# Alexandru Nicolae

Alexandru Nicolae (born 17 March 1955) is a Romanian former football defender.

## Club career

Alexandru Nicolae was born on 17 March 1955 in Bucharest where he started playing football at junior level in 1968 at ȘSE 2 București, then in 1973 he went at Sportul Studențesc București's youth academy. In 1974 he started his senior career, playing four seasons in Divizia B at Gloria Buzău, helping the team promote to Divizia A where he made his debut on 24 August 1978 in a 1–0 loss in front of CS Târgoviște. After playing two seasons in Divizia A with Gloria, he went to play for Olt Scornicești for two seasons and even if during this time he had offers to play for Steaua București, he chose in 1982 to follow his dream which was to play for Dinamo București.
In his first two seasons at Dinamo, the club won two consecutive league titles, under the guidance of coach Nicolae Dumitru who used him 30 games in each season, in the first he also scored four goals including one in a 1–1 with rivals Steaua București. Nicolae also won two Cupa României with The Red Dogs, being used by coach Dumitru all the minutes in the 2–1 victory over Steaua from the 1984 final, then in the one from 1986 coach Mircea Lucescu used him the whole match in the 1–0 win with the same team who had recently just won the European Cup. He made some notable performances with Dinamo in European competitions, as appearing in seven matches in the 1983–84 European Cup season, as the club eliminated title holders Hamburg in the campaign, reaching the semi-finals where the campaign ended in front of Liverpool and playing one game with Sampdoria in the quarter-finals of the 1988–89 European Cup Winners' Cup where the Italians eliminated them on the away goals rule after 1–1 on aggregate.
In 1989, Nicolae alongside teammates Dumitru Moraru and Costel Orac were transferred from Dinamo to Victoria București where he only stayed half a season, appearing in three Divizia A games and made one appearance in a 3–1 loss with Valencia in the 1989–90 UEFA Cup. He returned for the second half of the season at Dinamo where he won The Double, coach Lucescu sending him on the field in five league games but did not use him in the 6–4 win over Steaua from the Cupa României final. The 1990–91 Divizia A was the last season of Alexandru Nicolae's career, making his last Divizia A appearance on 11 May 1991 in a 3–0 victory against Universitatea Craiova, having a total of 301 games appearances with 15 goals scored in the competition and 24 matches played in European competitions.

## International career

Alexandru Nicolae played 19 games at international level for Romania, managing to score one goal in his debut which took place on 14 October 1979 under coach Constantin Cernăianu in a friendly against the Soviet Union which ended with a 3–1 loss. He played in four qualification matches for Euro 1980 and 1984, also appearing in one qualification match for the 1982 World Cup. His last appearance for the national team took place on 2 September 1987 in a friendly against Poland which ended with a 3–1 loss.

### International goals

    Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Nicolae goal.
List of international goals scored by Alexandru Nicolae :
| # | Date | Venue | Cap | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
| 1 | 14 October 1979 | Lenin Central Stadium, Moscow, Soviet Union | 1 | Soviet Union | 1–2 | 1–3 | Friendly |

## Honours

Gloria Buzău
* Divizia B: 1977–78
Dinamo București
* Divizia A: 1982–83, 1983–84, 1989–90
* Cupa României: 1983–84, 1985–86, 1989–90