Nicolae Petrescu

Nicolae "Nicky" Petrescu (2 April 1913 – 1991) was a Romanian professional footballer and football manager.

Playing career Petrescu was born on 2 April 1913 in Bucharest, Romania and spent his entire playing career at local club Juventus. He made his debut for the club in the last round of the 1930–31 București championship when coach Emerich Vogl used him the entire match in a 9–0 victory against Sportul Studențesc București. In the following years, Petrescu started to play more often, consolidating his place in the team's starting XI, helping it gain promotion to Divizia A at the end of the 1932–33 season. His style of play was praised by the Gazeta Sporturilor newspaper after a 3–2 victory against Sportul Studențesc:"Insistent attacks started from the ranks of The Black and Whites (Sportul) are hardly stopped by the defense of The Red and Blues (Juventus). Petrescu is at ease, moving like a swashbuckler among his opponents, whom he regularly deprives of the ball". He scored his first and only goal of his career in the round of 16 in the 1935–36 Cupa României in a 3–1 victory against Maccabi București, Juventus managing to reach the semi-finals of that edition, a performance which was repeated in the following season. In the last years of his career, Petrescu played more rarely and the team's results were poorer season after season, eventually being relegated by the end of the 1939–40 season. Petrescu stayed with the club and helped it get promoted after one season by contributing with 14 appearances. However, he did not get to play again in the first league as the championship was interrupted due to World War II, thus ending his playing career in which he gained a total of 107 Divizia A appearances and 16 matches with one goal in the Cupa României. He continued to work as an assistant for the following two seasons when the team played in Divizia A. Afterwards he worked at Poiana Câmpina and Vulcan București. In 1972 he went to coach Altay until 1973, and then returned to Romania where he held the position of president of the Central College of Coaches within the Romanian Football Federation from 1974 until 1976. In his final years of coaching, Petrescu worked from 1976 until 1977 as the coordinator of Dinamo București's youth center and had another experience in Turkey at Samsunspor, ending his career in 1978.

Publications Petrescu wrote two volumes about football: Carte pentru fotbaliștii de mâine (Book for tomorrow's footballers) Fotbal pe culmile performanței (Football at the peak of performance)

Death Petrescu died in 1991 at age 78.

Honours Player Juventus București Divizia B: 1940–41