Dudu Georgescu

Dudu Georgescu (born 1 September 1950) is a retired Romanian footballer who played as a forward and former coach.

Dudu Georgescu

Georgescu photographed during the 1970s
Personal information
Date of birth	(1950-09-01) 1 September 1950 (age 75)
Place of birth	Bucharest, Romania
Height	1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Youth career
1962–1969	Progresul București
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1969–1972	Progresul București	95	(20)
1972–1973	CSM Reșița	12	(7)
1973–1983	Dinamo București	260	(207)
1983–1984	SC Bacău	22	(4)
1984–1986	Gloria Buzău	44	(27)
1986	Flacăra Moreni	4	(2)
1987	Muscelul Câmpulung	5	(2)
1987–1988	Unirea Urziceni	10	(3)
Total		452	(272)
International career
1973–1984	Romania[1]	40	(21)
Managerial career
1989–1990	CSM Reșița (assistant)
1991	Zimbru Chișinău
1992	Corvinul Hunedoara
1992	CSM Reșița
1993–1994	Acvila Giurgiu
1994–1995	Dunărea Călărași
2001	Al-Najma
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Club career

Georgescu was born on 1 September 1950 in Bucharest, Romania.^[2][3] He began his career at Progresul București, making his Divizia A debut on 11 June 1969 in a 3–0 victory against Universitatea Craiova in which he played as a central defender.^[2][4] After playing for Progresul in the first two leagues for a few years, Georgescu went to play for a short while at CSM Reșița, where he scored a double in a 4–1 victory against Dinamo București, which convinced them to transfer him.^[2][4]

His Dinamo spell consisted of 10 Divizia A seasons in which he won four league titles and was the team's top-scorer in the first three of those.^[2][3][5] At the conquest of the first one he was coached by Nicolae Dumitru, in the next two by Ion Nunweiller and Valentin Stănescu respectively, while at the last he worked once again with Dumitru.^[2][3][5] He won the 1981–82 Cupa României in which he scored two goals in the final that ended with a 3–2 win over FC Baia Mare, Stănescu using him the entire match.^[2][3][6] Georgescu also made some notable individual performances such as being the Divizia A top-scorer four consecutive times from 1975 until 1978 and winning the European Golden Shoe in 1975 (33 goals) and 1977 (47 goals).^[3][7][8] He won the Romanian Footballer of the Year award in 1976 and was nominated three times for the Ballon d'Or.^[3][9][10] With 207 goals scored (including nine in the derby against Steaua București) in 260 Divizia A matches, Georgescu is Dinamo's all time leading top-scorer.^{[2][3][4][11]} He represented The Red Dogs in European competitions by appearing in 23 games in which he scored 17 goals.^[2][3] Seven of these goals were netted in the European Cup of which four are in a 11–0 win over Crusaders, two against Atlético Madrid and one against Dukla Prague.^[2][12] He also scored one goal in a 3–2 win over Inter Milan which helped the team eliminate the Italians in the second round of the 1981–82 UEFA Cup.^[2][13]

After his period spent at Dinamo, Georgescu went to play for SC Bacău, Gloria Buzău and Flacăra Moreni.^[2][3][7] At the latter he made his last Divizia A appearance on 23 November 1986 in a 3–1 home loss in which he scored his side's goal against his former team, Dinamo, obtaining a competition record of 252 goals scored in 371 games.^[2][3][7] Georgescu ended his career in 1988 after playing two seasons in Divizia C for Muscelul Câmpulung and Unirea Urziceni.^[2][7]

International career

Georgescu played 40 matches and scored 21 goals for Romania (44/21 including Romania's Olympic team games), making his debut on 14 September 1973 under coach Valentin Stănescu in his national team's biggest ever victory, a 9–0 in which he scored one goal against Finland in the 1974 World Cup qualifiers.^[1][14][15] He scored four goals in five matches in the Euro 1976 qualifiers and made three appearances in which he scored two goals in the 1977–80 Balkan Cup.^[1] Then he played four games and scored two goals in the 1978 World Cup qualifiers, made two appearances with two goals netted in a 2–2 draw against Spain in the Euro 1980 qualifiers and made one appearance at each of the 1982 World Cup qualifiers and the 1984 Euro qualifiers.^[1] Georgescu's last game for the national team was a friendly that ended with a 1–0 victory against China.^[1]

