Eugen Trică (born 5 August 1976) is a Romanian football manager and former footballer who played as a midfielder, currently in charge of Liga II club Concordia Chiajna.
![]() Eugen Trică in August 2009 | |||
Personal information | |||
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Date of birth | (1976-08-05) 5 August 1976 (age 46) | ||
Place of birth | Teslui, Romania | ||
Height | 1.79 m (5 ft 10 in) | ||
Position(s) | Attacking midfielder | ||
Club information | |||
Current team | Concordia Chiajna (head coach) | ||
Youth career | |||
1988–1993 | Universitatea Craiova | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
1994–1998 | Universitatea Craiova | 91 | (14) |
1998–2003 | Steaua București | 130 | (21) |
2003–2005 | Litex Lovech | 54 | (22) |
2005 | Maccabi Tel Aviv | 10 | (1) |
2006–2007 | CSKA Sofia | 34 | (17) |
2007–2008 | CFR Cluj | 46 | (15) |
2009 | Anorthosis | 12 | (1) |
2009 | CFR Cluj | 1 | (0) |
2009–2010 | Universitatea Craiova | 16 | (2) |
2010–2011 | Concordia Chiajna | 22 | (6) |
Total | 416 | (99) | |
National team | |||
1996–1998 | Romania U21 | 20 | (6) |
1999–2007 | Romania | 4 | (0) |
Teams managed | |||
2012–2013 | Juventus București | ||
2013 | CFR Cluj | ||
2013 | Al-Nahda (assistant) | ||
2013–2014 | UTA Arad | ||
2014 | Juventus București | ||
2015 | CFR Cluj | ||
2015 | Metalul Reșița | ||
2015–2016 | Ittihad (assistant) | ||
2017–2018 | Politehnica Iași (assistant) | ||
2019 | Sportul Snagov | ||
2019–2020 | FC U Craiova | ||
2020–2021 | Turris Turnu Măgurele | ||
2021 | FC U Craiova | ||
2021 | Viitorul Târgu Jiu | ||
2021 | FC U Craiova | ||
2022 | Viitorul Târgu Jiu | ||
2022 | Metaloglobus București | ||
2022– | Concordia Chiajna | ||
*Club domestic league appearances and goals |
Eugen Trică started his career at Universitatea Craiova as a youth, being promoted in the first team in 1995, making his Liga I debut on 17 June 1995 in a 5–4 loss against Electroputere Craiova.[1] He played 91 Liga I games for "U" Craiova in which he scored 14 goals, managing to reach the 1998 Cupa României final in 1998 which was lost in front of Rapid București.[1][2] He then joined Steaua București in 1998, winning the championship in the 2000–01 season in which he played 30 games and scored 7 goals, also scoring two goals in Steaua's 2–1 victory against Dinamo București in the 2001 Supercupa României.[1][3][4] Litex Lovech was the third club Trică played for after being transferred in 2003, where he scored 22 goals in 54 league matches, winning the Bulgarian Cup in 2004.[1] He joined the squad of Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2005, but after only a few months he returned to Bulgaria, this time at CSKA Sofia where he played alongside fellow Romanians Florentin Petre and Alexandru Pițurcă, managing to win the 2005–06 Bulgarian Cup and the 2006 Bulgarian Supercup.[1][5][6] Trică was one of the highest scoring foreign players in the Bulgarian league with 39 goals to his name.[7] In 2007, Trică returned to Romania, signing with CFR Cluj, where he was part of the team that won for the first time in the club's history the championship and the cup in 2008 with Trică being the team's top scorer with 13 goals in 31 league matches, also playing five games in the 2008–09 Champions League group stage.[1][8][9] He moved in 2009 to Anorthosis in Cyprus, but after the end of the season, he returned to CFR Cluj where he won the 2009 Supercupa României.[1][10] In 2009, Eugen Trică came back to his first club, Universitatea Craiova, but after a year, in 2010, he joined Concordia Chiajna, a team from the second Romanian division which he helped promote to Liga I for the first time in history and after a few games in the first division for Concordia, in October 2011, Trică decided to end his playing career.[1][11][12]
Eugen Trică played four games for Romania, making his debut on 3 March 1999 when coach Victor Pițurcă introduced him in the 74th minute to replace Dennis Șerban in a friendly which ended with a 2–0 victory against Estonia.[13][14] His following game was a 1–0 victory in a friendly against Ukraine and the last two were appearances at the successful Euro 2008 qualifiers, a 3–1 victory against Belarus and a 1–0 loss against Bulgaria.[13]
Romania national team | ||
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Year | Apps | Goals |
1999 | 1 | 0 |
2000 | 0 | 0 |
2001 | 1 | 0 |
2002 | 0 | 0 |
2003 | 0 | 0 |
2004 | 0 | 0 |
2005 | 0 | 0 |
2006 | 0 | 0 |
2007 | 2 | 0 |
Total | 4 | 0 |
Eugen Trică started his coaching career in 2012 at Juventus București, after which he coached various other teams, including as an assistant coach, his biggest performances being a runner-up position in a Cupa României final with CFR Cluj and two promotions from the third league to the second and from the second to the first with FC U Craiova.[4][15][16][17]
On 22 September 2022, he became the head coach of Liga II side Concordia Chiajna.[18]
Eugen Trică was married to Lorena, daughter of Ilie Balaci, one of the best Romanian football players from the past.[19] They divorced in 2015.[20] Their son, Atanas Trică is also a footballer.[21]
Universitatea Craiova
Steaua București
Litex Lovech
CSKA Sofia
CFR Cluj
CFR Cluj
FC U Craiova 1948
Current Liga II managers | |
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CS Concordia Chiajna – current squad | |
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Eugen Trică managerial positions | |||||||||||||||||||||
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