Angelo Niculescu

Niculescu was born on 1 October 1921 in Craiova, Romania and began playing football in 1937 at age 15 in Divizia B at local club Rovine Grivița. In 1939 he moved to play for neighboring team, FC Craiova with whom he won the 1942–43 championship which was not recognized by the Romanian Football Federation because the teams from Transylvania were unable to participate as the territory was annexed to Hungary due to the Second Vienna Award. During World War II his career was interrupted for a while as he was called by the Romanian Army to fight on the Eastern Front. In 1945, Niculescu joined Carmen București where he stayed two years. Subsequently, he moved to Ciocanul București which after one year merged with Carmen to create Dinamo București. He played here until ending his career at age 29, having amassed a total of 93 Divizia A appearances with three goals.

First and second spell at Dinamo

Niculescu started coaching in 1952 at Dinamo București's junior center. One year later, he became the head coach of the senior squad, helping them reach the 1954 Cupa României final which was lost 2–0 to Metalul Reșița. Afterwards, he led Dinamo to win its first Divizia A title in 1955. He guided the team in the first European match of a Romanian team in the 1956–57 European Cup in the 3–1 victory against Galatasaray, helping Dinamo reach the next phase of the competition where they were eliminated by CDNA Sofia. Niculescu left Dinamo in 1957 and had two short experiences at Steaua București and Tractorul Brașov. Subsequently, he returned to Dinamo in 1964, helping the club win another Divizia A title in the 1964–65 season. During the 1965–66 season, Niculescu co-coached the team alongside Traian Ionescu. He has a total of 16 matches in European competitions with The Red Dogs, resulting in 10 victories and 6 losses. One of his most important European victories was the historical 2–1 over Helenio Herrera's Inter Milan in the 1965–66 European Cup edition, the Italians being the winners of the previous two seasons of the competition. Niculescu said after the game:"I am happy that Herrera's "concrete" was broken by the movement on the field of our players. With fair refereeing we would have won even more clearly". However, they lost the second leg with 2–0.

Romania national team

Niculescu was named coach of Romania's national…

He had four brothers and one of them, Jean, was a footballer at Olympia București. For representing his country at the 1970 World Cup, Niculescu was decorated by the President of Romania, Traian Băsescu, on 25 March 2008, with the Class III Sports Merit Order (Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv"). Niculescu died on 20 June 2015 in his apartment in Bucharest and was buried in the Ghencea Military Cemetery. The president of FIFA, Joseph Blatter said: "Please accept my condolences for the passing of former player and coach Angelo Niculescu. He will be remembered for his contribution to Romanian football, especially as the inventor of the tiki-taka style of play."

Manager

Dinamo București

Divizia A: 1955, 1964–65 Cupa României runner-up: 1954 Sportul Studențesc București

Balkans Cup runner-up: 1976