Emil Dumitriu

Emil Dumitriu

Dumitriu with Rapid Bucharest 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 Dumitru or Dumitriu II, is a Romanian former footballer who played as a forward. ^[2]

Club career

Emil "Nichi" Dumitriu was born on 5 November 1942 in Bucharest, Romania, starting to play youth level football in 1957 at Locomotiva București, afterwards moving at 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 at Viitorul București, moving in the second half at Rapid București. ^{[1] [3] [4]}

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

During his period spent at Rapid, Dumitriu made a successful couple in the team's offence with Ion Ionescu, winning the first league title from the club's history in the 1966–67 season in which he was used by coach Valentin Stănescu in 26 matches in which he scored 12 goals, also winning two Balkans Cup. ^{[1] [3] [4] [5]} For the way he played in 1966, Dumitriu was placed fourth in the ranking for the Romanian Footballer of the Year award. ^[6] He suffered a lung illness which kept him off the field for one year and a half, being taken by Stănescu at Steagul Roșu Brașov, trying to help him relaunch his career. ^{[1] [3] [4]} In 1971, Dumitriu went to play for one season at Dinamo București, afterwards returning for two seasons at Rapid where he made his last Divizia A appearance on 10 March 1974 in a 2–0 away loss in front of Argeș Pitești, having a total of 235 matches in which he scored 68 goals in the competition. ^{[1] [3] [4]} He also made four appearances in European competitions during his career (including one appearance in the Inter-cities Fairs Cup), having three in the 1967–68 European Cup when he helped The Railwaymen eliminate Trakia Plovdiv and advance to the following round where they were eliminated by Juventus. ^{[1] [3] [4] [7]} Emil 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) in a friendly under-23 international win against England

Emil 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 against Turkey at the 1966 World Cup qualifiers. ^{[9] [10]} He played two games at 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 which ended 0–0 against Netherlands. ^[9] Emil Dumitriu also played 13 games in which he scored four goals for Romania U23 and appeared in a friendly game for Romania's Olympic football team which ended with a 2–1 away victory against Yugoslavia, being selected by coach Silviu Ploeșteanu to be part of the squad that participated at the 1964 Summer Olympics from Tokyo where he did not play in any games as he got injured in a training session by teammate Mircea Petescu. ^{[4] [11] [12] [13] [14]}

Personal life

Emil Dumitriu is the older elder 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, being married with a Greek woman. ^{[3] [4]}

Career statistics

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

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 ^[6]

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. "Romania - Player of the Year Awards". Rsssf.org. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
7. "Emil Dumitriu - Champions League 1967/1968". WorldFootball. Retrieved 5 March 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