# Cornel Popa (footballer)

Cornel Popa (19 March 1935 – 4 November 1999) was a Romanian football player who played as a right defender.

## Club career

Cornel Popa was born on 19 March 1935 in Iași, Romania and started to play football in 1951 at junior level at local club, Victoria, before starting his senior career at Divizia B team, Locomotiva Iași. In 1955 he went to play for Dinamo Bacău where he made his Divizia A debut on 18 March 1956 in a 1–0 loss against Dinamo București.
In 1957 he went to play for Dinamo București where in his first season he helped the club win the 1958–59, being used by coach Iuliu Baratky all the minutes in the 4–0 win over CSM Baia Mare from the final. He then won four consecutive Divizia A titles from 1962 until 1965, in the first he worked with three coaches Traian Ionescu, Constantin Teașcă and Nicolae Dumitru who gave him 24 appearances, in the following two Dumitru and Ionescu used him in 25 matches in the first and 24 in the second and in the last one he played 25 games under the guidance of Angelo Niculescu. Popa also won two more Cupa României trophies with The Red Dogs but coach Ionescu did not use him 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 played 15 games in the European Cup and two in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, including playing all four games of the 1963–64 European Cup campaign as they got pass 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. Cornel Popa made his last Divizia A appearance on 15 June 1969, playing for Dinamo in a 1–0 away loss against Universitatea Craiova, having a total of 262 appearances in the competition.
He ended his career after spending a period in Turkey at Beşiktaş where he did not play any games because of an injury.

## International career

Popa played 27 games of which in 12 he was captain at international level for Romania, making his debut on 26 October 1958 under coach Augustin Botescu in a friendly which ended with a 2–1 away loss against Hungary. He played four games at the 1960 European Nations' Cup qualifiers, helping the team eliminate Turkey with 3–2 on aggregate, managing to qualify to the quarter-finals where they were eliminated by Czechoslovakia who advanced to the final tournament. He also played in a 3–1 victory against Spain at the 1964 European Nations' Cup qualifiers and made six appearances at the 1966 World Cup qualifiers. Cornel Popa played five games at the Euro 1968 qualifiers, including his last appearance which took place on 24 May 1967 in a 7–1 away loss against Switzerland.

## Managerial career

Popa started coaching after 1970, working for a while at Dinamo's junior and children center, then at several teams from the Romanian lower leagues such as Unirea Alexandria, Victoria Roman and Minerul Gura Humorului without achieving any notable performances.

## Death

He died on 4 November 1999 at the age of 64 due to cancer.

## Honours

Dinamo București
* Divizia A: 1961–62, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1964–65
* Cupa României: 1958–59, 1963–64, 1967–68