Silviu Lung

Silviu Lung (; born 9 September 1956) is a Romanian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper who currently serves as a goalkeeping coach for the Romania national under-20 team.

Club career Victoria Carei Lung was born on 9 September 1956 in Sânmiclăuș, Satu Mare County, Romania. He started to play senior football in 1971 at Victoria Carei in Divizia C, being helped due to a rule imposed by the Romanian Football Federation requiring the use of a junior player in lower league games. He spent 14 seasons with Universitatea, being part of the "Craiova Maxima" generation that won two consecutive league titles in 1980 and 1981. In the first one, coach Valentin Stănescu gave him only three appearances because he was diagnosed with hepatitis and in the second he played 20 games under the guidance of coach Ion Oblemenco. Lung helped The Blue Lions reach the quarter-finals of the 1981–82 European Cup after eliminating Olympiacos and Kjøbenhavns Boldklub, being eliminated with 3–1 on aggregate by Bayern Munich. He was also an integral part of "U" Craiova's team that reached the 1982–83 UEFA Cup semi-finals where they lost to Benfica, making 10 appearances in the campaign. Lung won the Romanian Footballer of the Year in 1984 and in the same year he was nominated for the Ballon d'Or. Contributing six matches to the 1984–85 UEFA Cup run, he helped "U" navigate past Real Betis and Olympiacos before they ultimately fell to Željezničar in the round of 16. He kept a clean sheet in a 3–0 win over AS Monaco in the second leg of the first round of the 1985–86 European Cup Winners' Cup, after losing the first leg 2–0. However, they were eliminated in the following round by the eventual winners of the competition, Dynamo Kyiv. In the same season he helped the club reach the 1988–89 European Cup final, playing nine games in the campaign, including the final which was lost 4–0 to AC Milan. In the following season, Lung managed to not concede any goals for 736 consecutive minutes.

Logroñés Afterwards, Lung went abroad to play for Spanish team Logroñés where he made his La Liga debut on 2 September 1990 under coach David Vidal in a 2–1 home loss to Mallorca. In his single season spent at the club, he played only nine league games, having suffered a knee injury. He made his last Divizia A appearance on 24 October 1993 in "U" Craiova's 2–0 loss to FC Brașov, totaling 419 matches in the competition and 58 appearances in European competitions. His second game was a 2–2 draw against Spain in the Euro 1980 qualifiers. He played seven games in the 1986 World Cup qualifiers and five during the Euro 1988 qualifiers. Lung played four games in the Euro 1992 qualifiers and made his last appearance for the national team on 2 June 1993 in a 5–2 loss to Czechoslovakia during the 1994 World Cup qualifiers.

In 2022, the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) included Lung in its "Romania's all-time dream team" first XI.

Managerial career After retirement, Lung began his coaching career and for over 20 years he was the assistant coach or goalkeeping coach for clubs such as Universitatea Craiova, Național București, Nagoya Grampus, Pandurii Târgu Jiu, Astra Ploiești, CFR Cluj, CS Universitatea Craiova and Concordia Chiajna. Between 1995 and 1997 he was the head coach of Minerul Motru and earlier in 1994, of Olympique de Casablanca.

In 2003, Lung received the Honorary Citizen of Craiova award.

In January 2014, he was involved in a car accident which killed the driver of the other vehicle, receiving a punishment of one year and four months suspended sentence.

Playing statistics

Honours Player Victoria Carei Divizia C: 1971–72, 1972–73 Universitatea Craiova Divizia A: 1979–80, 1980–81 Cupa României: 1976–77, 1977–78, 1980–81, 1982–83, 1992–93 Steaua București Divizia A: 1988–89 Cupa României: 1988–89 European Cup runner-up: 1988–89

Individual Romanian Footballer of the Year: 1984 Ballon d'Or: 1984 (22nd place)