucudean with him. He made his debut as The Reds coach in an away league game which ended with a 2–0 victory against Genk that was the only team unbeaten in the previous 12 rounds of the season. During that game, he wore a tie gifted to him by the club in 1996, when he was a player who had spent five years at Standard. He explicitly attributed his sacking to a conflict between him and club's chairman Roland Duchâtelet who wanted a "marionette" instead of a coach.

On 10 June 2013, Rednic returned to Romania as the new head coach of CFR Cluj. However, he ended his contract by mutual agreement just two months later, having won only one of the first four championship games and had a conflict with team captain Ricardo Cadú. On 1 October 2013, it was announced that Rednic had moved to Gent to replace Víctor Fernández. He was dismissed in April 2014, a few rounds before the season's end, with club officials citing a poor relationship between the coach and players. Afterwards he had a short second spell at Petrolul Ploiești and a third spell at Dinamo with whom he reached the Cupa României final which was lost to CFR Cluj. He then went to coach a third team in Belgium, Excel Mouscron where he worked with Romanian players Cristian Manea and Dorin Rotariu. He took the club from the last place of the 2016–17 Belgian First Division A and helped it avoid relegation. However, he was dismissed the following season after managing to obtain 29 points in 26 rounds, which was considered insufficient by the club's officials.

In April 2023, with four rounds before the end of the 2022–23 season, UTA Arad appointed Rednic as their head coach with the objective of saving the team from relegation. He succeeded in avoiding relegation and kept the club in the first league for the following two seasons. In June 2025, he returned to Standard Liège for a second spell as head coach. However, after earning two victories, one draw and two losses in the first five rounds of the 2025–26 season, he was dismissed.

Managing style Rednic earned a reputation as a resilient coach capable of navigating difficult circumstances, frequently making an immediate impact on his clubs through sweeping changes despite occasionally running into interpersonal conflicts. Tactically, he preferred a four-man defense alongside a two-forward attack, though he readily adapted his formation to fit the players at his disposal. He described his football philosophy by stating: "When we lose the ball, everyone defends; when we have the ball, everyone attacks—including the goalkeeper, who should play in a more advanced position. Naturally, during the game, I want as many players as possible in front of the goal. If you want to score, you need options up front." Rednic was also known for bringing foreign players to the teams he coached in Romania, mostly through his relations in Belgium. Notable players of this kind include Emmanuel Godfroid, Roberto Bisconti and Philippe Léonard at Rapid București; George Blay, Harlem Gnohéré, Ante Puljić, Miha Mevlja and Antun Palić at Dinamo București; Jeremy Bokila and Manassé Enza-Yamissi at Petrolul Ploiești; Rubenilson at Universitatea Craiova.

Career statistics International + Appearances and goals by national team and year Cupa României: 2001–02 Supercupa României: 2002, 2003 Vaslui Divizia B: 2004–05 Dinamo București Liga I: 2006–07 Cupa României runner-up: 2015–16 Supercupa României runner-up: 2007 Khazar Lankaran Azerbaijan Cup: 2010–11