Gheorghe Mulțescu, a legend quarterbacking Romania football dead at 72, departed the world on 15 September 2024. An energetic, robust midfielder in his active years as a footballer and a well-acknowledged manager in later years, Gheorghe Mulțescu will always remind a generation of Romania football’s golden era and their glorious managers.
The Romanian technician known as Gheorghe Mulțescu was born on the 13th of November, 1951 in Botoroaga, Romania and his first footballing experience was with the Steaua București youth team. It was at Jiul Petroșani, though, where he played his first senior match in 1971, which he really came to the fore. Known to be a man of great vision and technical brilliance Gheorghe Mulțescu had a natural instinct to score goals, he in fact scored 74 goals in 239 matches for Jiul Petroșani. Gheorghe Mulțescu has always delivered great performance that led him to joining Dinamo București where he established himself and also one of the essential players at the team.
Gheorghe Mulțescu's playing career was dominated by the fact of a versatile and effective player as well as a team captain. From planning the operations in the midfield or how about providing decisive goals, Gheorghe Mulțescu was an essential player in his team’s victories. All in all, Gheorghe Mulțescu played in 475 games where he scored 134 goals for a team in his almost two decades long senior professional carrier. Gheorghe Mulțescu's performances in the Romanian National football team led to him’s getting 16 caps for the team in between 1974 and 1983 during which he scored three goals.
After his playing days were over, Gheorghe Mulțescu became a manager and he was just as successful in that position. Praised for his strategies and players motivation he had more gigs as manager of Dinamo București one of Romania’s largest clubs. For Gheorghe Mulțescu the managerial positions led him to different parts of Europe where among others he coached teams based in Turkey such as Samsunspor, Kayserispor and Gaziantepspor. The well respected man was capable of achieving that in many regions of the world, and people considered him a smart footballing tactician.
Very much alike many Romanians, Gheorghe Mulțescu was a true journeyman of the football, managing a tremendous number of clubs during his career. Regardless of the position he had in Romania, Turkey or Saudi Arabia he was equally passionate about his work and knowledgeable about the profession. Gheorghe Mulțescu continued to be an active figure for Romanian football into the sixties and for the most part of his life he continued to coach the Dinamo Bucharest, a team he played for and led with professionalism.
Apart from football, Gheorghe Mulțescu was a family-oriented man; his son, Cătălin Mulțescu also became a footballer after which he switched to becoming a goalkeeping trainer.
The death of Gheorghe Mulțescu has been felt as the leaving behind of an efficient and passionate man for football. The milestones made by the great footballer and the successful manager will always remain an example to the Romanian football players. The football community is poorer for it today but the man’s legacy will never be forgotten – there are too many matches that he contributed to and the lives that he enriched.