Octavian Popescu (footballer, born 1938)

Octavian Popescu (born 25 April 1938) is a Romanian former footballer and coach known in Germany and Turkey as Popi or Pope.

For other people with the same name, see Octavian Popescu.
Octavian Popescu
Personal information
Date of birth (1938-04-25) 25 April 1938
Place of birth Bucharest, Romania
Height 1.67 m (5 ft 6 in)
Position(s) Midfielder
Youth career
1948–1959 Rapid București
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1959–1960 Rapid București 7 (0)
1960–1964 Ştiinţa Cluj 85 (14)
1964–1967 Dinamo București 70 (15)
1967–1968 Jiul Petroşani 22 (4)
1968–1969 Rapid București 8 (3)
1969–1971 Mersin İdmanyurdu 30 (4)
Total 222 (40)
National team
1964 Romania Olympic 1 (1)
Teams managed
1972–1973 Dunărea Giurgiu
1973–1974 Progresul Brăila
1974–1975 Eskişehirspor
1975–1978 Romania Olympic
1978–1979 Mersin İdmanyurdu
1980–1984 1860 München II
1984 1860 München
1986 Malatyaspor
1991 Offenburger FV
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Popescu is a former DFB coach from Sports University in Cologne.[1] He is one of the founders of the IFTA International Footballtennis Association.[2]

Career

Born in Bucharest, Popescu started playing football for FC Rapid București. He joined Ştiinţa Cluj before moving to FC Dinamo București, where he would win three consecutive Romanian league championships with the club from 1963 to 1965. He also played for CS Jiul Petroşani before returning to FC Rapid București in 1968.[3]

Popescu next moved to Turkey to join Mersin İdmanyurdu SK.[3] He made 30 appearances in the Süper Lig during the 1969–70 and 1970–71 seasons.

He made one appearance for the Romanian Olympic team in which he scored in a friendly 2–1 win against the Yugoslavia A team in 1964.[4]

Following the end of his playing career, Popescu managed a few clubs in Romania and Turkey including Eskişehirspor,[5] and the Romanian Olympic team before he moved to Germany where he studied at the Sports Academy of Cologne which is now called the Hennes Weisweiler Academy. He was appointed manager of TSV 1860 München[6] Malatyaspor[7] and Offenburger FV in 1991.[8]

In 2014, Popescu was among the candidates for the Romanian FA presidency.[9]

References
  1. "Die Teilnehmer des 30. Lehrgangs" (in German). DFB.de. Retrieved 11 February 2008.
  2. "International Development of Futnet between 1987 and 2011". Futnet.eu. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
  3. "Octavian Popescu acuza FRF ca ii ignora candidatura" (in Romanian). Gazeta Sportulor. 1 November 2005.
  4. "Olympic 1964". Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  5. "Octavian 'Pope' Popescu Manager" (in Turkish). Mackolik.com. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  6. "Von Dschungelkämpfern und Partylöwen" (in German). Merkur-Online.de. Retrieved 20 April 2009.
  7. "Futbol Tarihinden Bir Yaprak" (in Turkish). Malatyahaber.com. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  8. "Vereinsgeschichte Offenburger FV" (PDF) (in German). Offenburgerfv.de. Retrieved 7 February 2011.
  9. "Octavian Popescu, al cincilea candidat la şefia FRF" (in Romanian). Mediafax.ro. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
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