Mihai Romilă

Mihai Romilă (1 October 1950 – 27 June 2020) was a Romanian football midfielder.^[5]

Mihai Romilă

Personal information
Date of birth	(1950-10-01)1 October 1950[1]
Place of birth	Huși, Romania[1]
Date of death	27 June 2020(2020-06-27) (aged 69)[2]
Place of death	Iași, Romania[3]
Position(s)	Midfielder / Forward[1][4]
Youth career
1966–1968	CSMS Iași
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1968–1969	Nicolina Iași	40	(0)
1970	Gloria Bârlad	12	(0)
1970–1971	ASA Sibiu	23	(0)
1971–1983	Politehnica Iași	367	(65)
1983–1984	Dunărea Galați	14	(1)
Total		456	(66)
International career
1976	Romania Olympic	1	(0)
1975–1979	Romania	18	(1)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Club career

Romilă was born on 1 October 1950 in Huși, Romania.^[1] He started playing junior level football in 1966 at CSMS Iași.^[1][3][4][6] Two years later he moved to neighboring club, Nicolina where he started his senior career, playing in Divizia C.^[1][3][4][6] In 1970 he went to play at Divizia B level for Gloria Bârlad, moving half of year later at ASA Sibiu back in Divizia C.^[1][3][4][6]

In 1971, he made a comeback to Iași, going at Politehnica, making his Divizia A debut on 29 August under the guidance of coach Virgil Mărdărescu in a 2–2 draw with Farul Constanța.^[1][3][4][6] At the end of his first season the team relegated but he stayed with the club, helping it promote back to the first league after one year.^[1][4][6] Over the years at Politehnica, Romilă together with Vasile Simionaș and Gabriel Simionov he formed one of the best midfield lines of the Romanian league from the 1970s.^[7][8] In the 1980–81 season he scored a personal record of 10 league goals, however the team relegated once again but he helped it promote back once again after one year.^[1][4][6]

Romilă went to play for the 1983–84 season at Dunărea Galați where on 4 December 1983 he made his last Divizia A appearance in a 1–0 home loss to SC Bacău, gaining a total of 324 matches with 55 goals netted in the competition.^[1][3][4]

International career

Romilă played 18 matches at international level for Romania, making his debut on 17 December 1975 under coach Cornel Drăgușin in a 1–1 draw against Scotland at the Euro 1976 qualifiers^[9][10] He made three appearances at each of the World Cup 1978 qualifiers and the Euro 1980 qualifiers, including two victories against Yugoslavia.^[6][7][9] He scored his only goal for the national team from a penalty kick in a friendly which ended with a 2–1 loss to Greece.^{[3][6][9][11]} On 1 June 1979 he made his last appearance for The Tricolours in a friendly which ended with a 1–0 away loss to East Germany.^[9] Romilă also played one game for Romania's Olympic team in a 1–0 victory against France at the 1976 Summer Olympics qualifiers.^[6][12]

International goals

Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first. "Score" column indicates the score after each Mihai Romilă goal.^[9][11]

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	13 December 1978	Leoforos Alexandras Stadium, Athens, Greece	Greece	1–2	1–2	Friendly

After retirement

After he ended his playing career, Romilă worked as a youth coach, being known to discover and form Mihai Pintilii at Noua Generație Iași.^{[3][6][7][13]}

Personal life

Mihai Romilă's brothers, Dumitru and Vasile were also footballers who played at Politehnica Iași.^[6][14]

Death

Romilă died on 27 June 2020 in Iași at age 69.^{[3][6][7][2][15]}

Honours

Politehnica Iași

• Divizia B: 1972–73, 1981–82^[1]