Nicolae Dobrin

Nicolae Dobrin

Nicolae Dobrin (left) and Ilie Balaci
Personal information
Full name	Nicolae Dobrin
Date of birth	26 August 1947(1947-08-26)
Place of birth	Piteşti, Romania
Date of death	26 October 2007(2007-10-26) (aged 60)
Place of death	Piteşti, Romania
Playing position	Midfielder
Youth career
1959–1961	Dinamo Piteşti
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1959–1981	FC Argeş Piteşti	390	(106)
1981–1982	CS Târgovişte	13	(5)
1982–1983	FC Argeş Piteşti	5	(0)
–	Total	408	(111 )
National team
1966–1980	Romania	48	(6)
Teams managed
1982–1985	FC Argeş Piteşti
1985–1986	CS Botoşani
1992	FC Argeş Piteşti
1998–1999	FC Argeş Piteşti
2001	FC Argeş Piteşti
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Nicolae Dobrin (Romanian pronunciation: [nikoˈla.e doˈbrin]; nicknamed Gâscanul, "the Gander", or Prinţul din Trivale, "the Prince of Trivale"; 26 August 1947 – 26 October 2007) was a Romanian football player. Dobrin is considered by many to be the best Romanian player of the 1960s and 1970s and one of the most talented players ever to play the game. Nicolae Dobrin Stadium in Piteşti is named after him.

Career

He was born in Piteşti, Argeş County, and he played for the first time in a First Division game when he was still 14, on 1 July 1962, in the match between Ştiinţa Cluj and Dinamo Piteşti. He played for FC Argeş for 22 years, and only one year for another team, CS Târgovişte; Dobrin refused to play for any other First Division clubs, such as FC Dinamo Bucharest or Universitatea Craiova. Dobrin's contribution was essential to the 1979 Championship win for FC Argeş, when his team won the championship by defeating Dinamo 4–3, the last goal being scored by Dobrin in extra time. That goal was one for the books. Dobrin took the ball from the middle of the pitch, knocked off every player that tried to take the ball away from him and when he reached the 16 metres / 18 yards box he hit the ball so accurate that it went pass the goalkeeper Anitzei, hit the left post and entered the goal. The ball had a message attached to it from Dobrin to the Anitzei. The message was:"Leave it there because there's nothing you can do about it." This was just one of Dobrin's many ways of humiliating his opponets.

Dobrin played 48 games for the Romanian national team, scoring six times, and contributed to Romania's qualification for the 1970 FIFA World Cup. However, he did not play in it even though he was in the finals squad.

During his whole career, Nicolae Dobrin played 409 matches, scoring 111 goals in all. He was named three times the best Romanian player, in 1966, 1967 and 1971. He played his last game on 14 June 1983, when FC Argeş faced FC Bihor (the match ended 2–0 in favor of FC Argeş). In 2007, Dobrin was the technical director of FC Argeş.

Dobrin is also known for famously missing out on a transfer to Real Madrid. After playing them in a European Cup game and scoring a goal, Santiago Bernabéu, their famous president was so impressed with Dobrin's skills that he wanted to transfer him to the Spanish team for a reported fee of $ 2 million, a huge amount of money for that time. Because of the communist regime in Romania in that period, Bernabéu had to hold talks with Nicolae Ceauşescu himself, but could not persuade him, because Dobrin was regarded as a "national good" and such values could not be "estranged", especially not working for foreigners, according to the communist doctrine of that time. It is said that this was the biggest regret of Dobrin's life, although he did eventually end up playing in Gento's testimonial, in the famous "blanco" shirt of Real Madrid. On this occasion Santiago Bernabéu made a last unsuccessful attempt to keep the Romanian player in Madrid.

Death

Dobrin died on 26 October 2007 in the intensive care unit of the County Hospital in Piteşti. This came as a result of multiple organ failure, in turn caused by lung cancer. On 29 October 2007, his funeral ceremony, held at St. George's Cathedral and at St. George's Military Cemetery, was attended by more than 5,000 people (including Nicolae Dica & Adrian Neaga from Steaua Bucharest and Dănuţ Coman from Rapid Bucharest who were coached by Dobrin in their youth years).

Honours

• Romanian League: 1971–72, 1978–79

External links

• RomanianSoccer.ro – career stats

Romanian football portal

Persondata
Name	Dobrin, Nicolae
Alternative names
Short description	footballer
Date of birth	26 August 1947
Place of birth	Piteşti, Romania
Date of death	26 October 2007
Place of death	Piteşti, Romania