Dănuț Lupu

Dănuț Lupu (born 27 February 1967) is a Romanian former football midfielder.

Dănuț Lupu
Lupu in 1994
Personal information
Full name Dănuț Lupu
Date of birth (1967-02-27) 27 February 1967
Place of birth Galaţi, Romania
Height 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position(s) Central midfielder
Youth career
1985–1987 Dunărea Galaţi
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1987–1990 Dinamo București 90 (17)
1990–1991 Panathinaikos 10 (1)
1991–1993 Korinthos 47 (3)
1993–1994 OFI Crete 9 (1)
1994 Rapid București 2 (0)
1994–1995 Brescia 15 (1)
1995 Rapid București 13 (6)
1995–1997 Dinamo București 42 (7)
1997–2000 Rapid București 77 (13)
2000–2001 Dinamo București 4 (1)
2001 Tzafririm Holon 1 (0)
Total 310 (50)
National team
1989–1998 Romania 14 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Club career

Lupu started to play professional football in 1985, at the local team of Dunarea Galati in the Romanian second league. Scouters from Dinamo Bucharest saw him, and transferred him to Bucharest. He played his first game in Divizia A on 8 March 1987 in a 2–0 win over FC Brasov. The first two seasons Dinamo finished runners-up, and succeeded to win in the 1989–90 season the title and cup (with Lupu contributing 6 goals and 13 assists in Divizia A); also reaching a Cup Winners' Cup semi-final in 1990. He remained at Dinamo three seasons, and played a total of 90 matches in which he scored 17 goals.

After the fall of communism in the 1990s, Lupu moved to Greece and signed with Panathinaikos although he played there only 10 league games, scoring one goal. However, he won with The Greens the championship. During his time in Greece, he also had spells playing at Korinthos and OFI Crete.

In 1994, he came back in Romania at Rapid Bucharest, but was loaned out to Brescia in Italy. Lupu spent the next two seasons with Dinamo Bucharest. In 1997, when Mircea Lucescu became Rapid's coach Lupu returned, and was close to winning another championship in 1998, but they lost in the last round against Universitatea Craiova; and the title went to Steaua. A season later, he won the championship and the cup with Rapid, after 33 years of struggle in Rapid's history. In 2000, his career went downhill, he returned for a third spell at Dinamo just for a short time. Then he moved to Israel at Hapoel Tzafririm to end his career.

In the European Cups Lupu played for Dinamo, Panathinaikos and Rapid a total of 32 matches and scored 3 goals.

International career

Lupu made his debut on 11 October 1989 in a friendly game against Denmark. He represented Romania at the 1990 World Cup in Italy. In total he played 14 games for Romania, without scoring.

Personal life

His nephew, Valentin Balint is also a footballer who started his career at Dinamo București.[1][2]

Honours
Dinamo București
Panathinaikos
Rapid București

References
  1. "Puştiul cu numele greu! Valentin Balint a învăţat fotbal de la unchiul său, Dănuţ Lupu" [The kid with a heavy name! Valentin Balint learned to play football from his uncle Danuţ Lupu] (in Romanian). prosport.ro. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
  2. "El e pustiul MAGIC pe care Dinamo il creste s-o DISTRUGA pe Steaua! Ce mesaj are pentru fane" [He is the MAGICAL kid that Dinamo grows to DESTROY Steaua! What message does he has for his female fans] (in Romanian). sport.ro. Retrieved 7 October 2017.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.