# Dumitru Moraru

Dumitru Moraru (born 8 May 1956) is a Romanian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper from 1972 until 1991.

## Club career

Dumitru Moraru was born in București, growing up in the Pantelimon neighborhood, where he started playing football in 1966 at the junior teams of Metalul București, where he earned the nickname "Țețe" (Tsetse) after a teammate told him in a cantonment that he sleeps so much as he would have been bitten by a tsetse fly. In two seasons spent at Metalul's senior team, he played 56 games in Divizia B, after which he went to play for Steaua București. He made his Divizia A debut under coach Constantin Teașcă on 25 August 1974, playing for Steaua in a derby against Dinamo București, which ended with a 2–0 loss, however his performance in the match was appreciated by journalist Eftimie Ionescu who gave him an 8 in the Sportul newspaper. He played 24 games in the 1975–76 Divizia A season and 26 in the 1977–78 season, helping Steaua win the title in each of those seasons, also winning the 1975–76 Cupa României, all these performances being obtained under the guidance of coach Emerich Jenei.
In 1978 he went to play for three seasons for Sportul Studențesc București where he won the 1979–80 Balkans Cup. Then Moraru was transferred from Sportul Studențesc to Dinamo București, where he played 31 league games in each of his first three seasons as the club won the title in all of them, working at the first with coach Valentin Stănescu and at the other two with Nicolae Dumitru. He also won three Cupa României, the first one after a final with FC Baia Mare and the following two after finals with rivals Steaua București, in the one from 1986, under the guidance of coach Mircea Lucescu he managed to keep a clean sheet in the 1–0 victory with The Military Men who had recently just won the European Cup. He made some notable performances with Dinamo in European competitions as helping it eliminate Inter Milan in the 1981–82 UEFA Cup and appearing in eight matches in the 1983–84 European Cup season, being the team's captain as the club eliminated title holders Hamburg in the campaign, reaching the semi-finals where the campaign ended in front of Liverpool. For the way he played in 1984, Moraru was placed fifth in the ranking for the Romanian Footballer of the Year award.
After eight seasons spent at Dinamo, Moraru alongside teammates Costel Orac and Alexandru Nicolae were transferred to Victoria București, but only for a short while, after which he went to play in Norway at IK Start where he ended his career in 1991 by playing a total of 41 league games over the course of two seasons, a career in which he made a total of 393 appearances in Divizia A and 33 in European competitions.

## International career

Moraru played 38 games for Romania, making his debut on 24 September 1975 under coach Valentin Stănescu in a 1–1 with Greece at the 1973–76 Balkan Cup. He played one game at each of the 1978 and 1982 World Cup qualifiers, also making three appearances, including two clean sheets in wins over Sweden and Italy at the successful Euro 1984 qualifiers, being used by coach Mircea Lucescu in a 1–0 loss against Portugal in the group stage of the final tournament. Moraru made one appearance at the 1986 World Cup qualifiers which was a 2–0 victory against Finland, then keeping another clean sheet in a 4–0 over Austria at the Euro 1988 qualifiers, his last game played for the national team taking place on 30 March 1988 in a friendly which ended 3–3 with East Germany.

## Honours

Steaua București
* Divizia A: 1975–76, 1977–78
* Cupa României: 1975–76
Sportul Studențesc București
* Balkans Cup: 1979–80
Dinamo București
* Divizia A: 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84
* Cupa României: 1981–82, 1983–84, 1985–86
Individual
* Romanian Footballer of the Year (fifth place): 1984