# Marcel Coraș

Marcel Coraș (born 14 May 1959) is a Romanian former professional footballer who played as a striker.

## Club career

Coraș, nicknamed Dulapul (The Cabinet) was born on 14 May 1959 in Arad, Romania, starting to play junior level football in 1968 at local club, UTA. He made his Divizia A debut on 18 April 1976 in UTA's 3–2 home loss to Olimpia Satu Mare. In the 1976–77 season, Coraș played for Divizia B club, Rapid Arad. Then he returned to UTA where at the of the 1978–79 season, the team relegated to the second league. He remained in the first league as he went to play for Politehnica Iași but left them in the middle of the 1980–81 season when he returned to UTA in Divizia B, scoring seven goals that helped the team promote back to Divizia A. He spent two more seasons with The Old Lady, in the first one the team relegating once again to the second league.
In 1983, Coraș went at Sportul Studențesc of Bucharest where he would form a successful offensive couple with Gheorghe Hagi. In his first season he became top scorer of the league with 18 goals scored. In 1984 he had an offer from Fenerbahçe but Sportul refused to let him go. In the 1985–86 season, he netted 13 goals which helped Sportul to a runner-up position. During his period spent with The Students, Coraș started playing in European competitions, making 16 appearances in the UEFA Cup over the course of five seasons, most notably playing in a historical 1–0 victory against Inter Milan from the first round of the 1984–85 season but did not qualify further as they lost 2–0 in the second leg. Also in the 1987–88 edition he helped the team get past GKS Katowice, then Peter Schmeichel and Brian Laudrup's Brøndby, losing the away game with 3–0 but managing to win the second leg with the same score, obtaining at the penalty shoot-out a historical qualification to next round where the campaign ended in front of Italian side, Hellas Verona against whom he scored a goal.
Coraș left Sportul in 1988, going at Victoria București where he was coached by Florin Halagian with whom he finished the 1988–89 season on the third place, contributing with 36 goals scored which earned him the European Silver Boot, being seven goals behind Dinamo București's Dorin Mateuț who was the Golden Boot winner. Also he played eight games in the 1988–89 UEFA Cup campaign, as the team eliminated Sliema Wanderers against whom he scored a hat-trick, Dinamo Minsk and Turun Palloseura, the campaign ending in the quarter-finals where they were defeated by Dynamo Dresden. In the first round from the following season of the same competition, Victoria met Valencia, earning a 1–1 in the first leg but losing the second one with 3–1 in which he netted his side's goal.
In the middle of the 1989–90 season, Coraș returned to Sportul. In the 1990–91 season, he had his first experience outside Romania at Greek side Panionios, scoring two goals in 30 games played for a 10th place. Afterwards he returned to Romania for a third spell at Sportul, then in 1992 with the help of László Bölöni he had his second abroad spell at French fourth league team, Aurillac. In 1993, Coraș went at Universitatea Cluj for a while, then he returned for a fourth spell at UTA where on 15 October 1994 he made his last Divizia A appearance in a 3–0 away loss with Național București, having a total 413 matches with 147 goals scored in the competition. Coraș ended his career in 1995 at Divizia C club, Motorul Arad.

## International career

Coraș got 36 caps and six goals for Romania, making his debut while being a player at UTA Arad in the second league, as coach Mircea Lucescu sent him on the field in 75th to replace Marin Radu on 17 November 1982 in a 4–1 away loss in a friendly against East Germany. He scored his first goal for the national team in a friendly which ended 1–1 against Israel.
Lucescu used him all the minutes in all three games at the Euro 1984 final tournament which consisted in a 1–1 draw against Spain, then the 2–1 loss to West Germany in which he scored his side's goal and finally a 1–0 loss to Portugal as Romania did not manage to get past the group stage. After the game with Spain, the Reuters news agency praised Coraș:"Spain was dominated by the strong Romanian players. Romania had enough opportunities to score, especially through the skillful forays of Coraș, the top scorer of the Romanian championship". Coraș himself described his experience at the European tournament as:"The goal against the Germans was the highlight of my career. Especially since I was also Romania's top scorer that season. It was a nice tournament for us, but we were not used to playing important matches every three days".
Afterwards he played seven games at the 1986 World Cup qualifiers in which he scored once in a 3–1 away win over Turkey. He made his last appearance for The Tricolours on 30 March 1988 in a friendly which ended 3–3 against East Germany.
For representing his country at Euro 1984, Coraș was decorated by President of Romania Traian Băsescu on 25 March 2008 with the Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" – (The Medal "The Sportive Merit") class III.

### International goals

    Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Coraș goal.
| Goal | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
| 1 | 8 November 1983 | Bloomfield Stadium, Tel Aviv, Israel | Israel | 1–1 | 1–1 | Friendly |
| 2 | 7 March 1984 | Stadionul Central, Craiova, Romania | Greece | 1–0 | 2–0 | Friendly |
| 3 | 17 June 1984 | Stade Bollaert-Delelis, Lens, France | West Germany | 1–1 | 2–1 | Euro 1984 |
| 4 | 13 November 1985 | Atatürk Stadium, İzmir, Turkey | Turkey | 2–0 | 3–1 | 1986 World Cup qualifiers |
| 5 | 28 February 1986 | Al-Iskandarīyah Stadium, Alexandria, Egypt | Egypt | 1–0 | 2–2 | Friendly |
| 6 | 6 February 1988 | Kiryat Eliezer Stadium, Haifa, Israel | Poland | 1–0 | 2–2 | Friendly |

## Managerial career

After ending his playing career, Coraș started coaching in 1996 at UTA Arad, afterwards working at FC Baia Mare, Bihor Oradea, Astra Trinity Arad, ACU Arad and UTA once again, all of them in the Romanian lower leagues.

## Style of play

In a 2022 interview for Gazeta Sporturilor, Coraș described his style of play:"I was not a worker, (...) I was not a runner, a sprinter. I was a midfielder behind the forward or target forward. When I received the ball, I would try to pass to a teammate or score a goal. I knew what to do with the ball", also saying:"Of the more than 150 goals scored in Liga I, only about five were shots from outside the box. The rest were from the box, in front of the goal, from the goal line".

## Honours

UTA Arad
* Divizia B: 1980–81
Sportul Studențesc
* Divizia A runner-up: 1985–86
Individual
* Divizia A top scorer: 1983–84
* European Silver Boot: 1988–89