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Viorel Mateianu (1 June 1938 – 25 November 1997) was a Romanian football player and coach.

Viorel Mateianu

Personal information
Date of birth	(1938-06-01)1 June 1938
Place of birth	Lipănești, Romania
Date of death	25 November 1997(1997-11-25) (aged 59)
Place of death	Bucharest, Romania
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1952	Flacăra Boldești
1958–1961	Progresul CPCS București
1957–1958	Progresul București[lower-alpha 1]	18	(13)
1958–1961	Știința Cluj	72	(21)
1961–1962	Steaua București	15	(3)
1963–1970	Progresul București[lower-alpha 2]	140	(25)
1970–1973	TUS Wannsee Berlin
1973	Alemannia Aachen
Total		245	(62)
National team
1957–1961	Romania U-23[2]	4	(0)
1961	Romania B[2]	2	(0)
1960–1966	Romania	6	(2)
Teams managed
1973–1976	Progresul București
1976–1981	Baia Mare
1981	Progresul București
1981–1982	Dacia Unirea Brăila
1982–1983	Petrolul Ploiești
1983–1984	Dacia Unirea Brăila
1985	Jiul Petroșani
1986	Danubiana București
1986	Bihor Oradea
1987	Drobeta-Turnu Severin
1988	Bihor Oradea
1988–1989	UTA Arad
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Club career

Mateianu was born in Lipănești, Prahova and started playing football in the Romanian lower leagues at Flacăra Boldești and Progresul CPCS București.[1][3][4][5][6] He made his Divizia A debut on 25 August 1957, playing for Progresul București in a 3–2 victory in which he scored a goal against Energia Petroșani, shortly after his debut, Mateianu was nicknamed "Little Alfredo Di Stéfano".[1][5][7] In 1957, during a football tournament held in San Sebastián, Spain in which he participated with one of Romania's youth teams, Mateianu had an offer to play for Real Madrid, which he refused, not wanting to risk to never see his parents again, as he could have not been allowed to return to the country by the communist regime.[3][7] In 1958 he went to play for three seasons and a half at Știința Cluj, where he scored 21 goals in 72 Divizia A appearances, a period in which he also graduated the Faculty of Law.[1][5][6][8] Then he went at Steaua București where he won the 1961–62 Cupa României, opening the score in the 5–1 victory from the final against Rapid București.[9][10] He returned to Progresul București where he spent 8 seasons, after which he was allowed by the communist authorities to play in Western Europe, going in West Germany at TUS Wannsee Berlin and Alemannia Aachen where he ended his playing career.[1][10][5][6][7][8] Mateianu has a total of 220 matches played and 62 goals scored in Divizia A.[1]

International career

Viorel Mateianu played six games and scored two goals at international level for Romania, making his debut under coach Augustin Botescu at the 1960 European Nations' Cup quarter-finals where they were defeated by Czechoslovakia, who advanced to the final tournament.[11][12][13] He played three games and scored two goals at the 1966 World Cup qualifiers, making his last appearance for the national team in a friendly which ended with a 2–0 loss against East Germany.[11]

International goals

Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Mateianu goal.[11]

Goal	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	2 May 1965	23 August Stadium, Bucharest, Romania	Turkey	2–0	3–0	1966 World Cup qualifiers
2	30 May 1965	23 August Stadium, Bucharest, Romania	Czechoslovakia	1–0	1–0	1966 World Cup qualifiers

Coaching career

In 1973, just a few months after returning from Germany where he graduated a coaching course, Mateianu was given the role of head coach at his former club, Progresul București, then playing in Divizia B, managing to promote the team back to Divizia A in the 1975–76 season, being dismissed in the beginning of the following season.[3][4][6][8][10][14]

He went to coach Divizia B team Baia Mare in 1976 and with a team he formed mostly with local players from Maramureș County, Mateianu managed to earn a promotion in Divizia A, where the team finished twice on the 4th position.[3][4][5][6][8][10][14] During his period spent at Baia Mare, Mateianu became known for his coaching innovations, having many tactical schemes which he gave them names like Morișca ("The Hand-Mill") in which the strikers and midfielders swap places during the game, being considered an early form of tiki-taka, Momeala mare ("The Big bait"), Momeala mică ("The Little bait"), Căciula ("The Hat"), Paralelogramul ("The Parallelogram"), Americana ("The American"), Fundul de sac ("The bottom of the bag") or Șarpele ("The Snake") are only a few examples.[3][4][5][7][8][10][14] He also believed that the best football practice for the footballers was to play football, that is why while the rest of the clubs used to organize long cantonments before the games and training sessions in the mountains during the preparation period from the season brakes, he used to put his team to play many friendly games.[5][6][8][14] Mircea Lucescu was very impressed by Mateianu's working methods, coming to study his training sessions, sometimes asking Mateianu to extend his training sessions so he can see more of his methods, also he went to his home where they would talk all night about football and draw tactical game schemes together.[4][5][6][8][10][14]

Honours

Player

Progresul București

• Divizia B: 1965–66, 1969–70[1]

Steaua București

• Cupa României: 1961–62[9]

Manager

Progresul București

• Divizia B: 1975–76[3][4][10]

Baia Mare

• Divizia B: 1977–78[3][4][10]

Notes

References

External links

• Viorel Mateianu at WorldFootball.net

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