# Alexandru Sătmăreanu

Alexandru Ștefan Sătmăreanu (born 9 March 1952) is a Romanian former footballer who played as a defender.

## Club career
### Crișul Oradea

Alexandru Sătmăreanu was born on 9 March 1952 in Oradea, Romania, starting his career in his hometown at Crișul, making his Divizia A debut on 21 September 1969 in a 2–1 away victory against ASA Târgu Mureș, the team relegated at the end of that season in Divizia B, but he stayed with the club, helping it promote back to the first division after only one season in which he played 29 matches and scored seven goals.

### Dinamo București

The following season he went to play for Dinamo București, helping the team win three league titles in 1973, 1975 and 1977, in the first he played 16 games under the guidance of Ion Nunweiller, in the second Nicolae Dumitru sent him on the field in 29 games, scoring three goals and in the third he made 34 appearances with five goals scored while working once again with Nunweiller. In November 1975 he scored a goal in a league derby with Steaua București that ended 3–3. Sătmăreanu also represented The Red Dogs in 20 games in European competitions in which he scored two goals, including the only goal of Dinamo's 1–0 home victory in front of Real Madrid from the 1975–76 European Cup. For the way he played in 1977, Sătmăreanu was placed third in the ranking for the Romanian Footballer of the Year award.

### VfB Stuttgart

In 1979, after playing for Dinamo in a UEFA Cup match against Eintracht Frankfurt, he remained in Frankfurt illegally and signed with VfB Stuttgart, at that time during Romania's communist regime, running away from the country was not allowed. Sătmăreanu made his Bundesliga debut on 17 January 1981 under coach Jürgen Sundermann in a 2–1 away victory against Nürnberg, having a total of 12 appearances and two goals scored against Bayer Uerdingen and Borussia Dortmund in his first season, helping the team finish on the third position. In the following season he appeared in both legs of Stuttgart's 5–3 aggregate loss in front of Hajduk Split from the first round of the 1981–82 UEFA Cup.

### Late career

After two seasons, Sătmăreanu went to play in the United States at the North American Soccer League team Fort Lauderdale Strikers where he was known under the name Alexander Szatmar. In 1984, he returned to Germany to play for FSV Salmrohr in the third league for one year, afterwards ending his career. Sătmăreanu has a total of 32 matches and three goals scored in Bundesliga and 223 appearances with 18 goals in Divizia A.

## International career

Alexandru Sătmăreanu played 28 games at international level for Romania, making his debut on 23 July 1974 when coach Valentin Stănescu introduced him at half-time to replace Cornel Dinu in a friendly which ended with a 4–1 victory against Japan. He played six games at the Euro 1976 qualifiers and four at the 1978 World Cup qualifiers. Sătmăreanu also played two games at the 1973–76 Balkan Cup and three at the successful 1977–80 Balkan Cup.

## After retirement

After he ended his playing career, Alexandru Sătmăreanu had several businesses in Germany and Luxembourg, also working as a coach and president at Eintracht Trier and president at Bihor Oradea.

## Honours

Crișul Oradea
* Divizia B: 1970–71
Dinamo București
* Divizia A: 1972–73, 1974–75, 1976–77
* Trofeo Costa de Valencia: 1978
Romania
* Balkan Cup: 1977–80, runner-up 1973–76
Individual
* Romanian Footballer of the Year (third place): 1977