# Marian Popa

Marian Popa (born 3 March 1964) is a Romanian former football striker.

## Club career

   "Marian Popa was a strong box striker, he protected the ball well, was opportunistic. Good football player. As a man, I have always found him a special character."
Marian Popa was born on 3 March 1964 in Constanța, Romania and started playing football at age 11 for the youth side of FC Constanța under the guidance of coach Adam Munteanu, later working with Constantin Tâlvescu. In 1982, he started his senior career at Divizia C club, Voința Constanța and after one year he moved to Metalul Mangalia. In 1987 he went at Farul Constanța in Divizia B where he was coached by Emanoil Hașoti, scoring six goals in his first season that helped the club earn promotion Divizia A, a competition in which he would make his debut on 21 August 1988 in a 3–0 home win over ASA Târgu Mureș. In the 1989–90 season, Popa scored a personal record of 15 goals which placed him second in the top-scorer of the season ranking with four goals behind Steaua București's Gabi Balint.
Afterwards he was transferred to Steaua where he started to play in European competitions, making his debut in a 5–0 away loss to Montpellier from the 1990–91 European Cup Winners' Cup second round in which he received a red card. In the following season he played six games in the 1991–92 UEFA Cup campaign, helping the team get past Anorthosis Famagusta and Sporting Gijón, scoring two goals against the latter, reaching the round of 16 where the campaign ended at the hands of Genoa. In the same season he won the first trophy of his career, the Cupa României, being used by coach Victor Pițurcă in the first 54 minutes until he replaced him with Ion Vlădoiu in the victory at the penalty shoot-out against Politehnica Timișoara from the final.
In 1992, Popa was close to a move at Spanish La Liga team, Logroñés but eventually went back to Farul where he scored 14 times in 18 matches from the 1992–93 season which helped the team avoid relegation, including six goals netted in a match against Oțelul Galați which ended with a 6–3 victory. He made a comeback at Steaua, managing to win the 1994 Supercupa României as coach Dumitru Dumitriu sent him on the field in the second half in order to replace Adrian Ilie, then he scored the golden goal in extra time which brought the victory against Gloria Bistrița. During the 1994–95 season, Popa scored seven goals in the 14 league games Dumitriu used him as Steaua won the title, also he made four appearances in the Champions League campaign of which three were in the group stage. Popa would go for another spell at Farul, then he went at FC Brașov where on 7 September 1996 he made his last Divizia A appearance in a 2–1 away loss to Chindia Târgoviște, having a total of 168 matches with 73 goals scored in the competition.
In 1996 he had his only experience outside Romania at Hungarian side, Budapesti VSC. He made his Nemzeti Bajnokság I on 20 October as coach László Dajka used him in the first half of a 3–1 home win over Győr, replacing him for the second half with his compatriot Constantin Stănici. His fifth and last Nemzeti Bajnokság I game took place on 30 November in a 1–0 home loss with Vác, retiring afterwards from professional football. Afterwards, Popa would play for a short while for Săgeata Stejaru, helping the club promote from Divizia D to Divizia C.

## International career

Popa played two friendly games at international level for Romania, making his debut on 25 April 1990 when coach Emerich Jenei sent him on the field in the 81st minute in order to replace Michael Klein in a 4–1 away win over Israel. His second game was also a win against Israel, a 1–0 at home.

## After retirement

After he ended his playing career, Popa had several businesses and coached juniors at Farul Constanța and Metalul Mangalia and the futsal team, Municipal Constanţa, also for a while he was president at Portul Constanța.

## Honours

Metalul Mangalia
* Divizia B: 1983–84
Farul Constanța
* Divizia B: 1987–88
Steaua București
* Divizia A: 1994–95
* Cupa României: 1991–92
* Supercupa României: 1994
Săgeata Stejaru
* Divizia D: 1996–97