Marius Lăcătuş

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Marius Lăcătuş
Personal information
Full name	Marius Mihai Lăcătuş
Date of birth	April 5, 1964
Place of birth	Braşov, Romania
Nickname	The Beast
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	UT Arad
Youth clubs
1977-81	FC Braşov
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1981-83 1983-90 1990-91 1991-93 1993-00 2000 2006	FC Braşov Steaua Bucharest AC Fiorentina Real Oviedo Steaua Bucharest FC Naţional Bucharest UT Arad	45 (5) 200 (59) 21 (3) 51 (7) 157 (39) 12 (0)
National team
1984-98	Romania	84 (13)
Teams managed
2000 - 2001 2002 2002 - 2003 2003 2004 2005 2006 - present	FC Naţional Bucureşti (assistant coach) FC Farul Constanţa FC Braşov Romania (assistant coach) Ceahlăul Piatra Neamţ Inter Gaz Bucureşti UT Arad
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Marius Mihai Lăcătuş (born April 5, 1964 in Braşov) is Romanian football player and current coach of UT Arad.

He played as a striker for Steaua Bucharest most of his career, being the team's captain between 1994 and 1999. He also played for AC Fiorentina of Italy and Real Oviedo of Spain. Currently, he is the team coach of UT Arad, a newly promoted team in Romania's Divizia A (now Liga I).

Lăcătuş was an iconic player for Steaua Bucharest's supporters. Even now, seven years after leaving the club as a player, the supporters shout his name at each game. The supportes loved him for his spectacular way to play football, as well as for his commitment during the games. He was nicknamed Fiara (The Beast).

He was the first player to score in the penalty shoot-out of the 1986 European Cup final against FC Barcelona, won by Steaua Bucharest. After 1990 World Cup in Italy, where he scored two goals against USSR, Lăcătuş was signed by the Italian team AC Fiorentina and then moved to Real Oviedo in Spain. In 1994 he returned to Steaua Bucharest and played for the team until 1999, when he finally signed for FC Naţional Bucureşti, where he played only for half a season before retiring. However, in October 2006 he decided to enroll himself as part of UT Arad, the team he is coaching since July 2006.

[edit] Club career

Lăcătuş played a total of 414 games in the Romanian Divizia A (now Liga I), scoring 103 goals; 21 games in the Italian Serie A where he scored three times and also 51 games in the Spanish La Liga, scoring 7 goals. He also made appearances 72 games in the European Cup, Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Cup, scoring 16 goals.

Lăcătuş was capped 84 times, scoring 13 goals for the Romanian national team, and played for his country in the 1990 World Cup, Euro 1996 and 1998 World Cup. He scored the 700th goal for the national team of Romania.

As a player he won the Romanian football championship ten times and the Romanian Cup seven times, as well as the European Cup in 1986 and the European Supercup in 1987, all with Steaua Bucharest.

[edit] Coaching and Managerial career

After retiring from professional football in 2000, Marius Lăcătuş became the assistant coach of FC Naţional Bucureşti and then in March 2002 he was signed by FC Farul Constanţa as head coach. In the summer of 2002 he returned to FC Braşov -- the club of his hometown -- this time as head coach. After the first half of the 2003-2004 season he resigned and moved to Ceahlăul Piatra Neamţ.

He was also assistant coach of the Romanian national team for a short time in 2003.

In 2005 he was named president of Steaua Bucharest but could not last in this position for a long time; as he used to say, he likes the pitch more than the office. In the summer of 2006 he signed with UT Arad, a club at which he has been also registered as a player.

[edit] External links

• (English) Marius Lăcătuş (Statistics as player)
• (Romanian) Marius Lăcătuş (Statistics as coach)

	Romania squad - 1990 FIFA World Cup
1 Lung | 2 Rednic | 3 Klein | 4 Andone | 5 Rotariu | 6 G. Popescu | 7 Lăcătuş | 8 Sabău | 9 Cămătaru | 10 Hagi | 11 Lupu | 12 Stelea | 13 A. Popescu | 14 Răducioiu | 15 Mateuţ | 16 Timofte | 17 Dumitrescu | 18 Balint | 19 Săndoi | 20 Muzsnay | 21 Lupescu | 22 Liliac | Coach: Jenei

	Romania squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup
1 Stângaciu | 2 Petrescu | 3 Dulca | 4 Doboş | 5 Gâlcă | 6 Gheorghe Popescu | 7 Lăcătuş | 8 Munteanu | 9 Moldovan | 10 Hagi | 11 Ilie | 12 Stelea | 13 Ciobotariu | 14 Niculescu | 15 Marinescu | 16 Gabriel Popescu | 17 Dumitrescu | 18 Filipescu | 19 Stîngă | 20 Selymes | 21 Craioveanu | 22 Prunea | Coach: Iordănescu