Emil Dumitriu

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Emil Dumitriu
Emil Dumitru (fotbal) 1963 (cropped).jpg
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 Forward
Youth career
1957 Locomotiva București
1957–1961 Progresul CPCS București
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(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
Total241+(68+)
International career
1962 Romania U18
1962–1966 Romania U23 13 (4)
1964 Romania Olympic 1 (0)
1965–1968 Romania 6 (3)
Medal record
Men's football
Representing Flag of Romania (1952-1965).svg  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]

Contents

Club career

Dumitriu was born on 5 November 1942 in Bucharest, Romania and began playing junior-level football in 1957 at Locomotiva București, then joined Progresul CPCS București. [1] [3] [4] He made his Divizia A debut on 25 March 1962, playing for Jiul Petroșani under coach Bazil Marian in a 3–2 victory against UTA Arad. [1] [3] [4] [5] 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. FC Rapid Bucuresti - group photo 1966-67.jpg
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] [6] 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] [7] He also won two Balkans Cups, 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. [8] 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] There, on 4 June 1972 he netted the only goal in a derby win against Steaua București. [9] 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. Romania-Anglia 1963.jpg
Dumitriu (pictured left in 1963) during a friendly under-23 international victory against England.

Under the guidance of coaches Nicolae Dumitrescu and Gheorghe Ola, Dumitriu helped Romania's under-18 national team win the 1962 European championship. [11] He scored a goal in the 4–0 win over Turkey in the semi-finals and another one in the 4–1 victory against Yugoslavia in the final. [11] Between 1962 and 1966, he played 13 games for Romania U23, scoring four goals. [12] He appeared in a friendly match for Romania's Olympic team, that ended in a 2–1 away victory against Yugoslavia. [13] 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] [14] [15]

Dumitriu played six games and scored three goals 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. [16] [17] 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] [16] He made his last appearance for the national team on 5 June 1968 in a 0–0 friendly draw against the Netherlands. [16]

International goals

Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Dumitriu goal. [16]
No.DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
123 April 1967 Stadionul 23. August, Bucharest, RomaniaFlag of Cyprus (1960-2006).svg  Cyprus 3–07–0 UEFA Euro 1968 qualifying
25–0
36–0

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] [18] [19] In 1987, he settled in Athens, Greece, where he married a Greek woman. [3] [4]

Honours

Rapid București

Chimia Râmnicu Vâlcea

Progresul București

Romania U18

Individual

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 "Emil Dumitriu II". RomanianSoccer. Archived from the original on 11 February 2019. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  2. ↑ Emil Dumitriu at WorldFootball.net
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "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. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 "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. ↑ "Jiul Petrosani vs UTA Arad 3-2". Labtof. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
  6. ↑ "Romania National Champions". RomanianSoccer. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  7. ↑ "Emil Dumitriu - Champions League 1967/1968". WorldFootball. Retrieved 5 March 2024.
  8. 1 2 "Romania - Player of the Year Awards". Rsssf.org. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
  9. ↑ "Dinamo Bucuresti in 1971–72". RomanianSoccer. Retrieved 26 September 2025.
  10. ↑ "Romania v England, 02 June 1963". 11v11.com. Retrieved 14 October 2019.
  11. 1 2 3 "România, campioană europeană la fotbal în 1962! Juniorii U18, succes total prin toate mijloacele" [Romania, European football champion in 1962! Juniors U18, total success by all means] (in Romanian). Fanatik.ro. 11 October 2018. Retrieved 27 October 2025.
    "Acum 55 de ani, Romania devenea campioana europeana la fotbal!" [55 years ago, Romania became the European football champion!] (in Romanian). Playbuzz.com. 8 May 2017. Retrieved 27 October 2025.
    "Șase decenii de la singurul titlu European al fotbalului nostru" [Six decades since our football's only European title] (in Romanian). Welovesport.ro. 3 May 2022. Retrieved 27 October 2025.
  12. ↑ "Emil Dumitriu profile". 11v11. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  13. ↑ "Emil Dumitriu. Friendlies 1964". WorldFootball. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  14. ↑ "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.
  15. ↑ "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.
  16. 1 2 3 4 "Emil Dumitriu profile". European Football. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  17. ↑ "Turkey 2-1 Romania". European Football. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  18. ↑ "Remember. Hunedoreni la Campionatele Mondiale de fotbal (IV)" [Remember. Hunedoreni at the World Football Championships (IV)] (in Romanian). gazetadedimineata.ro. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  19. ↑ "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.
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