# Ilie Datcu

Ilie Datcu (born 20 July 1937), also known as İlyas Datça is a Romanian former football goalkeeper and coach.

## Club career

Ilie Datcu was born on 20 July 1937 in Bucharest, Romania. He started his career playing at the junior squads of Constructorul București in 1950, continuing at Metalul Câmpina and Progresul CPCS București, before he started his senior career in 1958 at Divizia B team, Dinamo Obor București for which he played three seasons, reaching the 1960 Cupa României final which was lost with 2–0 in front of Progresul București.
He went to play for Dinamo București where he made his Divizia A debut on 20 August 1961 in a 4–3 away loss against Dinamo Pitești, making a total of 20 league appearances in his first season, helping the team win the title, working with three coaches Traian Ionescu, Constantin Teașcă and Nicolae Dumitru. In the following three seasons Datcu won another three titles, in the first two he was coached by Dumitru and Ionescu who used him 13 games in the first one and in 26 games in the second, while in the last one he played in 24 matches under the guidance of Angelo Niculescu. During his period spent with The Red Dogs, he also won two Cupa României, being used the first 85 minutes by Ionescu who then replaced him with Iuliu Uțu in the 5–3 victory over rivals Steaua București from the 1964 final, then in the one from 1968 he played the whole match which was a 3–1 over Rapid București, being coached by Bazil Marian.
He also made some performances in European competitions with Dinamo as in the 1963–64 European Cup campaign he kept two clean sheets in the 3–0 aggregate win over East Germany champion, Motor Jena, being eliminated in the next phase by Real Madrid and also appearing in a historical 2–1 win over Inter Milan in the 1965–66 edition who were the winners of the last two seasons of the competition.
In 1969, at the age of 31, Datcu went to play in Turkey for Fenerbahçe where in his first season he was coached by Traian Ionescu and was teammate with Ion Nunweiller, all of them previously working together at Dinamo, winning the Turkish League in which he made 29 appearances in which he conceded only 6 goals, also winning the TSYD Cup in which he kept a clean sheet in the 1–0 victory from the final against Beşiktaş Istanbul. In the following seasons he won another title in the 1973–74 season, making 21 appearances, also winning another TSYD Cup and a Chancellor Cup in 1973 and a Turkish Cup in 1974. Datcu ended his career by spending the 1975–76 season at Giresunspor. He has a total of 166 matches played in Divizia A, 130 matches in the Turkish League and 22 appearances in European competitions.

## International career

Datcu played six games at international level for Romania, making his debut on 12 May 1963 under coach Silviu Ploeșteanu in a friendly which ended with a 3–2 victory against East Germany. He played two games at the Euro 1968 qualifiers and also played for Romania's Olympic team, being chosen by Ploeșteanu to be part of the 1964 Summer Olympics squad from Tokyo where he made four appearances, helping the team finish on the fifth place.

## Managerial career

He started his managerial career at Fenerbahçe in 1976. Datcu spent the majority of his coaching career in Turkey, coaching numerous clubs, also working as a goalkeeper coach at Fenerbahçe, where he noticed and promoted Rüştü Reçber and at Beşiktaş Istanbul, where he was bought by his former teammate from Dinamo and the national team, Mircea Lucescu.

## Personal life

Datcu resides in Bodrum, Turkey. He also holds Turkish citizenship under the name İlyas Datça.

## Honours
### Player

Dinamo Obor București
* Cupa României runner-up: 1959–60
Dinamo București
* Divizia A: 1961–62, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1964–65
* Cupa României: 1963–64, 1967–68
Fenerbahçe
* Turkish League: 1969–70, 1973–74, 1974–75
* Turkish Cup: 1973–74
* Turkish Super Cup: 1973
* Prime Minister's Cup: 1973

### Manager

Fatih Karagümrük
* Türkiye 2. Futbol Ligi: 1982–83