Marius Lăcătuș

Marius Mihai Lăcătuș (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈmari.us miˈhaj ləkəˈtuʃ]; born 5 April 1964) is a Romanian football coach and former professional footballer. He is by far the most successful footballer ever to play for Steaua București and was part of their European Cup victory in 1986. Lăcătuș is the all-time top scorer for Steaua with 16 goals in European competitions. On 7 July 2021, Steaua retired his shirt number 7 at the inauguration match of the new Steaua Stadium.[3]

Marius Lăcătuș
Lăcătuș in 2010
Personal information
Full name Marius Mihai Lăcătuș
Date of birth (1964-04-05) 5 April 1964
Place of birth Brașov, Romania
Height 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s) Inside-forward
Youth career
1977–1981 Brașov
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1981–1983 Brașov 45 (5)
1983–1990 Steaua București 200 (59)
1990–1991 Fiorentina 21 (3)
1991–1993 Real Oviedo 51 (7)
1993–2000 Steaua București 157 (39)
2000 Național București 12 (0)
Total 486 (113)
International career
Romania U-21
1984–1998 Romania[lower-alpha 1] 84 (13)
Managerial career
2000 Naţional București
2001–2002 Oțelul Galați
2002–2003 Brașov
2004 Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț
2005 Inter Gaz București
2006–2007 UTA Arad
2007–2008 FC Steaua Bucuresti
2009 FC Steaua Bucuresti
2009–2010 Vaslui
2010–2011 FC Steaua Bucuresti
2012 FCM Târgu Mureș
2013–2014 Politehnica Iași
2017–2019 CSA Steaua București
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

He played as a deep lying striker or inside forward for Steaua București most of his career, being the team's captain between 1994 and 1999. He also played for Italian side Fiorentina and Real Oviedo in Spain.

He is the most successful player who has ever played in the Romanian First League. He has won it a record number of ten times. Following him in the all time table are: Giedrius Arlauskis, Ciprian Deac, Adrian Bumbescu, Mircea Lucescu, Dumitru Stângaciu and Tudorel Stoica, all with 7 championships won.[4]

Club career

Lăcătuș was an iconic player for Steaua București's supporters. Even now, many years after leaving the club as a player, the supporters shout his name at home games. The supporters loved him for his spectacular way of playing football, as well as for his commitment during the games. He was nicknamed Fiara (The Beast).

He was the first player to score in the penalty shoot-out of the 1986 European Cup final against FC Barcelona, won by Steaua. After the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy, where he scored two goals against the USSR, Lăcătuș signed for the Italian team ACF Fiorentina and then moved to Real Oviedo in Spain. In 1994, he returned to Steaua and played for the team until 1999, when he finally signed for FC Național București, where he played only for half a season before retiring. However, in October 2006 he decided to enroll himself as part of UT Arad team where he was also coach until 2007 before he joined FCSB.

On 25 March 2008, he was decorated by the president of Romania, Traian Băsescu with Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" — (Order of Sporting Merit) class II for his part in winning the 1986 European Cup Final.

Lăcătuș played a total of 414 games in the Romanian Divizia A (now Liga I), scoring 103 goals; 21 games in the Italian Serie A where he scored three times and also 51 games in the Spanish La Liga, scoring 7 goals. He also made appearances 72 games in the European Cup, Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Cup, scoring 16 goals.

As a player, he won the Romanian championship ten times and the Romanian Cup seven times, as well as the European Cup in 1986 and the European Supercup in 1987, all with Steaua București.

International career

Lăcătuș was capped 83 times, scoring 13 goals for the Romania national team, and played for his country in the 1990 World Cup, Euro 1996 and 1998 World Cup.[1] He scored the 700th goal for the national team of Romania.

Career statistics
Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Lăcătuș goal.
List of international goals scored by Marius Lăcătuș
No. Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
121 November 1984Bloomfield Stadium, Tel Aviv, Israel Israel1–11–1Friendly
230 January 1985Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon, Portugal Portugal1–23–2Friendly
32–2
410 September 1986Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania Austria2–04–0UEFA Euro 1988 qualifying
526 May 1990Heysel Stadium, Brussels, Belgium Belgium2–22–2Friendly
69 June 1990Stadio San Nicola, Bari, Italy Soviet Union1–02–0World Cup 1990 Group B
72–0
829 August 1990Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, USSR Soviet Union1–02–1Friendly
96 May 1992Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania Faroe Islands3–07–0FIFA World Cup 1994 qualifying
1014 December 1994Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan, Israel Israel1–01–1UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying
117 June 1995Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania Israel1–02–1UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying
1211 October 1995Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania France1–21–3UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying
1324 April 1996Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania Georgia4–05–0Friendly

Honours

Player

Steaua București

Notes
  1. Including one appearance for Romania's Olympic team.[1][2]

References
  1. "Marius Lăcătuș". European Football. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  2. Marius Lăcătuș at National-Football-Teams.com
  3. "Decizie istorica la Steaua".
  4. "Best of the best! Dan Petrescu, la un titlu de recordul absolut + doi jucători-simbol de la CFR Cluj, lângă Lăcătuș, Lucescu sau Tudorel Stoica" (in Romanian). gsp.ro. 15 May 2022. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
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