Cornel Dinu

Dinu was born on 2 August 1948 in Târgoviște, Romania to a Romanian father from Bârlad who worked as a magistrate, lawyer and doctor of law, and a Serbian mother from Târgoviște who worked as an economist. He began playing football in 1963 for the junior teams of Metalul Târgoviște under coaches Eugen Popescu and Gheorghe Ticușan. His talent was noticed by Rudolf Wetzer, the counselor of head coach Gheorghe Nuțescu, who promoted him to the senior squad. He made his debut for the seniors on 17 March 1965 in a 1–0 victory, in which he gave the assist of the goal against UTA Arad in the 1964–65 Cupa României. Dinu also played in the subsequent Cupa României quarter-final match against Dinamo București, which resulted in a 5–0 loss. During this game, Dinamo's officials noticed him, and he was later brought to the club at the request of coach Traian Ionescu.

Dinu debuted for Dinamo in Divizia A under Traian Ionescu on 25 September 1966 in a 1–0 loss to Steagul Roșu Brașov. He remained at Dinamo throughout his career, winning six Divizia A titles, a competition in which he made 454 appearances (with only one appearance as a substitute) and scored 53 goals, also winning two Cupa României. Those 454 matches made him Dinamo's all-time appearance leader in Romania's top-division. He played 33 games in which he scored three goals in European competitions, including appearing in both legs of Dinamo's 4–3 aggregate victory against his childhood favorite team, Inter Milan in the 1981–82…

Dinu played 67 matches and scored three goals for Romania (75/7 including Romania's Olympic team games), making his debut on 1 May 1968 under coach Angelo Niculescu in a 1–1 friendly draw against Austria. He played three games in the successful 1970 World Cup qualifiers. He was used in the final tournament by Niculescu for the entirety of all three games which were a win against Czechoslovakia and losses to England and Brazil, as his side failed to progress from their group. He played nine matches in the 1972 Euro qualifiers, managing to reach the quarter-finals where Romania was defeated by Hungary, who advanced to the final tournament. Dinu played five matches during the 1974 World Cup qualifiers, including as captain in Romania's biggest ever victory, a 9–0 win against Finland. He also appeared in a 3–1 victory and a 1–1 draw against Greece in the 1973–76 Balkan Cup and he scored a goal in a 6–1 win over Denmark during the Euro 1976 qualifiers where he played a total of five games. In his final years, Dinu made an appearance in the 1978 World Cup qualifiers, played two games in the Euro 1980 qualifiers and his last match for the national team was on 15 April 1981 in a 2–1 friendly loss to Denmark. For representing his country at the 1970 World Cup, Dinu was decorated by President of Romania Traian Băsescu on 25 March 2008 with the Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" – (The Medal "The Sportive Merit") class III. In 2022, the International Federation of Football History & Statistics…

After ending his playing career in 1983, Dinu became the assistant coach of Nicolae Dumitru at Dinamo București, managing to win the championship, the cup and reach the 1983–84 European Cup semi-finals. The following season he started his career as head coach at Dinamo. His biggest performances as manager were two championship titles and two cups with Dinamo, and also a 1–0 victory against Juventus Torino while coaching Oțelul Galați in the first round of the 1988–89 UEFA Cup, but he lost the second leg with 5–0. He also coached CS Târgoviște, ASA Târgu Mureș, Universitatea Cluj and Olt Scornicești, totaling 218 matches as a manager in the Romanian top-division, Divizia A consisting of 118 victories, 35 draws and 65 losses. Dinu was also the head coach of Romania's national team from April 1992 until June 1993, having a total of 13 games (7 victories, 2 draws, 4 losses) including a 5–1 home victory against Wales and a 5–2 away loss to Czechoslovakia, both games in the 1994 World Cup qualifiers.

Club

International

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