Viorel Năstase

Viorel Năstase (born 7 October 1953) is a Romanian former professional footballer who played as a forward.

Club career Progresul București Năstase was born on 7 October 1953 in București, Romania. He began playing football in the 1969–70 Divizia B season for Progresul București, helping the team finish first and gain promotion to the first league. He scored a total of nine goals until the end of the season, partnering with Mircea Sandu in the team's offense, but Progresul was relegated back to the second league.

Steaua București Afterwards, Năstase joined Steaua București for eight seasons. Năstase won two league titles with The Military Men in the 1975–76 and 1977–78 seasons. He was used by coach Emerich Jenei in 21 matches in which he scored four goals in the first season and in 12 games with six goals in the second. In the first round of the 1977–78 UEFA Cup, he scored once again against Barcelona, but the game ended in a 5–1 loss. During these years, Năstase also netted three goals in two derby draws against Dinamo București. On 15 September 1979, he made his last Divizia A appearance in a 2–1 away loss to Chimia Râmnicu Vâlcea, totaling 193 matches with 86 goals in the competition. He eventually made his Bundesliga debut on 2 September 1980 as Rühl used him the entire match in a 3–2 away loss to 1. FC Kaiserslautern. Năstase netted his first goal on 13 September in a 2–1 away loss to Eintracht Frankfurt, then one month later he scored once in a 3–1 defeat in the Munich derby against Bayern Munich. He was the team's top-scorer in the 1980–81 season with 14 goals in 23 matches, partnering in the offense with Rudi Völler. However, in the 33rd round of the season, Năstase missed a penalty in a 0–0 draw against Hamburg, then in the following round he scored a goal in a 7–2 loss to Karlsruher SC after which the club was relegated.

Catanzaro After playing two more games in the 1981–82 2. Bundesliga for 1860 Munich, he was transferred for 400,000 Italian lire to Serie A club Catanzaro. On 25 October he scored his first goal in a 1–1 draw against Como. After only three league appearances for them, Năstase retired from playing football at age 31.

Năstase played one game for Romania on 12 May 1976 under coach Ștefan Kovács in a 1–0 loss to Bulgaria in the 1973–76 Balkan Cup final.

Honours Progresul București Divizia B: 1969–70 Steaua București Divizia A: 1975–76, 1977–78 Cupa României: 1975–76, 1978–79