Ilie Dumitrescu

Ilie Dumitrescu

Dumitrescu in 2011
Personal information
Full name	Ilie Dumitrescu
Date of birth	(1969-01-06) 6 January 1969
Place of birth	Bucharest, Romania
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)
Position(s)	Winger
Youth career
1977–1987	Steaua București
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1987–1994	Steaua București	165	(71)
1987–1988	→ Olt Scorniceşti (loan)	31	(1)
1994–1995	Tottenham Hotspur	18	(4)
1995	→ Sevilla (loan)	13	(1)
1996	West Ham United	10	(0)
1996–1997	América	13	(1)
1997–1998	Atlante	27	(3)
1998	Steaua București	7	(3)
Total		284	(84)
International career
1989–1998	Romania	64	(20)
Managerial career
2000	FC Braşov (sporting director)
2000–2001	Oţelul Galaţi
2001	FC Braşov
2001–2002	Alki Larnaca
2002	Romania U21
2002–2003	FCM Bacău
2003–2004	Apollon Limassol
2004	AEK Athens
2005	Egaleo
2005	Akratitos
2005–2006	Kallithea
2006	PAOK
2009	Panthrakikos
2010	Steaua București
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Ilie Dumitrescu (Romanian pronunciation: [iˈli.e dumiˈtresku]; born 6 January 1969) is a Romanian former footballer who played as an winger, currently television pundit for Digi Sport.

As a player, he was a winger who notably played in the Premier League with Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United, and in La Liga with Sevilla. He began and finished his career with Steaua București, had spells in Mexico with América and Atlante and had a brief loan spell with Olt Scorniceşti during the early stages of his career. He initially shot to fame when his frontline partnership with Gheorghe Hagi and Florin Răducioiu led the Romania national team to the 1994 FIFA World Cup quarter-finals. In eliminating Argentina en route, Dumitrescu scored twice in a 3–2 win, despite playing in an unfamiliar striker position with Răducioiu unavailable. Overall he was capped 62 times, scoring 20 goals and was also present at World Cup 90 and World Cup 98.

Following retirement, Dumitrescu has had an extensive career as a manager in his native country as well as Greece and Cyprus, with a spells at Oţelul Galaţi, FC Braşov, Alki Larnaca, Romania U21, FCM Bacău, Apollon Limassol, AEK Athens, Egaleo, Akratitos, Kallithea, PAOK, Panthrakikos, and Steaua București.

Club career

Born in Bucharest, Dumitrescu joined the Steaua București academy in 1977 at the age of 8 and made his way through the youth system. In April 1987, he made his debut in Divizia A at the age of 18. Steaua, who had won the European Champions Cup the previous year, loaned Dumitrescu to Olt Scorniceşti to gain more experience.

At Olt Scornicești, Dumitrescu was a regular starter, playing as left full-back.

Returning from his loan, Dumitrescu became an important part of the Steaua București squad, playing alongside big names such as Marius Lăcătuş and Gheorghe Hagi. After the 1990 World Cup in Italy, the best of his club teammates got contracts abroad, but Dumitrescu remained with Steaua and became the side's captain. With Steaua, he won the Romanian Cup in 1992, the championship in 1993 and played in the quarterfinals of the Cup Winners' Cup the same year.

Impressed by his performance at the USA World Cup in 1994, the representatives of Tottenham Hotspur were keen to offer him a contract. The North London side paid £2.6 million for Dumitrescu. He was later loaned out to Sevilla FC, with the La Liga side given an option to buy him during the loan.

Dumitrescu had a good time in southern Spain but the club baulked at the transfer fee Tottenham demanded. Dumitrescu returned to England.

After playing in the first half of the 1995–96 Premiership season and failing to impress, Dumitrescu was sold to West Ham United, where Harry Redknapp wanted to make him the player he once was. Dumitrescu played only 10 games before encountering problems with his work permit. His contract with West Ham was broken, leaving him free agent.

In the summer of 1996 he signed a contract with Club América in Mexico and before switching to their rivals Atlante a year later.

After two years in Mexico, Dumitrescu returned to Steaua București in 1998. Halfway through the season he announced his retirement as a professional player aged only 29.

International career

In 1989, Ilie Dumitrescu made his debut for Romania, being used as a substitute in a game against Greece. Dumitrescu was part of the Romanian squad at the 1990 FIFA World Cup.

At the 1994 World Cup Dumitrescu played all the five games his team played in America. He was a key player in Romania's surprise 3–2 victory over previous runners-up Argentina, scoring the first two goals and assisting the third. His first goal came in the 11th minute and came direct via an eye-catching free kick from a wide position. Argentina equalized almost instantly from a penalty but Romania regained the lead minutes later through a well-worked passing move that enabled Dumitrescu to score from close range. The victory enabled Romania to progress to the quarter-finals; a first for the Romanian national team.

