Nicolae Lupescu

Early career

Lupescu was born on 17 December 1940 in Bucharest, Romania. He began playing junior-level football in 1954 at ICAR București, afterwards moving to Flacăra Roșie București. He started his senior career by playing two seasons in Divizia B, the first one at Academia Militară București and the second at Olimpia București.

Rapid București

Lupescu was brought to Rapid București by coach Nicolae Roșculeț, where he debuted in Divizia A on 16 September 1962 in a 4–2 victory against Farul Constanța. He remained with Rapid for ten seasons, winning the title in the 1966–67 season, being used by coach Valentin Stănescu in 26 matches in which he scored one goal. In the following season he played four games in the 1967–68 European Cup, helping The Railwaymen eliminate Trakia Plovdiv and advance to the following round where they were eliminated by Juventus. Lupescu also won two Balkans Cup and the 1971–72 Cupa României, being used the entire match by coach Bazil Marian in the 2–0 win over Jiul Petroșani in the final. He played in all six games of the 1971–72 UEFA Cup campaign as the team reached the round of 16 by eliminating Napoli and Legia Warsaw before being knocked out by the eventual winners, Tottenham. For the way he played in 1970, Lupescu was placed fifth in the ranking for the Romanian Footballer of the Year award, in the following year being third. Lupescu has a total of 244 matches and eight goals scored in Divizia A.

Admira Wacker…

Lupescu earned 20 caps and scored two goals for Romania, all under the guidance of coach Angelo Niculescu, making his debut on 25 June 1967 in a 1–0 home loss to Italy in the Euro 1968 qualifiers. Niculescu used him for the entirety of all three games in the 1970 World Cup final tournament which were a win against Czechoslovakia and losses to England and Brazil, as his side failed to progress from their group. He played eight matches and scored two goals in the 1972 Euro qualifiers, managing to reach the quarter-finals where Romania was defeated by Hungary, who advanced to the final tournament. Lupescu was Romania's captain in a friendly against the Netherlands that ended with a 2–0 loss. He made his last appearance for the national team on 17 June 1972 in a 3–3 friendly draw against Italy. For representing his country at the 1970 World Cup, Lupescu was decorated by President of Romania Traian Băsescu on 25 March 2008 with the Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" – (The Medal "The Sportive Merit") class III.

International goals

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

Lupescu started his coaching career in 1977 at Divizia C team Mecanică Fină București. Afterwards, he worked at Rapid București in Divizia B where in the 1979–80 season he was close to earning a promotion to the first league. Then he worked at Șoimii Sibiu and Gloria Buzău, helping the latter get promoted to Divizia A in the 1983–84 season. He made a comeback at Rapid, leading the team over the course of the 1985–86 Divizia A season. Lupescu's last coaching spell took place in 1988 at Progresul București.

He was the father of professional football player Ioan Lupescu. On 6 September 2017, Lupescu died at the Fundeni hospital in Bucharest at age 76. Shortly after his death, his former teammate from Rapid, Viorel Kraus described him: "He impressed us from the start. He was quiet, tight-lipped, but a true professional. When two colleagues were arguing, he intervened. He said to the one who screamed the loudest: "Stop talking in big letters!". This saying remained famous among us".