sport.wikisort.org - Athlete

Nicolae Dobrin (Romanian pronunciation: [nikoˈla.e doˈbrin]; 26 August 1947 – 26 October 2007) was a Romanian footballer who played as an attacking midfielder and a manager.

Nicolae Dobrin

Dobrin with Argeș Pitești in the 1970s
Personal information
Date of birth	(1947-08-26)26 August 1947
Place of birth	Pitești, Romania
Date of death	26 October 2007(2007-10-26) (aged 60)
Place of death	Pitești, Romania
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s)	Attacking midfielder
Youth career
1959–1962	Dinamo Pitești
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1962–1981	Argeș Pitești	390	(106)
1981–1982	FCM Târgovişte[lower-alpha 1]	13	(5)
1982–1983	Argeș Pitești	5	(0)
1985–1986	CS Botoșani
Total		408	(111)
National team
1966–1980	Romania[lower-alpha 2]	48	(6)
Teams managed
1982–1985	Argeș Pitești
1985–1986	CS Botoșani
1992	Argeș Pitești
1998–1999	Argeș Pitești
2001	Argeș Pitești
Honours Argeș Pitești Winner Romanian League 1971 Winner Romanian League 1979 Runner-up Romanian Cup 1965 Runner-up Romanian League 1968 Runner-up Romanian League 1978
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Nicknamed Gâscanul ("The Gander") or Prințul din Trivale ("The Prince of Trivale"), he is considered one of Romania's greatest footballers. Renowned for his dribbling ability, Dobrin received the Romanian Footballer of the Year award on three occasions, in 1966, 1967, and 1971, and has a stadium in native Pitești named after him.

Club career

Nicolae Dobrin was born on 26 August 1947 in Pitești, Argeș County, nicknamed Gâscanul ("The Gander") or Prințul din Trivale ("The Prince of Trivale"), he is considered one of Romania's greatest footballers.[1][5][6] He started playing football as a child with his friends on a field which they nicknamed "Maracana" that was close to the Argeș river and one day in 1959 some players from Dinamo Pitești came to play with them, Dobrin's team winning with 12–2 with him scoring 6 goals.[5][6][7] After the game, Leonte Ianovschi, a coach at the youth center of Dinamo Pitești told him to come at the club's training sessions.[5] Dobrin played for the first time in a Divizia A match when he was still 14 years old, on 1 July 1962, coach Ștefan Vasile using him in a match between Știința Cluj and Dinamo Pitești which ended with a 5–1 loss, thus holding the record of the youngest debutant in the competition.[8][9][10] He played for Argeș Pitești most of his career, winning under the guidance of coach Florin Halagian two Divizia A titles, in the one that was won in the 1971–72 season he was the team's top-goalscorer with 15 goals scored in 23 matches.[11][12] At the winning of the 1978–79 title, Dobrin contributed with 9 goals scored in 22 matches.[1] He was decisive in the final game of the season against Dinamo București in which he scored the final goal of the 4–3 victory, his performance being appreciated by journalist Ioan Chirilă who gave him a 10 in the Sportul newspaper.[8][13][14][15]

He played 25 games and scored 8 goals in European competitions (including 12 games and 2 goals in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup), in his first season played in European competitions he scored one goal in six games in the 1966–67 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, as Dinamo Pitești eliminated Sevilla FC and Toulouse FC in the first two rounds, being defeated in the third round with 1–0 on aggregate by Dinamo Zagreb who eventually won the competition.[1][16] In the winter of 1966, because the French people were impressed that they defeated Toulouse FC, Dinamo Pitești was invited to participate at the friendly tournament organized in Marseille called Tele-magazine International Cup, where two emissaries of Inter Milan made an offer of $250.000 to Dinamo Pitești in order to transfer Dobrin at Helenio Herrera's team, but Dinamo's officials did not want to negotiate, being fearful of possible consequences they would face by Romania's communist regime.[16] In the 1972–73 European Cup, Argeș Pitești won a home game with 2–1 against Real Madrid in which Dobrin opened the score but lost the second leg with 3–1, however this was enough to Real Madrid's president Santiago Bernabéu to want him at the club, making a potential record breaking offer of $2 million and a nocturne installation for the 1 Mai stadium from Pitești.[6][16][17][18][19][20] Because of the communist regime in Romania in that period, Bernabéu had to hold talks with dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu himself, but could not persuade him, because Dobrin was regarded as a "national treasure" and such values could not be "estranged", especially not playing in a team from the country of Francisco Franco's fascist dictatorship. It is said that this was the biggest regret of Dobrin's life, although he did eventually end up playing in Francisco Gento's testimonial, in the famous "blanco" shirt of Real Madrid.[17][18][21] On this occasion Santiago Bernabéu made a last unsuccessful attempt to keep the Romanian player in Madrid.[17][18][22] In the 1978–79 UEFA Cup, Argeș Pitești defeated in the home game Valencia with 2–1, Dobrin opening the score from a indirect free kick and according to his former teammate Andrei Speriatu, after the game, Mario Kempes who just won the World Cup with Argentina, being the top-goalscorer and best player of the tournament went to Dobrin and told him:"You are a great player!", however Argeș Pitești lost in the second leg with 5–2.[13][23][24]

In 1981 Dobrin went to play for FCM Târgovişte in Divizia B, scoring 17 goals in his first season, helping the team gain promotion to the Divizia A, where in the following season he played 13 games and scored 5 goals.[1][6][25][26] In 1982 he returned to Argeș Pitești as a player-manager, making his last appearance as a player on 14 June 1983 in a 2–0 victory against Bihor Oradea.[1][6] In the 1985–86 Divizia B season, Dobrin came out of retirement, being a player-manager at CS Botoșani.[1][6][27] During his whole career, Dobrin played 409 Divizia A matches in which he scored 111 goals and he was the Romanian Footballer of the Year in 1966, 1967 and 1971.[1][6][4] In 2003, the Local Council of Pitești decided to rename Argeș Pitești's stadium into Stadionul Nicolae Dobrin in his honor.[28]

International career

Nicolae Dobrin played 47 games and scored 6 goals for Romania, making his debut on 1 June 1966 under coach Ilie Oană in a friendly which ended with a 1–0 loss against West Germany played on Südweststadion from Ludwigshafen.[2][29] He made a good impression in the game showing his dribbling abilities in front of West Germany's experimented midfielder Horst Szymaniak and after the game, the former World Cup winner Fritz Walter went into Romania's locker room telling Dobrin:"Boy, if you're good and will drinking a lot of milk, you're going to be a great player!", the press from West Germany also praised Dobrin, the newspaper 5 Uhr Blatt wrote the next day:"Game coordinator Dobrin has impressed with his demonstrated high class" and Die Rheinpfalz wrote:"Of special class is Dobrin, who for his age proves an impressive maturity and a brilliant technique".[6][13][16] He played four games and scored two goals against Italy and Switzerland at the Euro 1968 qualifiers and played three games in which he scored one goal in a 1–0 victory against Portugal at the successful 1970 World Cup qualifiers.[2] He was selected by coach Angelo Niculescu to be part of Romania's 1970 World Cup squad but did not play in any match, the reasons Niculescu didn't use him are unclear but the fact that he did not play is considered one of the most controversial moments in the history of the Romanian football.[6][30][31] He played six matches and scored two goals at the 1972 Euro qualifiers, managing to reach the quarter-finals where Romania was defeated by Hungary, who advanced to the final tournament.[2] He went to play three games in which he scored one goal at the 1974 World Cup qualifiers, three appearances at the Euro 1976 qualifiers, one appearance at the Euro 1980 qualifiers, two at the 1977–80 Balkan Cup, making his last appearance for the national team on 2 April 1980 in a friendly which ended 2–2 against East Germany.[2]

International goals

Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Dobrin goal.[2]

List of international goals scored by Nicolae Dobrin

#	Date	Venue	Cap	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	26 November 1966	Stadio San Paolo, Naples, Italy	5	Italy	1–0	1–3	Euro 1968 qualifiers
2	24 May 1967	Hardturm, Zürich, Switzerland	11	Switzerland	1–7	1–7	Euro 1968 qualifiers
3	12 October 1969	Stadionul 23 August, Bucharest, Romania	18	Portugal	1–0	1–0	1970 World Cup qualifiers
4	14 November 1971	Stadionul 23 August, Bucharest, Romania	27	Czechoslovakia	2–1	2–1	1972 Euro qualifiers
5	14 May 1972	Stadionul 23 August, Bucharest, Romania	29	Hungary	1–1	2–2	1972 Euro quarter-finals
6	29 October 1972	Stadionul 23 August, Bucharest, Romania	33	Albania	1–0	2–0	1974 World Cup qualifiers

Managerial career

Nicolae Dobrin started his managerial career in the 1982–83 Divizia A season when he was a player-manager at Argeș Pitești.[6] He coached Argeș Pitești on several occasions, managing the club in a total of 138 Divizia A matches.[6] His only coaching experience except the ones at Argeș Pitești was in the 1985–86 Divizia B season when he was a player-manager at CS Botoșani.[6][27]

Death

Nicolae Dobrin started smoking when he was about 8–9 years old, this habit causing him lung cancer.[5][32][33] He died on 26 October 2007 in the intensive care unit of the County Hospital in Pitești after multiple organ failure.[32][33] On 29 October 2007, his funeral ceremony, held at St. George's Cathedral and at St. George's Military Cemetery, was attended by more than 5,000 people.[34][35]

Honours

Argeș Pitești

• Divizia A: 1971–72, 1978–79[1]
• Cupa României runner-up: 1964–65[36]

FCM Târgovişte

• Divizia B: 1980–81[1]

Individual

• Romanian Footballer of the Year: 1966, 1967, 1971[1]

Notes

References

External links

• Official website (in Romanian)

• Nicolae Dobrin at National-Football-Teams.com
• Nicolae Dobrin at WorldFootball.net

На других языках

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[de] Nicolae Dobrin

Nicolae Dobrin (* 26. August 1947 in Pitești; † 26. Oktober 2007 ebenda) war ein rumänischer Fußballspieler. Er wurde dreimal zu Rumäniens Fußballer des Jahres gewählt und bestritt 408 Spiele in der höchsten rumänischen Fußballliga, der Divizia A. Außerdem nahm er an der Fußball-Weltmeisterschaft 1970 teil.

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- [en] Nicolae Dobrin

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[es] Nicolae Dobrin

Nicolae Dobrin (Pitești, Rumania, 26 de agosto de 1947--Pitești, Rumania, 26 de octubre de 2007) fue un futbolista y entrenador de fútbol rumano. Jugó de volante y durante casi todos los años de su carrera como futbolista activó para el FC Argeș Pitești, el equipo de su ciudad natal. En Pitești hay un barrio llamado Trivale, de ahí viene su apodo "Prințul din Trivale" ("El príncipe de Trivale"). Ganó la liga rumana con FC Argeș en 1971-1972 y 1978-1979, los únicos triunfos domésticos de ese equipo, Dobrin siendo la pieza clave de esos éxitos. Nicolae Dobrin es considerado por muchos el mejor jugador rumano de los años 1970, y uno de los más talentosos jugadores de la historia del fútbol. El régimen comunista que había en Rumania entonces le prohibió el traspaso a Real Madrid CF. Hoy el estadio de la ciudad de Pitești lleva su nombre en su honor.

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[fr] Nicolae Dobrin

Nicolae Dobrin, né le 26 août 1947 à Pitești, mort le 26 octobre 2007 à Pitești, également connu sous les surnoms de Prince de Trivale ou encore Gâscanul (le jars en roumain), était un joueur international roumain et un entraîneur de football. L'histoire retiendra de lui comme l'un des plus grands footballeurs roumains, un technicien hors pair, roi du dribble, des feintes et des passes, et un maître dans l'exécution de coups francs. Il a été élu trois fois meilleur joueur de la Roumanie, en 1966, 1967 et 1971.

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[it] Nicolae Dobrin

Nicolae Dobrin (Pitești, 26 agosto 1947 – Pitești, 26 ottobre 2007) è stato un allenatore di calcio e calciatore rumeno, di ruolo centrocampista offensivo.

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[ru] Добрин, Николае

Никола́е Добри́н (рум. Nicolae Dobrin; 26 августа 1947, Питешти, Королевство Румыния — 26 октября 2007, Питешти, Румыния) — румынский футболист, полузащитник. После окончания футбольной карьеры занимался тренерской деятельностью. В Питешти в его честь назван стадион.

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