Dorinel Munteanu

Munteanu was born in Grădinari. He started his football career playing for Metalul Bocșa, a team which offered him the first chance to play in Divizia B in 1986. After a year he went to play for FCM Reșița and then in 1988 for Olt Scornicești, while 1989 found him at Inter Sibiu.

Dinamo Bucharest bought him from FC Inter Sibiu in 1991 only to sell him to Cercle Brugge two years later. After two years in Belgium, he moved to Germany to play for 1. FC Köln and VfL Wolfsburg until 2003.

In 2003, aged 35, he was released from his contract by VfL Wolfsburg and signed with Steaua București as a free agent, only to leave the club in 2005 after a conflict with the club's Chief Executive Mihai Stoica and join the squad of CFR Cluj Napoca.

Dorinel won his first cap for Romania in 1991 while still at Inter Sibiu.[6] Since then he was a very important part of the national team of Romania, playing in various positions such as left back, left midfielder and playmaker.

In 2001, he won his 100th cap in a game against Slovenia in Ljubljana and four years later he won the 126th cap, making him the most capped Romanian footballer.[6] He has a total of 134 caps.[6]

Munteanu scored 16 goals for Romania and played at the 1994 FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro 1996, 1998 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2000.[6]

After leaving Steaua București, Munteanu is offered the position of player-manager at CFR Cluj. In this first managerial job, he took the team to the Intertoto Cup final in 2005 and finished fifth in Divizia A at the end of the 2005–06 season. During the first half of the 2006–07 season, despite a good start (six wins, two draws, two defeats) with CFR Cluj, Munteanu announced he resigns his position at the club, due to interference with his decisions and lack of support from the club management. Munteanu had a pending offer from Argeș Pitești and he decided to accept it, despite the team being bottom of the first league after 10 games. Towards the end of the season, due to impossibility of avoiding the relegation of Argeș Pitești, he was sacked, only to be confirmed in short time as the new manager of Liga 1 team FC Vaslui. He has stated that he also intends to continue his playing career at FC Vaslui. He came back as head coach of Universitatea Cluj in September 2008, but only after seven games he quit to go to Steaua București.[1][7] And again, after only eight games, he was dismissed by the club's president, Gigi Becali and returned to Universitatea Cluj.[8]

After the short spell at Universitatea Cluj, in July 2009 he signed a contract with Oțelul Galați. In the first season under his command, the team finished eighth. The next season, Oțelul started the season with four wins in the first six games and climbed on top of the championship. They finished first the Autumn part of the season, and what seemed to be only a flash in the pan, became one of the biggest surprises in the Romanian football. Oțelul maintained its position throughout the Spring season and became Romanian champion for the first time in their history. Munteanu was seen as the primary factor for this success.[9]

The following season, under Munteanu's guidance, Oțelul took part in the UEFA Champions League group stage, but failed to gain a single point. In the championship, Oțelul finished sixth and didn't qualify for the European competitions.

The 2012–13 season started badly for Oțelul who won the game in the first round, against Politehnica Iași, but then registered five consecutive games without a win. As a consequence, Dorinel Munteanu resigned.

In November 2012, he was installed as a head coach at Dinamo București.[10][11] After only one month and four games in charge at Dinamo, Munteanu resigned at the end of 2012, citing the wish to follow his dream to coach abroad.[12] Just a day later, on 28 December 2012, Munteanu signed a contract for one and a half years with Mordovia Saransk.[13] On 1 August 2013, he took charge of Russian side Kuban Krasnodar,[14] before being sacked on 12 October of the same year. On 14 June 2014, Munteanu was appointed as manager of Gabala FK.[15] Munteanu was relieved of his duties as manager on 8 December 2014, following four wins in sixteen matches.[16]

As of 3 June 2020[5][17]

Team	From	To	Record
			G	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
CFR Cluj	1 July 2005	2 October 2006	40	20	10	10	58	38	+20	050.00
Argeș Pitești	5 October 2006	26 April 2007	18	3	7	8	12	17	−5	016.67
FC Vaslui	1 July 2007	5 April 2008	26	11	9	6	39	22	+17	042.31
Universitatea Cluj	26 August 2008	26 October 2008	10	5	1	4	12	12	+0	050.00
FC Steaua București	27 October 2008	15 December 2008	5	1	4	0	4	3	+1	020.00
FC Universitatea Cluj	1 April 2009	30 June 2009	12	4	5	3	14	9	+5	033.33
FC Oțelul Galați	8 July 2009	30 August 2012	140	79	28	33	156	112	+44	056.43
FC Dinamo București	15 November 2012	27 December 2012	4	2	2	0	8	5	+3	050.00
FC Mordovia Saransk	28 December 2012	5 June 2013	11	3	2	6	12	16	−4	027.27
FC Kuban Krasnodar	6 June 2013	12 October 2013	18	7	5	6	20	20	+0	038.89
Gabala FK	14 June 2014	8 December 2014	16	4	5	7	18	26	−8	025.00
Astra Giurgiu	7 July 2015	3 January 2016	23	14	6	3	60	30	+30	060.87
Zakho FC	5 February 2017	8 May 2017	12	10	1	1	32	18	+14	083.33
CSM Reșița	10 November 2017	29 June 2018	35	21	8	6	53	29	+24	060.00
Concordia Chiajna	17 September 2018	7 January 2019	15	3	4	8	11	26	−15	020.00
CSM Reșița	10 November 2019	29 May 2020	7	2	2	3	10	9	+1	028.57
Total			392	189	99	104	519	392	+127	048.21

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dorinel Munteanu.

• Dorinel Munteanu at FootballDatabase.eu
• Dorinel Munteanu at National-Football-Teams.com