Managerial career

Following a short-lived career as a player agent – he had established a company called "Sport & Business World" in 1998 –, Dumitrescu took on his first position as a manager in 2000 signing with Oţelul Galaţi from Romania's Divizia A. From Galaţi he moved to FC Brașov and then Cypriot side Alki Larnaca in 2001–02. Here he won promotion to the Cypriot First Division and his team started the season very well, beating some of the best sides in Cyprus. However at the end of the season his team finished 11th. He then took the head coach role of the Romanian under 21 side. But Dumitrescu lasted only 6 weeks in the role.

Subsequently, he took control of FCM Bacău in Divizia A. However, after a disappointing season, Dumitrescu resigned in May 2003, leaving FCM Bacău in the relegation zone. Dumitrescu again went to Cyprus, this time as a coach for Apollon Limassol. By playing the Italian defensive system catenaccio, they won 12 of their first 13 matches and Dumitrescu was named the best manager in Cyprus for the year 2004. Dumitrescu soon moved on to his 6th club side, being named manager of the Greek side AEK Athens in February 2004.

His roving managerial career continued as he left AEK to join Egaleo, also from the Alpha Ethniki. The next three years found him at three other Greek clubs: Akratitos, Kallithea and PAOK. Dumitrescu was criticised for his style of play by PAOK fans. Having joined the club in February, he resigned in October.

After three years without a club he became manager of Panthrakikos in May 2009, but was sacked after only one game.

He ended his coaching career at Steaua București. He had spent only 40 days there, and resigned saying that he does not want to stay where he is not wanted.

Personal life

After leaving Steaua București, he no longer considered any coaching jobs, and focused on running his business, a high-class restaurant in the centre of Bucharest, in which he had invested some of the money earned in his sports career, has been a regular guest commentator for television stations covering football matches, and endorsed a sports bets company.

Career statistics

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Romania	1989	4	0
	1990	11	0
	1991	4	0
	1992	5	2
	1993	9	5
	1994	17	10
	1995	5	1
	1996	2	0
	1997	4	1
	1998	3	1
Total		64	20

Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Dumitrescu goal.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	26 August 1992	Stadionul Național, Bucharest, Romania	Mexico	2–0	2–0	Friendly
2	14 November 1992	Stadionul Steaua, Bucharest, Romania	Czechoslovakia	1–0	1–1	1994 FIFA World Cup qualification
3	3 February 1993	Estadio Nacional, Lima, Peru	Peru	2–0	2–0	Friendly
4	6 February 1993	Harder Stadium, Santa Barbara, United States	United States	1–1	1–1	Friendly
5	14 April 1993	Stadionul Steaua, Bucharest, Romania	Cyprus	1–1	2–1	1994 FIFA World Cup qualification
6				2–1
7	13 October 1993	Stadionul Steaua, Bucharest, Romania	Belgium	2–0	2–1	1994 FIFA World Cup qualification
8	13 February 1994	Hong Kong Stadium, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong	United States	1–0	2–1	Friendly
9				2–1
10	16 February 1994	Changwon Stadium, Changwon, South Korea	South Korea	1–1	2–1	Friendly
11				2–1
12	20 April 1994	Stadionul Steaua, Bucharest, Romania	Bolivia	1–0	3–0	Friendly
13				2–0
14	25 May 1994	Stadionul Steaua, Bucharest, Romania	Nigeria	1–0	2–0	Friendly
15	3 July 1994	Rose Bowl, Pasadena, United States	Argentina	1–0	3–2	1994 FIFA World Cup
16				2–1
17	12 October 1994	Wembley Stadium, London, England	England	1–0	1–1	Friendly
18	26 April 1995	Hüseyin Avni Aker Stadium, Trabzon, Turkey	Azerbaijan	2–1	4–1	UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying
19	20 August 1997	Stadionul Steaua, Bucharest, Romania	Macedonia	4–1	4–2	1998 World Cup qualification
20	6 June 1998	Stadionul Ilie Oană, Ploiești, Romania	Moldova	3–0	5–1	Friendly

Honours

Player

Club

Steaua București

• Divizia A: 1986–87, 1988–89, 1992–93, 1993–94
• Cupa României: 1986–87, 1988–89, 1991–92
• Supercupa României: 1998
• European Cup runner-up: 1988–89

Individual

• Divizia A Golden Boot: 1992–93

External links

• Hogg, Tony (2005). Who's Who of West Ham United. Profile Sports Media. ISBN 1-903135-50-8.
• Ilie Dumitrescu at National-Football-Teams.com
• Official FCSB profile Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine