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RRI Sports Club – In memoriam, Costica Stefanescu

Todays edition pays tribute to former football legend Costica Stefanescu.

Florin Orban, 21.08.2013, 13:16

Former football legend Costica Stefanescu died on Tuesday in tragic circumstances. Stefanescu had been diagnosed with an incurable disease, and thus chose to end his life by throwing himself off the fifth floor of the Military Hospital in Bucharest, where he had been admitted for specialist care. The authorities have started an investigation in order to ascertain the exact circumstances of the death of the great former

Costica Stefanescu played for Romania in the 1977-1985 period and grabbed a total of 66 caps in the first team. He was named national team captain at the 1984 European Championship.

He made his debut at Steaua Bucharest in 1969, where he played until 1973. He was then signed by Universitatea Craiova, one of the best teams of the Romanian First League at the time. It was there that he rose to fame and got his best performances, playing both as central defender and fullback. Stefanescu spent 13 seasons at Universitatea Craiova. In 1983 he made a valuable contribution to get his team all the way to the UEFA Cup semifinals. In 1986 he transferred to FC Brasov, where he chose to hang up his boots in 1988.

He had a total of 490 caps in the Romanian First League, a record he held onto for a long time, until October 2012, when he was outrun by Ionel Danciulescu of Dinamo Bucharest.

As a player, Costica Stefanescu won the Romanian Cup three times with Steaua Bucharest, in 1969, 1970 and 1971, and four times with Universitatea Craiova, in 1977, 1978, 1981 and 1983. He also won the title with Universitatea Craiova in 1974, 1980 and 1981.

Later on, when he took up coaching, Costica Stefanescu trained several teams at home, among which FC Brasov, Steaua Bucharest, FCM Bacau, FC Timisoara, Astra Ploiesti and Universitatea Craiova. He also had a short spell abroad, coaching teams in the Arab world. In the 1994-1998 period he was Anghel Iordanescu’s second coach at Romania’s national team.