Lucian Marinescu

Marinescu was born on 24 June 1972 in Bucharest, Romania. He began playing senior-level football in 1993 at CSM Reșița in Divizia B. In the 1996–97 season he scored 13 goals that helped Reșița earn promotion to the first league. In the following season he went to play for Rapid București, making his Divizia A debut on 6 August 1997 under coach Mircea Lucescu in a 2–0 away victory against Dinamo București. By the end of the season, Marinescu netted 13 league goals and won the Cupa României, with Lucescu using him the entire match in the 1–0 victory against Universitatea Craiova in the final in which he scored the goal from a penalty. He also represented The Railwaymen in the 1997 Intertoto Cup, playing in two games in the group stage, a 2–0 win over Žilina and a 1–1 draw against Austria Vienna. Salamanca paid €1.3 million for Marinescu's transfer from Rapid in 1998, making his La Liga debut on 30 August under coach Miguel Ángel Russo in a 3–1 win against Deportivo La Coruña. He was a colleague of fellow Romanians Bogdan Stelea and Cătălin Munteanu, and during that time the team was nicknamed "Salamanca Rumana", because Ovidiu Stîngă and Gabriel Popescu also played for the club around that period. In his first season he made a total of 10 league appearances as the team was relegated. In the following season, Marinescu went to play for Farense, making his Primeira Liga debut on 17 October 1999 under coach Nicolau Vaqueiro in a 2–2 draw against Santa Clara in which he closed the…

Marinescu earned eight caps for Romania, making his debut on 19 November 1997 when coach Anghel Iordănescu sent him in the 67th minute to replace Iulian Filipescu in a friendly 1–1 draw against Spain. He was selected by Iordănescu to be part of the squad that went to the 1998 World Cup final tournament where he played in all four games. In the group stage they earned victories in the first two rounds over Colombia and England, thus mathematically being qualified before the last group match against Tunisia. In order to celebrate, the players dyed their hair blonde and presented themselves like that at the game. In the round of 16 he made his last appearance for the national team as Iordănescu sent him in the 76th minute to replace Dan Petrescu in the 1–0 loss to Croatia.

After ending his playing career, he worked as a sports agent.

CSM Reșița

Divizia B: 1996–97 Rapid București

Cupa României: 1997–98