Emil Dumitriu

Emil Dumitriu

Dumitriu with Rapid București in 1963
Personal information
Date of birth	(1942-11-05) 5 November 1942 (age 82)
Place of birth	Bucharest, Romania [1]
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Position(s)	Forward
Youth career
1957	Locomotiva București
1957–1961	Progresul CPCS București
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1961–1962	Jiul Petroșani	8	(2)
1962	Viitorul București	12	(7)
1963–1968	Rapid București	129	(46)
1969–1971	Steagul Roșu Brașov	27	(5)
1971–1972	Dinamo București	22	(4)
1972–1973	Rapid București	37	(4)
1974	Chimia Râmnicu Vâlcea	6	(0)
1974–1976	Progresul București
Total		241+	(68+)
International career
1962–1966	Romania U23	13	(4)
1964	Romania Olympic	1	(0)
1965–1968	Romania	6	(3)
Medal record Men's football Representing   Romania UEFA European Under-18 Championship Winner 1962 Romania
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Emil Dumitriu (born 5 November 1942), commonly known as Nichi Dumitriu or Dumitriu II, is a Romanian former footballer who played as a forward. ^[2]

Club career

Dumitriu was born on 5 November 1942 in Bucharest, Romania, and began playing junior-level football in 1957 at Locomotiva București, then he went to Progresul CPCS București. ^{[1] [3] [4]} He made his Divizia A debut on 25 March 1962, playing for Jiul Petroșani in a 3–2 victory against UTA Arad. ^{[1] [3] [4]} In the following season he played in the first half for Viitorul București, going for the second half to Rapid București. ^{[1] [3] [4]}

Rapid Bucharest's 1966–67 Divizia A winning squad.

During his time at Rapid, Dumitriu made a successful partnership in the team's offence with Ion Ionescu, winning the first league title in the club's history in the 1966–67 season in which he scored 12 goals in 26 matches under coach Valentin Stănescu. ^{[1] [3] [4] [5]} He made four appearances in European competitions for Rapid (including one in the Inter-cities Fairs Cup), most notably helping The Railwaymen eliminate Trakia Plovdiv in the 1967–68 European Cup and advance to the following round where they were eliminated by Juventus. ^{[1] [3] [4] [6]} He also won two Balkans Cup, netting a brace in the 2–0 win in the second leg against Farul Constanța in the final of the 1964–66 edition. ^[4] For the way he played in 1966, Dumitriu was placed fourth in the ranking for the Romanian Footballer of the Year award. ^[7] He suffered a lung illness which kept him off the field for one and a half years and in 1968, Stănescu took him to Steagul Roșu Brașov, aiming to help him relaunch his career. ^{[1] [3] [4]} In 1971, Dumitriu went to play for one season at Dinamo București. ^{[1] [3] [4]} Afterwards he returned for two seasons to Rapid where he made his last Divizia A appearance on 10 March 1974 in a 2–0 away loss to Argeș Pitești, having a total of 235 matches with 68 goals in the competition. ^{[1] [3] [4]} Dumitriu ended his career by playing three seasons in Divizia B, the first one at Chimia Râmnicu Vâlcea and the other two at Progresul București, helping both teams earn promotion to Divizia A. ^{[1] [3] [4]}

International career

Dumitriu (pictured left in 1963) during a friendly under-23 international victory against England.

Dumitriu played six games and scored three goals at international level for Romania, making his debut under coach Ilie Oană on 23 October 1965 in a 2–1 away loss to Turkey in the 1966 World Cup qualifiers. ^{[9] [10]} He played two games in the Euro 1968 qualifiers in which he scored a hat-trick in a 7–0 victory against Cyprus after which the opponents captain Kostas Panayiotou said:"Dumitriu's game is simply confusing. He is an opponent who creates nightmares". ^{[4] [9]} He made his last appearance for the national team on 5 June 1968 in a friendly match that ended in a 0–0 draw against the Netherlands. ^[9]

Dumitriu also played 13 games for Romania U23, scoring four goals. ^[11] He appeared in a friendly match for Romania's Olympic team, that ended in a 2–1 away victory against Yugoslavia. ^[12] He was selected by coach Silviu Ploeșteanu to be part of the squad for the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, but he did not play in any games due to an injury sustained during a training session caused by his teammate Mircea Petescu. ^{[4] [13] [14]}

