# Gheorghe Popescu (footballer, born 1919)

Gheorghe Popescu (8 August 1919 – 1 January 2001) was a Romanian footballer and also a manager. He played as a striker.

## Club career

Gheorghe Popescu was born on 8 August 1919 in Bucharest, Romania, starting to play junior level football in 1928 at Gloria. He started his senior career in 1935 at Divizia B club, Sportul Studențesc București where he worked with coach Coloman Braun-Bogdan, helping the team earn promotion to the first league at the end of the 1936–37 season. He made his Divizia A debut on 12 September 1937 in Sportul's 3–0 away loss in front of Gloria Arad. The highlights of his period spent with The Students were reaching the 1939 Cupa României final in which he played all the minutes in the 2–0 loss in front of Rapid București and a third place in the league at the end of the 1939–40 season in which he scored a personal record of 14 goals. In 1946, Popescu went to play for Carmen București, helping the team to a runner-up place in his single season spent at the club. Afterwards he reunited with his former coach from Sportul Studențesc, Braun-Bogdan at newly founded club, CSCA București, being the club's first ever captain and the team's top-goalscorer with 10 goals at the end of his first season. In the following season he was used all the minutes by coach Ferenc Rónay in the 2–1 victory against CSU Cluj in the 1949 Cupa României final, which helped the club win the first trophy in its history. In the same season, Popescu made his last Divizia A appearance on 21 November 1948 in the first ever CSCA – Dinamo derby which ended with a 1–0 loss, having a total of 135 games with 64 goals scored in the competition. Throughout his career, Popescu's style of play was often praised in the press by the famous Romanian poet, Camil Petrescu.

## International career

Gheorghe Popescu played six friendly games at international level for Romania, making his debut on 10 June 1937, being aged 17 under coach Constantin Rădulescu in a 2–1 home victory against Belgium. His following game was supposed to be against Sweden but he refused to participate because he wanted to study in order to earn his Baccalaureate degree. He scored his only goal for The Tricolours in a 2–1 away victory against Yugoslavia. Popescu's last appearance for the national team took place on 13 June 1943 in a 2–2 against Slovakia.

### International goals

    Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first. "Score" column indicates the score after each Gheorghe Popescu goal.
| # | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
| 1. | 22 September 1940 | Stadion Beogradski S.K., Belgrade, Yugoslavia | Yugoslavia | 1–1 | 2–1 | Friendly |

## Managerial career
### CCA/Steaua București

Gheorghe Popescu started his coaching career in 1951 at the team that he ended his playing career which this time was named CCA București, helping the club win The Double in his first year spent at the club, being aged 32. In the following season, the team repeated the performance, winning another Double. He started the 1953 season at CCA, leading the club in the first half of the season, afterwards being replaced with Ferenc Rónay, the team managing to win the championship at the end of the season.
He returned for a second spell at CCA in 1958, winning the 1960 title. In 1962, Popescu had his third and final spell at the team which now was named Steaua, helping it win the Cupa României after a 5–1 victory over Rapid București in the final.

### Romania's national team

Gheorghe Popescu had his first spell at Romania's national team in 1952, his debut taking place on 25 May when he led them in a friendly with Poland which ended with a 1–0 victory. His following game was at the 1952 Summer Olympics where they were eliminated after the first match, a 2–1 loss in front of eventual champions Hungary. Afterwards he led Romania in three games at the 1954 World Cup qualifiers, managing two wins over Bulgaria and an away loss with Czechoslovakia.
His second spell at the national team started in 1955, guiding it at the 1958 World Cup qualifiers, winning both games with Greece, also obtaining a draw and a loss with Yugoslavia, finishing the group on second place, behind Yugoslavia who qualified to the final tournament. In his third spell from 1961 he led the team in two friendly wins over Turkey, while in his fourth and final spell he led Romania in a 3–1 win over Spain at the 1964 European Nations' Cup qualifiers. From all of his four spells combined at the national team, Gheorghe Popescu gained a total of 25 games consisting of 13 victories, four draws and eight losses.
After retiring as manager, he was the President of the Romanian Football Federation from 1963 until 1967, afterwards from 1967 until 1973 he worked as vice-president at Steaua București, a period in which the team won one league title and three cups, also from 1983 until 1984 he was a counselor at the same club.

## Death

Gheorghe Popescu died on 1 January 2001 at age 81.

## Honours
### Player

Sportul Studențesc București
* Cupa României runner-up: 1938–39
Carmen București
* Divizia A runner-up: 1946–47
CSCA București
* Cupa României: 1948–49

### Manager

Steaua București
* Divizia A: 1951, 1952, 1953, 1960
* Cupa României: 1951, 1952, 1962