Marcel Coraș

Coraș, nicknamed Dulapul (The Cabinet), was born on 14 May 1959 in Arad, Romania and began playing junior-level football in 1968 at local club UTA. He made his Divizia A debut on 18 April 1976 in UTA's 3–2 home loss to Olimpia Satu Mare. In the 1976–77 season, Coraș played for Divizia B club, Rapid Arad. Subsequently, he returned to UTA where at the end of the 1978–79 season, the team was relegated to the second league. Coraș remained in the first league, as he went to play for Politehnica Iași, but left them in the middle of the 1980–81 season to return to UTA in Divizia B, scoring seven goals that helped the club gain promotion back to Divizia A. He spent two more seasons with The Old Lady, and in the first one the team was relegated once again to the second league. In 1983, Coraș went to Sportul Studențesc of Bucharest where he would form a successful offensive partnership with Gheorghe Hagi. In his first season he became top scorer of the league with 18 goals scored. In 1984 he had an offer from Fenerbahçe, but Sportul refused to let him go. In the 1985–86 season, he netted 13 goals which helped Sportul to a runner-up position. During his period spent with The Students, Coraș started playing in European competitions, making 16 appearances in the UEFA Cup over the course of five seasons. Most notably he played in a historical 1–0 victory against Inter Milan in the first round of the 1984–85 edition, though they did not qualify further after a 2–0 second-leg loss. In the…

Coraș got 36 caps and six goals for Romania, making his debut while being a player at UTA Arad in the second league, as coach Mircea Lucescu sent him in the 75th to replace Marin Radu on 17 November 1982 in a 4–1 away loss in a friendly against East Germany. He scored his first goal for the national team in a friendly that ended in a 1–1 draw against Israel. Lucescu used him for the entirety of all three games in the Euro 1984 final tournament, as his side failed to progress from their group. The results were a 1–1 draw against Spain, followed by a 2–1 loss to West Germany in which he scored his side's goal and finally a 1–0 loss to Portugal. After the game against Spain, the Reuters news agency praised Coraș:"Spain was dominated by the strong Romanian players. Romania had enough opportunities to score, especially through the skillful forays of Coraș, the top scorer of the Romanian championship". Coraș himself described his experience at the European tournament as:"The goal against the Germans was the highlight of my career. Especially since I was also Romania's top scorer that season. It was a nice tournament for us, but we were not used to playing important matches every three days." Afterwards he played seven games in the 1986 World Cup qualifiers in which he scored once in a 3–1 away win over Turkey. He made his last appearance for The Tricolours on 30 March 1988 in a friendly that ended in a 3–3 draw against East Germany. For representing his country at Euro 1984, Coraș…

Coraș started coaching in 1996 at UTA Arad, afterwards working for FC Baia Mare, Bihor Oradea, Astra Trinity Arad, ACU Arad and UTA once again, all of them in the Romanian lower leagues.

In a 2022 interview for Gazeta Sporturilor, Coraș described his style of play: "I was not a worker, (...) I was not a runner, a sprinter. I was a midfielder behind the forward or target forward. When I received the ball, I would try to pass to a teammate or score a goal. I knew what to do with the ball", also saying:"Of the more than 150 goals scored in Liga I, only about five were shots from outside the box. The rest were from the box, in front of the goal, from the goal line".