Constantin Rădulescu (footballer, born 1934)

Constantin Rădulescu
Personal information
Date of birth	17 April 1934
Place of birth	Comarnic, Romania
Date of death	8 July 2002 (aged 68)
Place of death	Timișoara, Romania
Position(s)	Midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team
1948–1949	Vulturii Comarnic
1950–1958	Dinamo Brașov/Cluj
1959–1966	Dinamo Bacău
Managerial career
1966–1967	Dinamo Bacău
1969–1974	Dinamo Bacău
1974–1975	CS Botoșani
1975–1977	Politehnica Timișoara
1977–1979	Politehnica Timișoara (assistant)
1979	Politehnica Timișoara
1979–1980	UM Timișoara
1980–1982	CSM Suceava
1982–1983	CS Târgoviște
1983–1984	SC Bacău
1984–1988	Oțelul Galați
1988–1991	Politehnica Timișoara
1991–1992	Farul Constanța
1993–1994	Vega Caransebeș
1994–1996	Politehnica Timișoara
1998–1999	UM Timișoara
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 9 April 2023

Constantin "Costică" Rădulescu (17 April 1934 – 8 July 2002) was a Romanian footballer and manager.

Playing career

Constantin Rădulescu was born on 17 April 1934 in Comarnic and started his playing career in 1948 at local club, Vulturii.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5] In 1949 he moved to Dinamo Brașov where he stayed until 1958, in the last year the team was playing in Cluj.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[5] He then signed with Dinamo Bacău, a team for which he would play the rest of his career which ended in 1966 when he scored a hat-trick against Chimia Râmnicu Vâlcea, a game he did not finish on the field as he suffered a commotion.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[5]^[6] Even though he was a fan of Rapid București, he never got to play for them.^[1]

Managerial career

Constantin Rădulescu started his coaching career at Dinamo Bacău in 1966 at the request of his former coach, Constantin Teașcă who left the team, managing to promote it from Divizia B to Divizia A in his first year.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[6] While coaching Bacău, Rădulescu together with Valeriu Neagu led them in the 1969–70 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup campaign where they eliminated Floriana, Skeid and Kilmarnock, reaching the quarter-finals where they were eliminated by Arsenal who would eventually win the competition.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[6]^[7] In 1974 during a match with Dinamo București, a general brawl ensued in which Rădulescu hit Dinamo's president Paul Moga who had previously cursed him and following that scandal, eight players were suspended, and Rădulescu was forbidden to coach any Divizia A or Divizia B team for three years, thus taking over the Divizia C club, CS Botoșani where General Marin Dragnea promised him that he would lift his suspension if he promoted the team to Divizia B which he achieved.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[6] In 1975 he went to coach Politehnica Timișoara, finishing the first season on the 5th place and from 1977 until 1979 he worked as Angelo Niculescu's assistant, together being close to win the championship in the 1977–78 season but eventually finished on the 3rd position.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[6] After Niculescu left the club, he worked again as head coach but got replaced after 15 rounds with Ion "Jackie" Ionescu.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6] In the following years, Rădulescu coached UM Timișoara, CSM Suceava, CS Târgoviște and SC Bacău before arriving at Oțelul Galați in 1984 where he stayed for four years, earning a 4th place in the 1987–88 season which granted the team the qualification to the 1988–89 UEFA Cup where they were eliminated in the first round by Juventus, however before the double with the Italians he was replaced with Cornel Dinu.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6] He returned to Politehnica Timișoara in 1988 which was playing in Divizia B, promoting after one year and finished the next season on the 5th place which earned them a spot in the 1990–91 UEFA Cup where they eliminated in the first round Atlético Madrid with 2–1 on aggregate, being eliminated in the next round by Sporting Lisabona.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[8] He left Politehnica in 1991 after a conflict with the players who were unsatisfied with his training methods but after two spells at Farul Constanța and Vega Caransebeș he returned at Politehnica which was again in Divizia B, helping it promote after one season having 14 points above the team from the second place, Corvinul Hunedoara and in the 1995–96 Divizia A season he started the championship well, including earning a 9–1 victory in the 5th round in front of Politehnica Iași but the following results were poorer and eventually he was dismissed.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5] His last spell as coach was at UM Timișoara which he helped promote from Divizia C to Divizia B and led them in the 1998–99 Cupa României campaign where they eliminated Divizia A teams Astra Ploiești and Naţional București, reaching the quarter-finals where they were eliminated by Dinamo București, also during this period Rădulescu told his players his most famous quote about their football careers:"Everything passes, money passes, but these...these you should tell them to your children and grandchildren".^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[8] Before a Divizia B game with UTA Arad he got a call from somebody who told him that 4 or 5 of his players got bribed to lose the game, the match ended with a 5–0 loss and he resigned from UM Timișoara and ended his career in which he has a total of 426 matches as a coach in Divizia A consisting of 176 victories 82 draws and 168 losses.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[9] Constantin Rădulescu died on 8 July 2002 at age 68 in Timișoara after suffering from peritonitis and in October 2019 a street from Timișoara was named after him.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[8]^[10]

Honours

Manager

Dinamo Bacău

Divizia B: 1966–67^[1]

CS Botoșani

Divizia C: 1974–75^[1]

Politehnica Timișoara

Divizia B: 1988–89, 1994–95^[1]

Oțelul Galați

Divizia B: 1985–86^[1]

UM Timișoara

Divizia C: 1996–97^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t "Costică Rădulescu a murit" [Costică Rădulescu has died] (in Romanian). Apropotv.ro. 10 July 2002. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ "Remember Costică Rădulescu: 11 ani fără cel mai iubit antrenor al Politehnicii" [Remember Costică Rădulescu: 11 years without the most beloved coach of the Politehnica] (in Romanian). Druckeria.ro. 8 July 2013. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ "Costică Rădulescu, antrenorul Oțelului modern" [Costică Rădulescu, the coach of modern Oțelul] (in Romanian). Ascotelul.ro. 17 April 2018. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j "O stradă din Timişoara va purta numele antrenorului Costică Rădulescu. Atribuire după trei ani de la memoriul fanilor Politehnicii" [A street in Timisoara will bear the name of coach Costică Rădulescu. Award after three years from the Politehnica fans' memo] (in Romanian). Pressalert.ro. 9 October 2019. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h "Antrenorul Costica Radulescu a incetat din viata" [Coach Costica Radulescu has passed away] (in Romanian). Ziua.ro. 10 July 2002. Archived from the original on 14 April 2023. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h "Trei decenii de la o mare victorie: Poli - Atletico Madrid 2-0" [Three decades since a great victory: Poli - Atletico Madrid 2-0] (in Romanian). Welovesport.ro. 21 September 2020. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
^ "Jumătate de secol de la o calificare istorică în primăvara europeană" [Half a century since a historic qualification in the European spring] (in Romanian). Gsp.ro. 13 January 2020. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Ne-a parasit Costica Radulescu" [Costica Radulescu left us] (in Romanian). Ziaruldeiasi.ro. 11 July 2002. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
^ "Top 60 antrenori" [Top 60 coaches] (in Romanian). RomanianSoccer.ro. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
^ "O stradă din Timișoara va purta numele lui Costică Rădulescu" [A street in Timișoara will be named after Costică Rădulescu] (in Romanian). Banatulazi.ro. 9 October 2019. Retrieved 9 April 2023.