Romulus Gabor

Romulus Gabor

Gabor in 1981
Personal information
Full name	Romulus Gabor
Date of birth	(1961-10-14) 14 October 1961 (age 63)
Place of birth	Pui, Hunedoara County, Romania
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s)	Winger / Forward
Youth career
1976	Jiul Petroșani
1976–1978	Corvinul Hunedoara
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1978–1991	Corvinul Hunedoara	305	(68)
1991–1992	Diósgyőri VTK	13	(1)
1992–1993	Corvinul Hunedoara
1993–1994	Universitatea Cluj	10	(1)
1994	Unirea Alba Iulia	24	(4)
1994–1996	Corvinul Hunedoara	45	(15)
1996–1997	Inter Sibiu	14	(5)
1997	Viitorul Oradea
Total		411	(94)
International career
1981	Romania U20	6	(2)
1981–1986 [1]	Romania	35	(2)
Managerial career
2004–2005	Corvinul Hunedoara
2011–2012	Mureșul Deva
2014–2015	FC Hunedoara
2017–2019	Cetate Deva (technical director)
2019	Cetate Deva
Medal record Representing   Romania FIFA World Youth Championship FIFA U-20 World Cup 1981
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Romulus Gabor (born 14 October 1961) is a Romanian former professional footballer who played as a winger and as a forward.

Club career

Romulus Gabor was born on 14 October 1961 in Pui, Hunedoara County, Romania. ^{[2] [3] [4]} He started playing football at age 13 at Jiul Petroșani, where he stayed for a short while before moving at Corvinul Hunedoara where on 28 October 1978 he made his Divizia A debut under coach Ilie Savu in a 2–0 loss in front of Argeș Pitești. ^{[2] [4] [5]} At the end of his first season spent at Corvinul, the club relegated to Divizia B, but Gabor stayed with the club, being used more often after coach Mircea Lucescu came to the club, promoting back to the first division after one year, helping the club finish third in the 1981–82 Divizia A, also appearing in all four games from the 1982–83 UEFA Cup campaign, scoring once as they got past Grazer AK in the first round, being eliminated in the following one by FK Sarajevo. ^{[2] [4] [6]} For the way he played in 1981, Gabor was placed fifth in the ranking for the Romanian Footballer of the Year award. ^[7]

After 13 seasons spent with Corvinul in which he scored 68 goals in 305 league games, in 1991 he was transferred at Nemzeti Bajnokság I club, Diósgyőri VTK. ^{[2] [8]} Gabor spent one season in Hungary, then he returned to play for Corvinul in Divizia B, afterwards going for a half of season to play for Universitatea Cluj where he made his last Divizia A appearance on 10 November 1993 in a 3–2 victory against Gloria Bistrița. ^[2] Afterwards he played for Unirea Alba Iulia, Corvinul and Inter Sibiu in Divizia B, ending his career in 1997 at Divizia C club, Viitorul Oradea. ^{[2] [5] [9] [10]} Romulus Gabor has a total of 304 Divizia A appearances with 64 goals scored and 13 Nemzeti Bajnokság I matches played with one goal scored. ^{[2] [5] [9] [10]}

International career

Romulus Gabor played 35 games and scored two goals for Romania, all under the guidance of coach Mircea Lucescu, being nicknamed "Lucescu's child", making his debut on 11 November 1981 in a 0–0 with Switzerland at the 1982 World Cup qualifiers. ^{[10] [11] [12]} He played six games at the successful Euro 1984 qualifiers. ^[11] He was used by Lucescu in two games at the Euro 1984 final tournament, in the first one which was a 1–1 with Spain he played as a starter until the 76th minute when he was replaced by Gheorghe Hagi and in the second he came as a substitute and replaced Mircea Irimescu in the 59th minute of a 1–0 loss in front of Portugal as Romania did not pass the group stage. ^{[10] [11] [13] [14]} He scored his first goal for the national team from a free kick in a friendly against Turkey. ^{[10] [11]} Romulus Gabor played two games at the 1986 World Cup qualifiers, scored his second goal in a friendly against Egypt and made his last appearance on 23 April 1986 in a friendly which ended with a 2–1 victory against Soviet Union. ^[11] Gabor was also part of Romania's U20 squad at the 1981 World Youth Championship from Australia, appearing in six games in which he scored two goals in two 1–0 wins over Italy and England, helping the team finish the tournament on the third position, winning the bronze medal, also winning the Golden Ball award for the best player of the tournament and the Bronze shoe for the third goalscorer of the competition. ^{[3] [4] [5] [8] [15]}