For helping his country qualify to Euro 1984, Georgescu was decorated by President of Romania Traian Băsescu on 25 March 2008 with the Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" – (The Medal "The Sportive Merit") class III.^[16]

International goals

Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Georgescu goal.^[1]

List of international goals scored by Dudu Georgescu

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	14 October 1973	23 August Stadium, Bucharest, Romania	Finland	9–0	9–0	1974 World Cup qualifiers
2	11 May 1975	23 August Stadium, Bucharest, Romania	Denmark	1–0	6–1	Euro 1976 qualifiers
3				4–0
4	1 June 1975	23 August Stadium, Bucharest, Romania	Scotland	1–0	1–1	Euro 1976 qualifiers
5	16 November 1975	23 August Stadium, Bucharest, Romania	Spain	2–1	2–2	Euro 1976 qualifiers
6	5 June 1976	San Siro, Milan, Italy	Italy	2–4	2–4	Friendly match
7	22 September 1976	23 August Stadium, Bucharest, Romania	Czechoslovakia	1–1	1–1	Friendly match
8	6 October 1976	Letenský Stadion, Prague, Czechoslovakia	Czechoslovakia	2–1	2–3	Friendly match
9	23 March 1977	Stadionul Steaua, Bucharest, Romania	Turkey	1–0	4–0	1977–80 Balkan Cup
10	8 May 1977	Stadion Maksimir, Zagreb, Yugoslavia	Yugoslavia	1–0	2–0	1978 World Cup qualifiers
11	14 August 1977	Stade du FUS, Rabat, Morocco	Czechoslovakia	1–0	3–1	Coupe Mohamed V 1977
12				2–1
13	21 September 1977	Stadionul Steaua, Bucharest, Romania	Greece	6–1	6–1	Friendly match
14	13 November 1977	Stadionul Steaua, Bucharest, Romania	Yugoslavia	4–4	4–6	1978 World Cup qualifiers
15	22 March 1978	İnönü Stadium, Istanbul, Turkey	Turkey	1–1	1–1	1977–80 Balkan Cup
16	21 March 1979	Stadionul Steaua, Bucharest, Romania	Greece	3–0	3–0	Friendly match
17	4 April 1979	23 August Stadium, Bucharest, Romania	Spain	1–0	2–2	Euro 1980 qualifiers
18				2–1
19	15 July 1982	Stadionul Areni, Suceava, Romania	Japan	4–0	4–0	Friendly match
20	18 July 1982	23 August Stadium, Bucharest, Romania	Japan	2–1	3–1	Friendly match
21				3–1

Managerial career

After he ended his playing career, Georgescu coached Romanian teams such as CSM Reșița, Corvinul Hunedoara, Acvila Giurgiu and Dunărea Călărași.^[7][17] He also had coaching spells outside Romania at Moldovan side Zimbru Chișinău and in Saudi Arabia at Al-Najma.^[7][17]

Personal life

His son, who is also named Dudu Georgescu, was a football referee who officiated matches including in the Romanian top-division, Divizia A.^[18]

Honours

Progresul București

• Divizia B: 1969–70^[2]

Dinamo București

• Divizia A: 1974–75, 1976–77, 1981–82, 1982–83^[2]
• Cupa României: 1981–82^[2]

Individual

• Divizia A top-scorer: 1974–75, 1975–76, 1976–77, 1977–78^[2]
• European Golden Shoe: 1974–75, 1976–77^[8]
• Ballon d'Or: 1975 (10th place), 1976 (15th place), 1977 (9th place)^[10]
• Romanian Footballer of the Year: 1976, (runner-up) 1977^[2][9]
• Dinamo București top-scorer in Divizia A: 207 goals^[4]
• Most goals scored in Divizia A: 252 goals^[4]