# Vasile Dobrău

Vasile Dobrău (born 14 June 1953) is a Romanian former football centre back. He was also a manager, assistant coach and youth coach.

## Club career

Vasile Dobrău was born on 14 June 1953 in București, Romania and he started to play football in 1965 at Dinamo București's youth center, his first coaches being Petre Steinbach and Gheorghe Timar. In 1969, coach Nicolae Dumitru brought him to train with the senior squad, giving him his Divizia A debut on 22 July 1970 in a 2–0 away loss against ASA Târgu Mureș. Over the course of nine seasons spent with The Red Dogs he played alongside famous players of Romanian football like Florea Dumitrache, Cornel Dinu, Dudu Georgescu, Mircea Lucescu or the Nunweiller brothers Ion, Lică and Radu, winning three Divizia A titles, in the first he was used by coach Ion Nunweiller in 27 games, in the second Nicolae Dumitru sent him on the field 32 times and at the third he worked with Ion Nunweiller again who gave him 26 appearances in which he scored three goals. During his period spent at Dinamo, Dobrău also played 12 games in European competitions, making appearances against AC Milan, FC Köln and Real Madrid, helping the team earn a 1–0 home victory in front of the latter in the 1975–76 European Cup. In 1978 he wanted go play for Universitatea Cluj but Dinamo did not approve the transfer, thus ending being suspended for one year and a half before being able to play for "U". He stayed with The Red Caps for two seasons and a half, in the last one of them, the team relegating to Divizia B where he would end up playing one season and a half for Armătura Zalău, before transferring in 1984 at Dacia Mecanica Orăștie, helping it promote as a player-coach from Divizia C to Divizia B. Throughout his career, Dobrău earned 229 Divizia A appearances in which he scored four goals and made 98 appearances with 21 goals scored in Divizia B.

## International career

Vasile Dobrău played five games at international level for Romania, making his debut at age 19 under coach Angelo Niculescu on 20 September 1972 in a 1–1 against Finland at the 1974 World Cup qualifiers. His second appearance was also at the 1974 World Cup qualifiers in a 2–0 victory against Albania. He then played in a 1–0 loss in front of Bulgaria at the 1973–76 Balkan Cup final. His last two appearances for the national team were in a 4–2 away loss in front of Italy and a 6–4 home loss at the 1978 World Cup qualifiers in front of Yugoslavia when coach Ștefan Kovács sent him at halftime in order to replace Alexandru Sătmăreanu.

## Managerial career

Vasile Dobrău started his coaching career in Divizia C at Dacia Mecanica Orăștie while still being an active player, helping the team earn promotion to Divizia B and after a few seasons spent there he returned to Divizia C football at Unirea Slobozia whom he also helped promote to Divizia B. In the following years he continued to work at teams from the Romanian lower leagues as Metalurgistul Slatina, Rocar București, CFR Cluj, Armătura Zalău and Metalurgistul Cugir. In the 2004–05 Divizia B season he worked as Marin Ion's assistant at Universitatea Cluj, helping the team earn a 7th place. He had his first spell abroad in 2009 at Gambian club, Real de Banjul in 2009 and from 2012 until 2014 he worked again as Marin Ion's assistant at Kuwaiti club, Kuwait SC, winning together one Kuwaiti Premier League and two AFC Cup. Throughout the years, Dobrău worked as a federal observer for the Romanian Football Federation from 1991 until 1993, as a sports director at "U" Cluj from 1994 until 1997 and also as a youth coach.

## Honours
### Player

Dinamo București
* Divizia A: 1972–73, 1974–75, 1976–77
Dacia Mecanica Orăștie
* Divizia C: 1984–85

### Manager

Dacia Mecanica Orăștie
* Divizia C: 1984–85
Unirea Slobozia
* Divizia C: 1988–89