Viorel Mateianu
Viorel Mateianu (1 June 1938 – 25 November 1997) was a Romanian football player and coach. Club career. Mateianu was born in Lipănești, Prahova and started playing football in the Romanian lower leagues at Flacăra Boldești and Progresul CPCS București. He made his Divizia A debut on 25 August 1957, playing for Progresul București in a 3–2 victory in which he scored a goal against Energia Petroșani, shortly after his debut, Mateianu was nicknamed "Little Alfredo Di Stéfano". In 1957, during a football tournament held in San Sebastián, Spain in which he participated with one of Romania's youth  teams, Mateianu had an offer to play for Real Madrid, which he refused, not wanting to risk to never see his parents again, as he could have not been allowed to return to the country by the communist regime. In 1958 he went to play for three seasons and a half at Știința Cluj, where he scored 21 goals in 72 Divizia A appearances, a period in which he also graduated the Faculty of Law. Then he went at Steaua București where he won the 1961–62 Cupa României, opening the score in the 5–1 victory from the final against Rapid  București. He returned to Progresul București where he spent 8 seasons, after which he was allowed by the communist authorities to play in Western Europe, going in West Germany at TUS Wannsee Berlin and Alemannia Aachen where he ended his playing career. Mateianu has a total of 220 matches played and 62 goals scored in Divizia A. International career. Viorel Mateianu played six games and scored two goals at international level for Romania, making his debut under coach Augustin Botescu at the 1960 European Nations' Cup quarter-finals where they were defeated by Czechoslovakia, who advanced to the final tournament . He played three games and scored two goals at the 1966 World Cup qualifiers, making his last appearance for the national team in a friendly which ended with a 2–0 loss against East Germany. Coaching career. In 1973, just a few months after returning from Germany where he graduated a coaching course, Mateianu was given the role of head coach at his former club, Progresul București, then playing in Divizia B, managing to promote the team back to Divizia A in the 1975–76 season, being dismissed in the beginning of the following season. He went to coach Divizia B team  Baia Mare in 1976 and with a team he formed mostly with local players from Maramureș County, Mateianu managed to earn a promotion in Divizia A, where the team finished twice on the 4th position. During his period spent at Baia Mare, Mateianu became known for his coaching innovations, having many tactical schemes which he gave them names like "Morișca" ("The Hand-Mill") in which the strikers and midfielders swap places during the game, being considered an early form of tiki-taka, "Momeala mare" ("The Big bait"), "Momeala mică" ("The Little bait"), "Căciula" ("The Hat"), "Paralelogramul" ("The Parallelogram"), "Americana" ("The  American"), "Fundul de sac" ("The bottom of the bag") or "Șarpele" ("The Snake") are only a few examples. He also believed that the best football practice for the footballers was to play football, that is why while the rest of the clubs used to organize long cantonments before the games and training sessions in the mountains during the preparation period from the season brakes, he used to put his team to play many friendly games. Mircea Lucescu was very impressed by Mateianu's working methods, coming to study his training sessions, sometimes asking Mateianu to extend his training sessions so  he can see more of his methods, also he went to his home where they would talk all night about football and draw tactical game schemes together. Honours. Player. Progresul București Steaua București Manager. Progresul București Baia Mare