Romanian Legends Database (independent version)

GaoGaiGar

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Yeah, it's me again.

As you might recall, the previous database was built on another Legends database. This ended up becoming a gigantic and buggy file and, due to the previous user randomly replacing modern players with older players (while completely ignoring the actual former players that were in the normal database as staff members), was mostly incompatible with a normal version of the game and absolutely required that you use all of those other database files.

As such, I've decided to start it from scratch. For now, I've only done Steaua Bucharest's 1986 team, namely every player that played in their successful Champions Cup campaign, as well as Gheorghe Hagi, currently playing at Sportul Studentesc while being set to move to Steaua in the summer of 2013. There are three players who did play in 1986 but aren't present in this version of the database, all of which are absent as staff members: Constantin Pistol, Anton Weissenbacher and Anghel Iordanescu. The former two played only 2-3 minutes as substitutes (Pistol in the first leg against Anderlecht, Weissenbacher in the second), the other played in the final, during extra-time. I will be including Anghel Iordanescu later on, along with older Steaua legends.

In order to prepare for the older generation, every player from 1986 is 16 or about to turn 16. Their current ability is around 160-168, their potential goes from 180-190, with Hagi reaching 195 and Duckadam reaching 200. Duckadam was a fantastic penalty saver and deserves to be a top-tier goalkeeper in-game.

Also, no current players from Steaua's squad have been removed. Even if there's an injury crisis, you won't risk having to rely on gray-lettered players.

Here is the link to this temporary version. I intend to rebuild most of the legend squads as well, but I definitely will be dropping some of the newer players, now that the contemporary squads are intact. As soon as I make some progress with the other teams, CFR Cluj and Vaslui will likely be dropped from their previous league positions so that other teams may be allowed to get European action as soon as possible - U Craiova in particular.

Also, here is the current player addition list:

Goalkeepers

Narcis Coman (FC Arges 1960s)
Ilie Datcu (Dinamo Bucharest 1971)
Mircea David (Venus Bucharest 1940)
Helmuth Duckadam (Steaua Bucharest 1986)
Cristian Gheorghe (FC Arges 1979)
Gheorghe Gornea (UTA Arad 1970)
Mihai Ionescu (Petrolul Ploiesti 1966)
Jean Lapusneanu (Venus Bucharest 1940)
Silviu Lung (U Craiova 1983)
Alexandru Marky (UTA Arad 1946)
Dumitru Moraru (Dinamo Bucharest 1984)
Dumitru Pavlovici (Ripensia Timisoara 1933)
Rica Raducanu (Rapid Bucharest 1972)
Petre Radulescu (Rapid Bucharest 1940)
Ion Voinescu (Steaua Bucharest 1956)
William Zombory (Ripensia Timisoara 1933)

Defenders

Gheorghe Albu (Venus Bucharest 1940)
Ioan Andone (Dinamo Bucharest 1984)
Alexandru Apolzan (Steaua Bucharest 1956)
Ilie Barbulescu (Steaua Bucharest 1986)
Miodrag Belodedici (Steaua Bucharest 1986)
Gavrila Birau (UTA Arad 1970)
Alexandru Boc (Petrolul Ploiesti 1966)
Adrian Bumbescu (Steaua Bucharest 1986)
Rudolf Burger (Ripensia Timisoara 1933)
Constantin Carstea (FC Arges 1979)
Florin Cheran (Dinamo Bucharest 1971)
Vasile Chiroiu II (Ripensia Timisoara 1933)
Dan Coe (Rapid Bucharest 1972)
Augustin Deleanu (Dinamo Bucharest 1971)
Cornel Dinu (Dinamo Bucharest 1971)
Zoltan Farmati (UTA Arad 1946)
Gheorghe Florea (Petrolul Ploiesti 1966)
Alexandru Fronea (Petrolul Ploiesti 1966)
Remus Ghiuritan (Rapid Bucharest 1940)
Ilie Greavu (Rapid Bucharest 1972)
Balazs Hoksary (Ripensia Timisoara 1933)
Emeric Jenei (Steaua Bucharest 1956)
Marin Ion (Dinamo Bucharest 1984)
Stefan Iovan (Steaua Bucharest 1986)
Petru Ivan II (FC Arges 1979)
Michael Klein (Dinamo Bucharest 1990)
Iosif Lengheriu (Rapid Bucharest 1940)
Iosif Lereter (UTA Arad 1970)
Gyula Lorant (UTA Arad 1946)
Nicolae Lupescu (Rapid Bucharest 1972)
Ferenc Meszaros (UTA Arad 1946)
Mihai Mocanu (Petrolul Ploiesti 1966)
Ioachim Moldoveanu (Rapid Bucharest 1940)
Ion Motroc (Rapid Bucharest 1970)
Nicolae Negrila (U Craiova 1983)
Alexandru Nicolae (Dinamo Bucharest 1984)
Ion Nunweiller III (Dinamo Bucharest 1971)
Gheorghe Pahontu (Petrolul Ploiesti 1966)
Adalbert Pal (UTA Arad 1946)
Dan Paltinisanu (Poli Timisoara 1980)
Mircea Petescu (UTA Arad 1970)
Dan Petrescu (Steaua Bucharest 1990)
Eugen Pojoni (UTA Arad 1970)
Ion Pop (Rapid Bucharest 1972)
Gheorghe Popescu (Universitatea Craiova 1990)
Paul Popovici (UTA Arad 1970)
Mircea Rednic (Dinamo Bucharest 1984)
Nicolae Rosculet (Rapid Bucharest 1940)
Gabriel Sandu (Dinamo Bucharest 1971)
Lazar Sfera (Venus Bucharest 1940)
Iosif Slivat (Rapid Bucharest 1940)
Constantin Stanciu (Venus Bucharest 1940)
Telu Stancu (FC Arges 1979)
Nelu Stanescu (Dinamo Bucharest 1984)
Costica Stefanescu (U Craiova 1983)
Nicolae Tilihoi (U Craiova 1983)
Mihai Zamfir (FC Arges 1979)
Vasile Zavoda II (Steaua Bucharest 1956)

