László Bölöni

His first team was Chimica Târnăveni, and in 1970 he moved to ASA Târgu Mureș. He stayed there until 1984, when he joined Steaua București, where he was part of the team which won the 1986 European Cup Final (where he missed his penalty in the shootout) and the European Super Cup the following year. Bölöni remained at Steaua until 1987. In 1988, aged 35, Bölöni left the country to play in Belgium at Racing Jet Wavre, and then in France at Créteil. He retired from professional football in 1992. On 25 March 2008, he was decorated by Romanian president Traian Băsescu with Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" — (The Order "The Sportive Merit") class II, for his part in winning the European Cup in 1986.

Bölöni won the Universiade gold medal with Romania's students football team in the 1974 edition that was held in France, playing alongside Gheorghe Mulțescu, Dan Păltinișanu, Romulus Chihaia and Paul Cazan. Playing for the Romania national team in 1983, Bölöni scored one of his most notable goals, in the 1–0 win against Italy in a Euro 84 qualification match, which eventually proved invaluable to the country's qualification for the tournament. At the finals themselves in France, he played in all three of Romania's games, and scored the equaliser in the 1–1 draw with Spain at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard. In total, Bölöni won 102 caps for Romania and scored 23 goals—or 108 caps and 25 goals if the Olympic games qualification is included.

As a football coach, Bölöni started with French club Nancy, where he was head coach for several years. He promoted with the team in Division 1. In 2000, he was appointed as national team coach, but in the summer of 2001 decided to leave the job. Then he joined Portugal's club Sporting CP, where he won both the Primeira Liga and Taça de Portugal in his first year. He was fired at the end of the next season due to mediocre results. His legacy at Sporting was the introduction of youth team players such as Ricardo Quaresma, Hugo Viana and Cristiano Ronaldo into the senior's team starting lineup. In 2002, he aimed to solve the club's financial problems by bringing in Lyon forward Tony Vairelles on loan in exchange for Lyon having first option to sign Ronaldo and Quaresma, but the French club had no interest in the players. In 2003, he returned to France as manager of Rennes. In 2005, he managed the team to their best position in history (4th in Ligue 1), and a subsequent UEFA Cup qualification. In May 2006, Bölöni signed a two-year contract with Monaco, but was fired on 23 October for lack of results. Monaco were 19th out of 20 in the league. On 9 June 2008, Belgian team Standard Liège appointed Bölöni as their new manager, as he succeeded Michel Preud'homme, who led the club to their first Belgian First Division title in 25 years (season 2007–2008). On 24 May 2009, he won the Belgian First Division title in his first season at Standard (season 2008–2009) after playing the…

Bölöni was born in Târgu Mureș, Romania, into an ethnic Hungarian family from Târnăveni. When Bölöni was 15, his father died of a stroke while watching him play from the stands. His father's death strongly affected him, but Bölöni was persuaded by his mother to continue playing football. She moved from their native city Târnăveni to Budapest sometime later in her life. During his time at Steaua București, Bölöni also worked as a dentist for six years; his daughter followed in his footsteps, and studied implantology in France. In 2021, he was hired by the Nemzeti Sport daily to analyze Hungary's matches at the UEFA Euro 2020, and in the same year revealed his support of the Székely Land football team. Nevertheless, after failed negotiations to take charge of the Romania national team in 2022, Bölöni expressed his regret for not being able to represent his country again. Bölöni holds Romanian, Hungarian and French nationalities. He acquired French nationality by naturalization on 7 July 1998.