Nicolae Lupescu

Nicolae Lupescu (17 December 1940 – 6 September 2017) was a Romanian professional football defender and manager.

Club career Early career Lupescu was born on 17 December 1940 in Bucharest, Romania. He began playing junior-level football in 1954 at ICAR București, afterwards moving to Flacăra Roșie București. He started his senior career by playing two seasons in Divizia B, the first one at Academia Militară București and the second at Olimpia București. He remained with Rapid for ten seasons, winning the title in the 1966–67 season, being used by coach Valentin Stănescu in 26 matches in which he scored one goal. In the following season he played four games in the 1967–68 European Cup, helping The Railwaymen eliminate Trakia Plovdiv and advance to the following round where they were eliminated by Juventus.

Lupescu also won two Balkans Cup and the 1971–72 Cupa României, being used the entire match by coach Bazil Marian in the 2–0 win over Jiul Petroșani in the final. He played in all six games of the 1971–72 UEFA Cup campaign as the team reached the round of 16 by eliminating Napoli and Legia Warsaw before being knocked out by the eventual winners, Tottenham. For the way he played in 1970, Lupescu was placed fifth in the ranking for the Romanian Footballer of the Year award, in the following year being third. Lupescu has a total of 244 matches and eight goals scored in Divizia A. However, Lupescu convinced Ștefan Andrei, who was the Secretary for Foreign Relations of the Central Committee, to help him gain the regime's approval for his transfer to Admira Wacker in 1972. The team finished the season in fourth place, which would be the club's best championship performance during his five seasons spent there. Lupescu made 134 appearances in the Austrian Bundesliga, scoring nine goals. Niculescu used him for the entirety of all three games in the 1970 World Cup final tournament which were a win against Czechoslovakia and losses to England and Brazil, as his side failed to progress from their group. He played eight matches and scored two goals in the 1972 Euro qualifiers, managing to reach the quarter-finals where Romania was defeated by Hungary, who advanced to the final tournament.

International goals Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Lupescu goal. Then he worked at Șoimii Sibiu and Gloria Buzău, helping the latter get promoted to Divizia A in the 1983–84 season. He made a comeback at Rapid, leading the team over the course of the 1985–86 Divizia A season.

On 6 September 2017, Lupescu died at the Fundeni hospital in Bucharest at age 76. Shortly after his death, his former teammate from Rapid, Viorel Kraus described him: "He impressed us from the start. He was quiet, tight-lipped, but a true professional. When two colleagues were arguing, he intervened. He said to the one who screamed the loudest: "Stop talking in big letters!". This saying remained famous among us".

Honours Player Rapid București Divizia A: 1966–67 Cupa României: 1971–72 Balkans Cup: 1963–64, 1964–66 Individual Romanian Footballer of the Year third place: 1971

Manager Gloria Buzău Divizia B: 1983–84