Marius Lăcătuș

Marius Mihai Lăcătuș (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈmari.us miˈhaj ləkəˈtuʃ]; born 5 April 1964) is a football coach and former professional footballer. He is by far the most successful footballer ever to play for Steaua București and was part of their European Cup victory in 1986. Lăcătuș is the all-time top scorer for Steaua with 16 goals in European competitions. On 7 July 2021, Steaua retired his shirt number 7 at the inauguration match of the new Steaua Stadium.

Marius Lăcătuș

Lăcătuș in 2010
Personal information
Full name	Marius Mihai Lăcătuș
Date of birth	(1964-04-05) 5 April 1964
Place of birth	Brașov, Romania
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s)	Inside-forward
Youth career
1977–1981	Brașov
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1981–1983	Brașov	45	(5)
1983–1990	Steaua București	200	(59)
1990–1991	Fiorentina	21	(3)
1991–1993	Real Oviedo	51	(7)
1993–2000	Steaua București	157	(39)
2000	Național București	12	(0)
Total		486	(113)
International career
	Romania U-21
1984–1998	Romania	84	(13)
Managerial career
2000	Naţional București
2001–2002	Oțelul Galați
2002–2003	Brașov
2004	Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț
2005	Inter Gaz București
2006–2007	UTA Arad
2007–2008	FCSB
2009	FCSB
2009–2010	Vaslui
2010–2011	FCSB
2012	FCM Târgu Mureș
2013–2014	Politehnica Iași
2017–2019	Steaua București
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

He played as a deep lying striker or inside forward for Steaua București most of his career, being the team's captain between 1994 and 1999. He also played for Italian side Fiorentina and Real Oviedo in Spain.

He is the most successful player who has ever played in the Romanian First League. He has won it a record number of ten times. Following him in the all time table are: Giedrius Arlauskis, Ciprian Deac, Adrian Bumbescu, Mircea Lucescu, Dumitru Stângaciu and Tudorel Stoica, all with 7 championships won.

Club career

Lăcătuș was an iconic player for Steaua București's supporters. Even now, many years after leaving the club as a player, the supporters shout his name at home games. The supporters loved him for his spectacular way of playing 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. After the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy, where he scored two goals against the USSR, Lăcătuș signed for the Italian team ACF Fiorentina and then moved to Real Oviedo in Spain. In 1994, he returned to Steaua and played for the team until 1999, when he finally signed for FC Național București, where he played only for half a season before retiring. However, in October 2006 he decided to enroll himself as part of UT Arad team where he was also coach until 2007 before he joined FCSB.

On 25 March 2008, he was decorated by the president of Romania, Traian Băsescu with Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" — (Order of Sporting Merit) class II for his part in winning the 1986 European Cup Final.

Lăcătuș 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.

As a player, he won the Romanian 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 București.

International career

Lăcătuș was capped 83 times, scoring 13 goals for the Romania 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.

Career statistics

Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Lăcătuș goal.

List of international goals scored by Marius Lăcătuș

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	21 November 1984	Bloomfield Stadium, Tel Aviv, Israel	Israel	1–1	1–1	Friendly
2	30 January 1985	Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon, Portugal	Portugal	1–2	3–2	Friendly
3				2–2
4	10 September 1986	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Austria	2–0	4–0	UEFA Euro 1988 qualifying
5	26 May 1990	Heysel Stadium, Brussels, Belgium	Belgium	2–2	2–2	Friendly
6	9 June 1990	Stadio San Nicola, Bari, Italy	Soviet Union	1–0	2–0	World Cup 1990 Group B
7				2–0
8	29 August 1990	Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, USSR	Soviet Union	1–0	2–1	Friendly
9	6 May 1992	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Faroe Islands	3–0	7–0	FIFA World Cup 1994 qualifying
10	14 December 1994	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan, Israel	Israel	1–0	1–1	UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying
11	7 June 1995	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Israel	1–0	2–1	UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying
12	11 October 1995	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	France	1–2	1–3	UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying
13	24 April 1996	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Georgia	4–0	5–0	Friendly

Honours

Player

Steaua București

• Divizia A (10, record): 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98 (Record)
• Romanian Cup (6): 1984–85, 1986–87, 1988–89, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1998–99
• Romanian Super Cup: 1994, 1995, 1998
• European Cup: 1985–86, Runner-up: 1988–89
• European Super Cup: 1986
• Intercontinental Cup Runner-up: 1986
• Note: Lăcătuș is the Romanian footballer who won the most domestic awards.

Individual

• Gazeta Sporturilor Romanian Footballer of the Year (fifth place): 1987,

External links

• Marius Lăcătuș at RomanianSoccer.ro (in Romanian)
• Marius Lăcătuș (Statistics as coach) (in Romanian)
• Marius Lăcătuș at WorldFootball.net