Radu Nunweiller (born 16 November 1944) is a former Romanian central midfield football player and manager.[3]
Club career
Radu Nunweiller was born in Bucharest on 16 November 1944.[4][5] He had an Austrian father named Johann Nunweiller, who settled in Piatra Neamț after World War II where he met his wife, Rozina, later they moved from Piatra Neamț to Bucharest.[6] He had six brothers, the oldest one of them, Constantin was a water polo player and the other five: Dumitru, Ion, Lică, Victor and Eduard were footballers, each of them having at least one spell at Dinamo București, they are the reason why the club's nickname is "The Red Dogs" as especially Ion and Lică were known for their aggressiveness on the field and the fact that their faces were turning red from the effort.[6][7] Radu made his Divizia A debut, playing for Viitorul București on 21 October 1962 in a 4–2 loss in front of Steaua București.[4][5]
After playing only one Divizia A match for Viitorul, Nunweiller went to play for Dinamo București where in his first two seasons he won two league titles, in the first working with coaches Traian Ionescu and Nicolae Dumitru who gave him five appearances in which he scored two goals and in the second one he played 18 games, scoring once under the guidance of Angelo Niculescu.[2][4][5][8] At the conquest of these titles he was teammate with his brothers Ion and Lică.[8] He also won the 1963–64 Cupa României with The Red Dogs, coach Ionescu using him and his brothers all the minutes in the 5–3 victory over rivalsSteaua București from the final in which he scored a goal.[2][4][5][9] He would score two more goals against Steaua in two victories, a 3–0 and a 1–0.[10] For the way he played in 1969, Nunweiller was placed third in the ranking for the Romanian Footballer of the Year award, in the following year being on the fourth place.[11] In the 1970–71 season he won another title, playing alongside his brother Ion, coaches Dumitru and Ionescu using Radu in 30 games in which he scored five times.[2][4][5][8] In 1972, Ion became head coach of Dinamo, managing to win together with Radu the title in his first season, Radu contributing with a personal record of seven goals scored in his 30 games played.[2][4][5][8][12] They would also win the 1974–75 title together but this time Ion was the assistant coach of Nicolae Dumitru who gave Radu 29 appearances in which he scored twice.[2][4][5][8][12] He appeared in 23 matches in which he scored seven goals in European competitions for Dinamo, including scoring four in a 11–0 win over Crusaders from the 1973–74 European Cup, also in the 1975–76 edition he played in a 1–0 victory with Real Madrid.[2][3][4][5][13]
Radu Nunweiller ended his career after playing three seasons for Corvinul Hunedoara, making his last Divizia A appearance on 11 September 1978 in a 1–0 home loss with FC Baia Mare, having a total of 333 appearances and 40 goals scored in the competition.[4][5]
International career
"When I decide which team will play, I first pass the name of Radu Nunweiller next to the number 10 jersey and then I look for ten more players."
Radu Nunweiller played 41 matches and scored two goals for Romania (42/2 including Romania's Olympic team games), making his debut on 21 September 1966 under coach Ilie Oană in a friendly which ended with a 2–0 loss in front of East Germany.[1][14] He played one game at the 1968 Euro qualifiers and three games at the successful 1970 World Cup qualifiers, also being used by coach Angelo Niculescu in all the minutes of the three group matches from the final tournament as Romania did not advance to the next stage.[1] He played nine matches and scored one goal at the 1972 Euro qualifiers, managing to reach the quarter-finals where Romania was defeated by Hungary, who advanced to the final tournament.[1] Nunweiller played five games and scored once at the 1974 World Cup qualifiers, two games at the Euro 1976 qualifiers where he made his last appearance for the national team on 17 April 1975 in a 1–1 with Spain.[1]
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