Romania has not qualified for a World Cup since 1998. Football great-grandpa Mircea Lucescu could change that.
Whether Romania wins or loses in the World Cup playoffs against Turkey, Mircea Lucescu already has a record: at 80 days and 240 days, he will replace the German Otto Pfister as the oldest national soccer coach in the world. Pfister was 80 years and 123 days old when he quit as Afghanistan coach in 2018.
“I could just play with my great-grandchild instead”Lucescu questioned his commitment when he returned in 2024 at the request of the Romanian federation, but the World Cup was “also a nice goal.” He coached Romania for the first time in the eighties.
Age takes its toll: Lucescu had to spend a long time in the hospital preparing for the playoff game against Turkey. He told the Guardian that he had been hospitalized three times since December. For Lucescu it is clear: “I don’t want to run away like a coward.” If there had been a replacement for him, he would still have been happy to step aside for health reasons – but the association couldn’t find an adequate replacement.
Romania’s national coach Mircea Lucescu
World Cup debut against Pelé
Because Lucescu is not only a funny anecdote on the sidelines of the World Cup playoffs, the Romanian has also managed to give his country hope for the World Cup again. Only two wins separate the Romanians from their first World Cup participation since 1998.
Lucescu can tell his players about the World Cup from the old days: he was there 56 years ago, back then as a player and captain of the Romanian team. Opponent at the same 1970 World Cup: Brazil’s football icon Pelé, whose jersey Lucescu got hold of. “I still have it today”he described and added with a smile: “I never washed it.”
Lucescu has been a constant in European football since 1963: as a player he became Romanian champion six times with Dinamo Bucharest, and as a coach he achieved this not only with Dinamo, but also with city rivals Rapid. He also became champions in Turkey, with Galatasaray and Besiktas. But he is particularly remembered in Donetsk, where the city even made him an honorary citizen.
Donetsk coach Mircea Lucescu after the 2009 UEFA Cup victory
Traumatic memories in Bremen
In twelve years at Shakhtar, Lucescu shaped an era, became champions eight times and even won the UEFA Cup – much to the frustration of their opponents: Werder Bremen. For the first time since Ukrainian independence, a club team from Ukraine appeared in a European Cup final. Lucescu is a legend not only in Romania, but also in Ukraine.
Even across Europe, the coach belongs to an elite club along with Alex Ferguson, Carlo Ancelotti, Arsène Wenger and José Mourinho: He has more than 100 Champions League games under his belt.
The man from Bucharest infected his son Răzvan Lucescu with the football virus. Răzvan stood between the posts in the Romanian league in the 1990s, then followed his father and moved to the coaching bench. He has been coaching PAOK Thessaloniki since 2021.
Mircea’s son Răzvan Lucescu, coach at PAOK Thessaloniki
Chance for “Senior World Championships”
Against Turkey, Răzvan will not only keep his fingers crossed for his country, but also for his father – like that “everyone who is over 70 years old”Lucescu Sr. believes that he is, after all, a model of professional longevity.
But against Turkey, especially in Istanbul, Romania is a clear outsider. “We will play in an extreme atmosphere, no one knows that better than me”Lucescu, who was coach at Besiktas, told the Guardian. When the opposing team has the ball, the crowd there makes a hell of a racket, for which even he may have no medicine. In addition, the Turkish squad is full of stars like Arda Güler, Kenan Yildiz and Hakan Çalhanoğlu, and the euphoria in the country is great given the chance of participating in the first World Cup since 2002.
Arda Gueler, Hakan Calhanoglu and Kenan Yildiz celebrate a goal
Although no one can take Lucescu’s record as the oldest national coach, the oldest coach at a World Cup will remain the oldest coach at a World Cup if Romania loses, the then 72-year-old Greece coach Otto Rehhagel.
