Remus Vlad

Remus Vlad (born 19 January 1946) is a Romanian former professional footballer and manager. Vlad played as a defender.

Club career Vlad was born 19 January 1946 in Cinciș, Hunedoara County, Romania and began playing junior-level football in 1957 at Minerul Teliuc. In 1960 he moved to Metalul Hunedoara where he worked with junior coach Dumitru Pătrașcu, then six years later he started to play for the senior squad in Divizia B. In his first years at the club he would make a successful partnership in the central defense with Ion Barbu. After Barbu went to play for Beşiktaş, Vlad was elected as the team's captain, as star player Nicolae Dobrin insisted for this because he appreciated Vlad's professionalism. Afterwards he played four games in the 1972–73 European Cup, eliminating Aris Bonnevoie in the first round, then in the following one they won a home game with 2–1 against Real Madrid, but lost the second leg with 3–1. Years later in an interview for the Adevărul newspaper, he talked about the victory against the Spaniards:"I am proud of the fact that I was the captain of the team. That match was the biggest event in my sporting life, I met a huge team. It was a performance, we beat the great Real Madrid in Pitești. The Spaniards had a team with many internationals. We were a group of young people, including Florin Halagian, our coach was young. We also had a very good second coach, Tănase Dima. I had no special preparation for the match against Real. Before the match, we all had special personal experiences, because we realized what a great team we were going to play with, the legendary Santiago Bernabéu was also present in Pitești. It was an extraordinary event, I was somehow floating."

In 1974, Vlad returned to Hunedoara in Divizia B, helping them gain promotion to the first league two years later.

International career Vlad was taken in consideration to be a member of Romania's squad that went to the 1970 World Cup, but eventually Nicolae Pescaru was preferred in his place. His following game was a 2–2 draw against Peru and his last one was a 2–0 away loss to the Soviet Union. With a few rounds before the end of his first season, Vlad left the team because the club transferred Rednic and Ioan Andone to Dinamo București without consulting him. Subsequently, Vlad led The Red Caps for three full seasons in the top-league, earning a seventh-place finish in the first season and two tenth-place finishes in the next two seasons. However, after the first half of the 1988–89 season he was replaced with Cornel Dinu. Notably, in this period he gave 18-year-old Ioan Sabău his Divizia A debut. He then started the following season by working as the club's technical director, with Dan Anca serving as head coach. In 1994 he returned to Gloria Bistrița, first as head coach.

In January 1995, Vlad became head coach of Dinamo București, taking the club from the seventh place and finishing third. He also led the team in the 1996–97 Cup Winners' Cup, helping them eliminate Valletta in the qualifying round, being eliminated with 2–1 on aggregate by Gabriel Batistuta's Fiorentina in the first round. From 1999 to 2000 he worked for eight months at Olimpia Satu Mare. Vlad had his last coaching spell from 2002 until 2004 at Gloria Bistrița with which he finished the 2002–03 season in third place.

Vlad has a total of 355 matches as a manager in the Romanian top-division, Divizia A, consisting of 144 victories, 63 draws and 148 losses, also totaling 20 matches led in European competitions.

Honours Player Argeș Pitești Divizia A: 1971–72 Corvinul Hunedoara Divizia B: 1975–76

Manager Universitatea Cluj Divizia B: 1984–85 Gloria Bistrița Divizia B: 1989–90 Cupa României runner-up: 1995–96