For representing his country at Euro 1984, Gabor was decorated by President of Romania Traian Băsescu on 25 March 2008 with the Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" – (The Medal "The Sportive Merit") class III. ^{[3] [16] [17]}

International goals

Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Gabor goal. ^[11]

List of international goals scored by Romulus Gabor

#	Date	Venue	Cap	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	29 January 1983	Ali Sami Yen Stadium, Istanbul, Turkey	12	Turkey	1–0	1–1	Friendly
2	2 March 1986	Al-Iskandarīyah Stadium, Alexandria, Egypt	33	Egypt	1–0	1–0	Friendly

Honours

Corvinul Hunedoara

• Divizia B: 1979–80 ^[2]

Individual

• Romanian Footballer of the Year (fifth place): 1981 ^[7]

References

1. "Romulus Gabor - International Appearances". The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation.
2. Romulus Gabor at RomanianSoccer.ro (in Romanian)
3. "Cum a fost arestat de pe banca de rezerve marele fotbalist Romulus Gabor pe timpul lui Ceaușescu" [How the great footballer Romulus Gabor was arrested from the reserve bench during Ceaușescu's time] (in Romanian). Evenimentulistoric.ro. 3 October 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
4. "Romulus Gabor – Balonul la aur la juniori" [Romulus Gabor – Ballon d'or for juniors] (in Romanian). Hunedoaralibera.ro. 11 March 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
5. "Romulus Gabor își spune poveștile și își dezvăluie regretele la "Prietenii lui Ovidiu". Astăzi, de la ora 20:00, pe GSP.ro" [Romulus Gabor tells his tories and his regrets at "Ovidiu's friends". Today, from 20:00, on GSP.ro] (in Romanian). Gsp.ro. 22 September 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
6. "Romulus Gabor. UEFA Cup 1982/1983". WorldFootball. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
7. "Romania - Player of the Year Awards". Rsssf.org. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
8. "Romulus Gabor, interviu special la 60 de ani: "Nea Mircea Lucescu a avut dezlegarea mea în alb, dar nu știu de ce nu am mai ajuns la Dinamo" Exclusiv" [Romulus Gabor, special interview at 60 years old: "Nea Mircea Lucescu had my release in white, but I don't know why I didn't get to Dinamo" Exclusive] (in Romanian). Fanatik.ro. 13 October 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
9. ""Primă" inedită primită de Romulus Gabor în anii de glorie. "La fiecare gol primeam o sticlă de Pepsi! Era un lux pe vremea aia"" [Uncommon "match prise" received by Romulus Gabor in his glory years. "At each goal scored I received a bottle of pepsi! It was luxury for those times"] (in Romanian). Gsp.ro. 22 September 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
10. "38 de ani de la primul gol în națională pentru egalul lui Messi și Maradona: "N-am fost "copilul" lui Lucescu, ci unicul Balon de Aur al fotbalului românesc!"" [38 years since the first goal in the national team for the equal of Messi and Maradona: "I was not Lucescu's "child", but the only Ballon d'Or of Romanian football!"] (in Romanian). Gsp.ro. 29 January 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
11. "Romulus Gabor". European Football. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
12. "Switzerland 0-0 Romania". European Football. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
13. "Romania 1-1 Spain". European Football. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
14. "Portugal 1-0 Romania". European Football. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
15. "Romulus Gabor. U20 World Cup 1981 in Australia". WorldFootball. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
16. "DECRET privind conferirea Ordinului și Medaliei Meritul Sportiv" (PDF). Monitorul Oficial al României Nr. 241. 28 March 2008. p. 3. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
17. "Decorarea unor personalități ale fotbalului românesc". Administrația Prezidențială. 25 March 2008. Archived from the original on 12 September 2020. Retrieved 8 March 2019.

External links

• Romulus Gabor at National-Football-Teams.com
• Romania National Team 1980–1989 - Details