International goals

Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Dumitriu goal. ^[9]

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	23 April 1967	Stadionul 23. August, Bucharest, Romania	Cyprus	3–0	7–0	UEFA Euro 1968 qualifying
2				5–0
3				6–0

Personal life

Dumitriu is the older brother of Dumitru Dumitriu (Dumitriu III), who also appeared internationally for Romania and played for Rapid București before becoming a manager, and Constantin Dumitriu (Dumitriu IV) who won the Romanian championship with Steaua București. ^{[3] [4] [15] [16]} In 1987, he settled in Athens, Greece, where he married a Greek woman. ^{[3] [4]}

Honours

Rapid București

• Divizia A: 1966–67 ^[1]
• Balkans Cup: 1963–64, 1964–66 ^[4]

Chimia Râmnicu Vâlcea

• Divizia B: 1973–74 ^[1]

Progresul București

• Divizia B: 1975–76 ^[1]

Individual

• Gazeta Sporturilor Romanian Footballer of the Year (fourth place): 1966 ^[7]

See also

• List of European association football families

References

1. "Emil Dumitriu II". RomanianSoccer. Archived from the original on 11 February 2019. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
2. Emil Dumitriu at WorldFootball.net
3. "INTERVIU/ Nichi Dumitriu, fosta glorie a Rapidului: "Copos m-a ofertat să vin în Giuleşti pe un salariu de 100 pe euro"" [INTERVIEW / Nichi Dumitriu, the former glory of Rapid: "Copos offered me to come to Giulesti on a salary of 100 euro"] (in Romanian). Adevarul.ro. 19 November 2013. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
4. "Nichi Dumitriu, "Fachirul din Giulești", interviu de colecție în ziua în care a împlinit 80 de ani: "Cu echipa de atunci și VAR-ul de azi, Giuleștiul ar fi avut 3-4 campionate în plus!"" [Nichi Dumitriu, "Fachirul din Giulești", collection interview on the day he turned 80: "With the team back then and today's VAR, Giulești would have had 3-4 more championships!"] (in Romanian). Gsp.ro. 5 November 2022. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
5. "Romania National Champions". RomanianSoccer. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
6. "Emil Dumitriu - Champions League 1967/1968". WorldFootball. Retrieved 5 March 2024.
7. "Romania - Player of the Year Awards". Rsssf.org. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
8. "Romania v England, 02 June 1963". 11v11.com. Retrieved 14 October 2019.
9. "Emil Dumitriu profile". European Football. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
10. "Turkey 2-1 Romania". European Football. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
11. "Emil Dumitriu profile". 11v11. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
12. "Emil Dumitriu. Friendlies 1964". WorldFootball. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
13. "Opinie dură despre naționala olimpică de fotbal: "Nu au talent, ăștia n-au jucat pe maidane. Din dude nu poți să faci compot de vișine"" [Harsh opinion about the national Olympic football team: "They have no talent, they didn't play on the fields. You can't make cherry compote out of mulberries"] (in Romanian). Gsp.ro. 26 July 2021. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
14. "Cum a fost ultima participare a României la Olimpiadă, în 1964, când "tricolorii" au pierdut dramatic sfertul cu Ungaria" [How was Romania's last participation in the Olympics, in 1964, when "The Tricolors" dramatically lost the quarter to Hungary] (in Romanian). Theplaymaker.ro. 27 June 2019. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
15. "Remember. Hunedoreni la Campionatele Mondiale de fotbal (IV)" [Remember. Hunedoreni at the World Football Championships (IV)] (in Romanian). gazetadedimineata.ro. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
16. "Frații Benzar sunt a noua pereche de frați din istoria "roș-albaștrilor". Unii n-au jucat niciodată împreună. Alții au evoluat doar în câte un singur joc!" [The Benzar brothers are the ninth pair of brothers in the history of the "red-blues". Some have never played together. Others have evolved in just one game!] (in Romanian). Libertatea.ro. Retrieved 12 October 2020.

External links

• Emil Dumitriu at Soccerway
• Emil Dumitriu at National-Football-Teams.com