Marius Șumudică

Astra Giurgiu

On 28 April 2015, Șumudică was appointed as manager of Astra Giurgiu, following Dorinel Munteanu's resignation. It was his third term at the club, after two short spells in 2009 and 2011. He led the team to a 4th-place finish, qualifying them for the UEFA Europa League. The European campaign was almost a success, as Astra stopped short of reaching the Europa League group stages after knocking out West Ham United in the third round, but lost to AZ Alkmaar in the play-offs. Domestically, despite the poor start which saw Astra losing 1–5 to previous runner-ups ASA Targu Mures, Astra managed to finish the regular season on first place, 3 points above Dinamo București. However, Șumudică was suspended 6 months by the Romanian FA on charges of betting on football matches. He later managed to have his sentence reduced to 2 months by appeal. Despite his suspension, Astra kept their momentum during the play-offs, ending up in them being crowned Liga I champions for the first time in their history, also marking Șumudică's first domestic title as manager. After a quick exit to Danish champions Copenhagen in the UEFA Champions League, Șumudică managed to guide Astra to 2016–17 UEFA Europa League group stage eliminating West Ham – for the second time in a row – along the way, after a 1–0 win in London. In the group stages, he faced Roma, Viktoria Plzeň and Austria Wien. Despite losing the first two games of the group with Austria Wien (2–3 at Giurgiu) and Roma (0–4…

Player

Rapid București

Divizia A: 1998–99 Cupa României: 1997–98, 2001–02 Supercupa României runner-up: 1998 Marítimo

Taça de Portugal runner-up: 2000–01

Coach

Astra Giurgiu

Liga I: 2015–16 Supercupa României: 2016 CFR Cluj

Supercupa României runner-up: 2021 Individual

Gazeta Sporturilor Romania Coach of the Year: 2016 Saudi Professional League Manager of the Month: December 2018