Club career
Costel Orac was born on 22 January 1959 in Galați, starting to play junior level football in 1970 at local club, Politehnica, moving one year later at neighboring club, FCM . [1] [2] He made his Divizia A debut on 22 August 1976, playing for FCM Galați in a 1–0 loss in front of Jiul Petroșani, the team relegating after his first season but he stayed with the club, helping it promote back to the first league after two years. [1]
After playing five seasons in the first two leagues for FCM Galați, Orac was transferred at Dinamo București together with teammate Nicușor Vlad where for several years he would form a successful offensive trio with Ionel Augustin and Gheorghe Mulțescu, together being called "AMO" by the fans, a nickname inspired by their initials from the first letters of their family name. [1] [2] [3] [4] In his first three seasons spent at Dinamo, he won the league title in all of them, in the first, coach Valentin Stănescu used him in 32 matches in which he scored a personal record of nine goals, in the following two he worked with Nicolae Dumitru who gave him 30 appearances in which he netted four times in the first and 23 games with five goals in the second. [1] [2] [5] Orac also won three Cupa României with The Red Dogs , playing in all the finals, in the first one he played all the minutes in the 3–2 over FC Baia Mare, at the second he scored the decisive goal in the 2–1 victory against rivals Steaua București and at the one from 1986, under the guidance of coach Mircea Lucescu he played the whole match in the 1–0 victory with Steaua who had recently just won the European Cup. [1] [2] [6] He appeared in 26 matches in which he scored five goals for Dinamo in European competitions, making some notable performances as helping it eliminate Inter Milan by scoring the decisive goal of the 3–2 victory from the second leg in the 1981–82 UEFA Cup season and played seven games in the 1983–84 European Cup campaign, scoring one goal in a 3–0 victory from the first leg that helped them eliminate title holders, Hamburg and his side's only goal in the 3–1 aggregate loss from the semi-finals where the campaign ended in front of Liverpool. [1] [2] [7] [8] [9]
In 1989, Orac alongside teammates Dumitru Moraru and Alexandru Nicolae were transferred from Dinamo to Victoria București where because of a conflict he had with coach Florin Halagian, he played only two Divizia A games in which he scored one goal and made one appearance in the 1989–90 UEFA Cup in which he gave an assist in a 1–1 with Valencia. [1] [2] [3] [7] [8] After the 1989 Romanian Revolution, Orac went to play in the Nationalliga B where he was recommended by coach Mircea Lucescu to Étoile Carouge's coach Radu Nunweiller. [1] [2] [7] [8] [10] In Switzerland, after an injury, Orac found out at a medical control that he has problems with his back, returning to play at Dinamo for a short while, making his last appearance in Divizia A on 11 May 1991 in a 1–1 with Universitatea Craiova after which he went to play in Divizia B at Unirea Focșani where he retired after one season. [1] [2] [7] [8] During his whole career, Costel Orac played 308 Divizia A matches in which he scored 54 goals and made 27 appearances with five goals in European competitions. [1] [2] [7] [8]
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