Nicolae Dumitrescu

Nicolae "Coco" Dumitrescu (8 December 1921 – 17 March 1999) was a Romanian football player and manager. He played mainly as a forward and throughout his career, he won four Divizia A titles and two cups with ITA Arad. As a manager, he won two league titles with the same club, also in the 1970–71 European Cup season they eliminated Feyenoord who were European champions at that time. In 1946, Dumitrescu joined ITA Arad where he made his Divizia A debut under coach Zoltán Opata on 22 September 1946 in a 1–1 draw against UD Reșița in which he scored a goal. In the following season, Dumitrescu helped the team win The Double, playing under coach Petre Steinbach in 27 matches in which he netted a personal record of 17 goals. In the 1950 season he won another title with the club, being used by coach Francisc Dvorzsák in 15 matches in which he did not score, also appearing in the Cupa României final which was lost with 3–1 to CCA București. Dumitrescu helped The Old Lady win the 1953 Cupa României, being utilized by coach Coloman Braun-Bogdan in the 1–0 victory against CCA București in the final. Braun-Bogdan further used him in 23 matches in which he scored four goals in the 1954 Divizia A season, where he and the club secured their fourth title together. He scored his first goal for the national team in a friendly that ended with a 6–2 loss to Czechoslovakia. During this time he reached three national junior championship finals, winning the first two against Dinamo București and Farul Constanța, and losing the third to Rapid București. In 1965, Dumitrescu became the head coach of UTA's senior squad with whom he reached the 1966 Cupa României final which was lost with 4–0 to Steaua București and won two consecutive Divizia A titles in the 1968–69 and 1969–70 seasons. He also made some European performances with The Old Lady as eliminating Ernst Happel's Feyenoord in the 1970–71 European Cup who were the defending European champions. Dumitrescu coached UTA on several other occasions, having a total of 375 matches as manager in Divizia A, consisting of 154 victories, 80 draws and 141 losses.

Personal life and death His stepbrother, Ion Pârcălab, was also an international footballer. Dumitrescu died on 17 March 1999, at the age of 77.

Journalist Radu Romănescu wrote a book about Dumitrescu's career titled, Coco Dumitrescu, pentru totdeauna în inima Bătrânei Doamne (English: Coco Dumitrescu, forever in the heart of the Old Lady), which was released on 18 April 2021, the year in which Dumitrescu would have turned 100.

Honours Player Sparta București Cupa României runner-up: 1942–43

ITA Arad Divizia A: 1946–47, 1947–48, 1950, 1954 Cupa României: 1947–48, 1953, runner-up 1950

Manager Romania U18 UEFA European Under-18 Championship: 1962

UTA Arad Divizia A: 1968–69, 1969–70 Cupa României runner-up: 1965–66