Cornel Dinu

Cornel Dinu (born 2 August 1948) is a Romanian retired professional footballer and manager who played as a sweeper or a defensive midfielder.

He started out his playing career at hometown club Metalul Târgoviște in 1965, and went on to spend the rest of his career at Dinamo București where he won eight domestic trophies. Internationally, Dinu appeared in over 60 matches for Romania's national team and scored three goals. He was named the Romanian Footballer of the Year three times, in 1970, 1972 and 1974, and in the former year also finished on the 24th place in the Ballon d'Or voting.

After retiring as a player, Dinu coached Dinamo București on five occasions among other stints, initially in the role of an assistant. Between 1992 and 1993, he was at the helm of the Romania national team.

"Cornel Dinu, the serious player, who never smiles and maybe that's why he doesn't tremble in front of anyone, even if he has to face an entire stadium. For him, football was never just a game."

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. 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 UEFA Cup. Dinu graduated from Faculty of Law at the University of Bucharest in 1972, which earned him the nickname "Procurorul" (The Prosecutor). His last game played was a Divizia A match that took place on 18 June 1983 against Universitatea Craiova which ended in a 1–1 draw, being replaced by coach Nicolae Dumitru in the 25th minute with Nelu Stănescu due to an injury.

Dinu won three times (1970, 1972, 1974) the Romanian Footballer of the Year award, and in 1970 along with Dinamo teammate Florea Dumitrache he was nominated for the Ballon d'Or. In 1972, Romanian coach Ștefan Kovács, who was in charge of Ajax Amsterdam, said about him:"Cornel Dinu could have played at the great Ajax at any time! Why? He is the only Romanian player who has the spirit of total football". In 1979, Dinu had an offer from Bayern Munich which he refused, choosing to stay in Romania.

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.