Mircea Lucescu Romanian football coach, head coach of FC Shakhtar Donetsk Date of Birth: 29.07.1945 Country: Ukraine

Biography of Mircea Lucescu

Mircea Lucescu, a Romanian football coach, was born on July 29, 1945 in Bucharest. He began his football career playing for Dinamo Bucharest (1963-1965, 1967-1977) and Politehnica Bucharest (1966). Lucescu also played for the provincial club, Corvinul, where he became a player-coach and led the team to the top division in his first season.

As a player, Lucescu won multiple championships with Dinamo Bucharest and represented the Romanian national team in 74 matches, scoring 9 goals. After retiring as a player in 1982, Lucescu was offered the position of head coach for the national team.

Under Lucescu's leadership, the Romanian team qualified for the European Championship by defeating Sweden, Czech Republic, and Italy in the qualifying tournament. However, they finished as runners-up, losing to Portugal and the silver medalist, West Germany, in France.

After failing to qualify for the 1986 World Cup, Lucescu returned to club management and became the coach of Dinamo Bucharest (1985-1990). He then had coaching stints in Italy with Pisa (1990-1991), Brescia (1991-1996), and Reggiana (1996-1997). In 1997, he returned to Romania and took charge of Rapid Bucharest, leading the team to second place and eventually winning the championship.

Lucescu also had a brief time coaching Inter Milan (1998-1999) and won two Romanian championships with Dinamo and Rapid. He later spent four years coaching in Turkey with Galatasaray (2000-2002) and Besiktas (2002-2004), winning the Turkish championship twice and the UEFA Super Cup in 2000 with Galatasaray.

In 2005, Lucescu became the head coach of Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine, where he achieved great success. He won multiple Ukrainian championships, Ukrainian Cups, and Ukrainian Super Cups with the team. Under his guidance, Shakhtar Donetsk also won the UEFA Cup in 2009.

On April 17, 2009, after leading Shakhtar Donetsk to the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup, Lucescu signed a new contract with the club for another two years. On May 20, 2009, Shakhtar Donetsk, under Lucescu's leadership, won the last edition of the UEFA Cup, known as the UEFA Cup 2008-2009.