Miodrag Belodedici

Early career

Belodedici was born on 20 May 1964 in a family of Serbian ethnicity in the village of Socol, Romania, near the border with Yugoslavia. He spoke only Serbian until elementary school, and completed his first four grades in that language. In the fifth he began learning Romanian. He grew up as a fan of Red Star Belgrade and Steaua București, with his idol being Ștefan Sameș. Belodedici joined the youth squad of Minerul Moldova Nouă in 1978, at the age of 14, his first coach being Olimpiu Mateescu. Three years later he moved to Luceafărul București, a team created by the Romanian Football Federation for the purpose of gathering all talented young players in the country in one squad. There, he was coached by Costică Toma and developed a close friendship with Gavril Balint and Gheorghe Hagi.

Steaua București

In the summer of 1982, Belodedici was signed by Steaua București, having been selected by the club's chairman Ion Alecsandrescu. He made his Divizia A debut on 5 March 1983 under coach Constantin Cernăianu in a 1–0 home victory against Politehnica Iași. He finished his first season with 17 league appearances, playing alongside his childhood idol Ștefan Sameș. The team won The Double in the 1984–85 season, with Belodedici playing 25 matches and scoring three goals under coaches Florin Halagian and Emerich Jenei. He also played the entire match in the 2–1 victory in the Cupa României final over Universitatea Craiova. In the following season, he won…

Early years

Between 1981 and 1987, Belodedici made several appearances for Romania's under-18, under-21 and Olympic teams. Belodedici played 55 matches and scored five goals for Romania, making his debut on 31 July 1984 – aged 20 – under coach Mircea Lucescu in a 1–0 friendly win over China. He played six matches and scored one goal in a 5–1 victory against Albania in the Euro 1988 qualifiers. Subsequently, he played two matches during the successful 1990 World Cup qualifiers. However, he missed the final tournament due to his defection to Yugoslavia.

1994 World Cup

Belodedici made eight appearances during the 1994 World Cup qualifiers. In the final tournament group stage, Romania's "Golden Generation" earned victories over Colombia and the United States, then defeated Argentina 3–2 in the round of 16. Subsequently, they were eliminated by Sweden after the penalty shoot-out in the quarter-finals, with Belodedici missing the last spot kick. He played as a starter in all five games under coach Anghel Iordănescu. On 11 July 1994, Belodedici was named Honorary Citizen of Bucharest for "representing Romania brilliantly at the 1994 World Cup in the United States of America".

Euro 1996 and Euro 2000

Belodedici played seven games, scoring the opening goal in the 3–0 win over Azerbaijan during the Euro 1996 qualifiers. In the final tournament, Iordănescu used him in both 1–0 losses to France and Bulgaria. The team also lost the game against Spain and left…

Belodedici was nicknamed "Căprioara" (The Deer) due to his elegant tackles and for not receiving a red card in his entire career. Emerich Jenei, his coach from Steaua București, described his style of play: "With him in defense, we had no fear. He was so calm and so well placed in every phase that it was difficult for the opponents to catch us off guard. An impressive player, who calmly solved every phase." His former Red Star Belgrade teammate, Robert Prosinečki, said about him: "Belodedici turned the job of defender into an art! I haven't seen anyone do this except him."

Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Belodedici goal.