Mircea Lucescu's era in Romania ends
Baku, April 2, AZERTAC
The Romanian Football Federation has announced that it has parted ways with iconic coach Mircea Lucescu, according to KOHA.
"The end of this contract marks the end of his second term with the national team," the Romanian Football Federation said in a statement.
Lucescu returned to the Romanian national team in 2024. Lucescu has previously managed Romania as a coach. He worked for Romania from 1981 to 1986.
The President of the Federation, Razvan Burleanu, praised Lucescu's passion and dedication at the helm of Romania.
"Mircea Lucescu accepted this challenge and did everything he could for Romania. He showed boundless passion and dedication. With his tireless efforts and commitment at every moment, he demonstrated what true love for the national team and football means," Burleanu told the Romanian Football Federation.
Lucescu is a legend of Romanian football and not only. Lucescu was also successful as a footballer. He has been named coach of the year many times in Romania and even more so in Ukraine.
Lucescu is one of the greatest coaches to have come to the stadium in Pristina. He led Romania in two matches against Kosovo in League C of the Nations League.
Romania won both matches. The first in Pristina on September 6, Romania won 3:0, while with an official score of 3:0, they also won the match in Bucharest on November 15.
After several clashes between players on the pitch, a group of Romanian fans started chanting “Serbia, Serbia”. The Kosovo players decided to leave the pitch and did not return even when asked to do so by the referee. The match was stopped in the final minutes when the score was 0:0.
Immediately on November 20, 2024, UEFA registered the match with an official score of 3:0 in favor of Romania. CAS also ruled the same as UEFA in May of last year. The score of 3:0 in favor of Romania remains in force.
The 80-year-old coach has recently been battling health problems. Shortly before the trip to Bratislava for the Slovakia-Romania match, Lucescu was hospitalized after losing consciousness during training.
Romania played a friendly against Slovakia after being eliminated by Turkey in the semifinals of the 2026 World Cup qualifying playoff.
Türkiye defeated Kosovo in Pristina 1:0 in the playoff final and secured qualification for this year's World Cup, which is being held in the USA, Mexico and Canada.
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