# Virgil Mărdărescu

Virgil Vintilă Mărdărescu (also known as "Gil Mărdărescu"; 15 July 1921 – 11 June 2003) was a Romanian football player and manager.

## Playing career

Mărdărescu was born on 15 July 1921 in Bucharest, Romania. He made his Divizia A debut on 8 February 1948, playing for Flacăra București under the guidance of coach Emerich Vogl in a 5–0 home win over UD Reșița. He made a total of five appearances in the first league over the course of two seasons spent at Flacăra.

## Managerial career

Mărdărescu started coaching at age 34 in 1955 at Dinamo Brașov, then he went at Dinamo Cluj, afterwards in the 1958–59 season he worked at Universitatea Cluj with whom he finished the season on the 11th place. His following spells were at Jiul Petroșani and Știința Craiova, with the latter being close to earn a promotion to the first league, finishing on the second place in the 1960–61 Divizia B season. After going to Gloria Bistrița and Dinamo Bacău for a few years, he went to work at Argeș Pitești from 1963 until 1965, a period in which the team reached the 1965 Cupa României final which was lost with 2–1 in front of Știința Cluj. From 1965 until 1968, Mărdărescu coached Farul Constanța with whom he finished on the fourth place in the 1966–67 season. In 1969 he went to work for Romania Olympic/B and undertook a tour of Israel and Australia. In 1970 he was appointed coach at Politehnica Iași where he made a good impression in his first season as the club finished on the 8th place, then in the following one the team relegated but he stayed with The Copou Squad, helping it promote back to the first league after one year. He has a total of 273 matches as a manager in the Romanian top-division, Divizia A consisting of 94 victories, 61 draws and 118 losses.
In 1974, Mărdărescu was hired by the Royal Moroccan Football Federation in order to replace Abderrahmane Mahjoub as the head coach of the national team. He managed to qualify Morocco to the 1976 African Cup of Nations after passing three qualification rounds, eliminating Gambia, Senegal and Ghana. The final tournament was composed of two group stages, he managed to get past the first one after a draw with Sudan, followed by victories with Nigeria and title holders Zaire. At the final group stage, Morocco defeated Egypt and once again Nigeria. The final game of the group was against Guinea which was coached by Mărdărescu's compatriot Petre Moldoveanu, Morocco needing just a draw to win the competition. After Cherif Souleymane opened the score for Guinea in the 33rd minute, Ahmed Makrouh equalized in the last minutes of the game, thus the result being 1–1 and the Moroccan side won its first ever African Cup of Nations tournament, also having forward Ahmed Faras being named the best player of the competition. Afterwards he failed to qualify Morocco to the 1978 World Cup, being eliminated at the penalty shoot-out in the first qualifying round by Tunisia, also he led them at the 1978 African Cup of Nations where they did not pass the group stage as they earned a draw with Tunisia, a win against Congo and a defeat in front of Uganda. During his time spent with The Atlas Lions he also won the 1976 Pan Arab Games and debuted future Moroccan star Abdelmajid Dolmy.
Mărdărescu's last coaching spell was in 1980 in the United States at New York United.

## Personal life

His son Mircea "Gil" Mărdărescu played together with Pelé for the New York Cosmos in the NASL, also Virgil coached Mircea at Politehnica Iași.

## Death

Mărdărescu died on 11 June 2003 in Aliso Viejo, California, United States at the age of 81.

## Honours

Argeș Pitești
* Cupa României runner-up: 1964–65
Politehnica Iași
* Divizia B: 1972–73
Morocco
* Africa Cup of Nations: 1976
* Pan Arab Games: 1976