Emerich Jenei

Emerich Jenei (March 22, 1937, Agriş, Arad County) is a Romanian football player and coach, considered one of Romania's best coaches, winner of the European Cup in 1986.


He made his debut playing for Flamura Roşie Arad, and in 1957, at age 20, he signed with Steaua Bucharest. He played for Steaua until 1969, when he left Romania to play in Turkey for Kayserispor Kulübü. In 1971, Jenei retired as player and became a coach. During his career as a footballer, he played 305 matches and he won 12 caps for Romania's National Team (between 1959 and 1964). Jenei won with Steaua 3 Romanian football championship titles in 1960, 1961 and 1968, as well hi participated with Romania's Olympic Team at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Japan, where the Romanians came on 5-th place.


As a coach, Jenei continued to enjoy success. He managed Steaua Bucharest (1975–1978, 1983–1986, 1990–1991, 1993–1994, 1998–2000), FC Bihor Oradea, CS Târgovişte, Universitatea Craiova, the National Team of Romania (1986–1990, 2000), the National Team of Hungary (1992–1993), FC Fehérvár (1993), Panionios F.C. (1995–1996).


Emerich Jenei won the championship title in 1976, 1978 and 1985 with Steaua. In the following season led Steaua Bucureşti to victory in the European Cup final against FC Barcelona in May 1986. He qualified Romania to World Cup 1990 and Euro 2000. After his retirement (2000), worked for the Romanian Football Federation. He is regularly consulted by the Romanian media for his opinion ahead of important football games for Romanian clubs, especially Steaua, or the Romanian National Team. On March 25, 2008, he was decorated by the president of Romania, with Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" (The Order "The Sportive Merit") class II with one barret.

Ştefan "Pisti" Covaci

Ştefan Kovács (Romanian: Ştefan Covaci; October 2, 1920, Timişoara - May 12, 1995, Cluj) was a successful Romanian (Hungarian ethnic) footballer and coach, winner of European Champions Cup, European Supercup and Intercontinental Cup with Ajax Amsterdam.


He managed Universitatea Cluj (1953-1962) and Romaniaa, as assistant (1962–1967). Kovács had his first major coaching successes at the helm of Steaua Bucharest, where he won between 1967 and 1971 once the championship and three times the cup of Romania. After this he succeeded Rinus Michels at the head of Ajax Amsterdam in 1971, continuing and expanding on his "total football" philosophy. With Ajax he achieved 1972 and 1973 two consecutive European Champions Cups. In 1972 he even won the Intercontinental Cup and also the first edition of European Supercup (1973). Further to that he led Ajax to the double of cup and championship in 1972 and another national championship in 1973.


After he left Ajax in 1973, he was called up by the French football federation to take the reins of the national side (1973–1975). In this position he raised the young generations of French talents (as Raymond Domenech, Arsene Wenger şi Michel Platini) and prepared his successor, Michel Hidalgo, to the successes of the 80's. After this episode he returned to Romania becoming its National Team coach (1976–1980). Later he had further successes with Panathinaikos (1982-1983) and AS Monaco (1986–1987), with which he won the national cup competitions in 1982 and 1987, respectively.


In 1995, when Covaci died, Jacques Chirac was in a meeting with the French government. After consultation with the Prime Minister of France in that time, Chirac interrupted the meeting to preserve a moment of silence. The French president wanted it that way paying homage to the one he considered the founder of modern football in France. (adapted from Wikipedia)

Mircea Lucescu

Mircea Lucescu (born July 29, 1945, in Bucharest) is a former Romanian football player and one of the most successful Romanian football managers.


Lucescu played 362 matches and scored 78 goals in Romanian First League. He started his football player career at Dinamo Bucharest, one of Romania's top teams, where he played for 15 years; he played also for Politehnica Bucharest and Corvinul Hunedoara. Lucescu appeared 74 times in Romania's National Team. As a player, he won 7 times the Romanian First League and 1 Romania's Cup, with Dinamo Bucharest.


In Romania, Mircea Lucescu managed Dinamo Bucharest, Corvinul Hunedoara, Rapid Bucharest. After coaching Romanian national team, had a long career in Italy, at Pisa, Brescia, Reggiana, Inter Milan. He had a brilliant start with Galatasaray, winning the European Super Cup against Real Madrid. Under Lucescu's managership, Galatasaray qualified to quarter finals in the UEFA Champions League in the 2000-01 season for the first time, but in the quarter finals they lost to Real Madrid. The same year, he lost the Turkish League title to rivals Fenerbahçe. Next year, Gala qualified to second phase in the UEFA Champions League and won Turkish League title under his managership. (2001-2002 season).


Lucescu was disappointed to be sacked despite winning the league champion title. In June 2002, he signed a contract with rival Beşiktaş J.K.. It was a very important season for Beşiktaş since, in 2003, the reputable Turkish club was celebrating her 100th foundation year. In this atmosphere, Beşiktaş made a great work under Lucescu's management. They won the Turkish title by having only one loss, and collecting 85 points; a record for Turkcell Super League as the maximum points collected in a season. So Beşiktaş was able to succeed by winning the championship in 2003, in their first century fest. In the 2002-03 season, Beşiktaş reached the quarter final of the UEFA Cup, only to lose to Lazio. 2003-04 season started very well for Lucescu and Beşiktaş. The team could not qualify from a difficult Champions League group, but was able to get a ticket to UEFA Cup by holding the 3rd position in the group. In the second half of the season, the team's performance declined drastically. Lucescu could not stop the decline. He blamed Turkish Football Federation for one-sided decisions by the referees. After a disastrous second half, Lucescu decided to leave Turkey blaming that his championship was stolen.

He is currently the manager of Shakhtar Donetsk, he won the last 2009 UEFA Cup Final (May 20, 2009) against Werder Bremen 2-1 after extra time. His son, Răzvan Lucescu, is now managing FC Braşov and the Romania national football team.

World's Most Successful Coaches

Octavian Bellu (born February 17, 1951, Ploieşti), took over a program that most experts considered would falter after the loss of Bela Karolyi, and not only continued its outstanding success, but improved upon it. He has been the coach of the Romanian Women Gymnastics Team since 1981 and its head between 1988 and 2005. His dedication and commitment to excellence have been the key to success for Romanian gymnastics. He also served as an adviser on the staff of Romanian president, president of the Romanian National Agency for Sports, and this month was appointed secretary of state within the Ministry of Youth and Sports.


Octavian Bellu has set the world record as the Most Successful Coach: 16 Olympics Gold Medals and a total of over 300 medals at World and European Championships and Olympic Games. Highly successful, Octavian Bellu led the Romanian gymnastics team to five world and two Olympic titles, as well as coaching numerous individual gold medalists (Lavinia Miloşovici, Andreea Răducan, Simona Amânar, Gina Gogean, and Cătălina Ponor) - since the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union, Romania has been the most successful women's gymnastics power.


They say behind every successful man, there is a woman. Maria Bitang (born August 3, 1962), Romanian gymnastics coach (1992-2005), joined the team in early 90's. She has set the world record for the Most Successful Woman Coach: 19 Olympics Medals and a total of 152 medals at World and European Championships and Olympic Games.


Along with the team, Bellu and Bitang have obtained more than 250 international medals. The outstanding results they achieved made them the world's most successful coaching duo. They received many awards, were decorated by the Romanian presidents and received the highest honors from the Romanian Olympic Committee and International Gymnastics Federation.