Midfielders

Mircea Axente (UTA Arad 1970)
Gheorghe Bacut (UTA Arad 1946)
Ilie Balaci (U Craiova 1983)
Lucian Balan (Steaua Bucharest 1986)
Gabi Balint (Steaua Bucharest 1986)
Andrei Barbulescu (Venus Bucharest 1940)
Aurel Beldeanu (U Craiova 1983)
Ladislau Brosovschi (UTA Arad 1970)
Laszlo Boloni (Steaua Bucharest 1986)
Tiberiu Bone (Steaua Bucharest 1956)
Gheorghe Chivescu (FC Arges 1979)
Vintila Cossini (Rapid Bucharest 1940)
Vasile Deheleanu (Ripensia Timisoara 1933)
Constantin Donose (U Craiova 1983)
Marin Dragnea (Dinamo Bucharest 1984)
Emil Dumitriu II (Rapid Bucharest 1972)
Titi Dumitriu III (Rapid Bucharest 1972)
Lita Dumitru (Rapid Bucharest 1972)
Alfred Eisenbeisser (Venus Bucharest 1940)
Ion Geolgau (U Craiova 1983)
Gheorghe Hagi (Sportul Studentesc - Steaua 1987)
Sevastian Iovanescu (FC Arges 1979)
Mircea Irimescu (U Craiova 1983)
Gustav Juhasz (Venus Bucharest 1940)
Rudolf Kotormany (Ripensia Timisoara 1933)
Eugen Lakatos (Ripensia Timisoara 1933)
Ioan Lupas (Venus Bucharest 1940)
Mihail Majearu (Steaua Bucharest 1986)
Lica Movila (Dinamo Bucharest 1984)
Gheorghe Multescu (Dinamo Bucharest 1984)
Anton and Dumitru* Munteanu (Petrolul Ploiesti 1966)
Dorinel Munteanu (Dinamo Bucharest 1990)
Constantin Nasturescu (Rapid Bucharest 1972)
Lica Nunweiller IV (Dinamo Bucharest 1971)
Radu Nunweiller VI (Dinamo Bucharest 1971)
Stefan Onisie (Steaua Bucharest 1956)
Iosif Petschovschi (UTA Arad 1946)
Ladislau Raffinsky (Ripensia Timisoara 1933)
Gheorghe Rasinaru (Rapid Bucharest 1940)
Alexandru Schwartz (Ripensia Timisoara 1933)
Tudorel Stoica (Steaua Bucharest 1986)
Aurel Ticleanu (U Craiova 1983)
Doru Toma (FC Arges 1979)
Ioan Wetzer III (Rapid Bucharest 1940)

Strikers


Ion Alecsandrescu (Steaua Bucharest 1956)
Stefan Auer II (Rapid Bucharest 1940)
Ionel Augustin (Dinamo Bucharest 1984)
Iuliu Baratky (Rapid Bucharest 1940)
Silviu Bindea (Ripensia Timisoara 1933)
Ion Bogdan (Rapid Bucharest 1940)
Iuliu Bodola (Venus Bucharest 1940)
Ladislau Bonyhadi (UTA Arad 1946)
Rodion Camataru (U Craiova 1983)
Sorin Cartu (U Craiova 1983)
Kostas Choumis (Venus Bucharest 1940)
Gheorghe Ciolac (Ripensia Timisoara 1933)
Teofil Codreanu (Rapid Bucharest 1972)
Gheorghe Constantin (Steaua Bucharest 1956)
Zoltan Crisan (U Craiova 1983)
Emeric Dembro(v)schi (Poli Timisoara 1980)
Otto Dembrovschi (UTA Arad 1970)
Flavius Domide (UTA Arad 1970)
Stefan Dobay (Ripensia Timisoara 1933)
Nicolae Dobrin (FC Arges 1979)
Mircea Dridea I (Petrolul Ploiesti 1966)
Virgil Dridea II (Petrolul Ploiesti 1966)
Florea Dumitrache (Dinamo Bucharest 1971)
Florian Dumitrescu (UTA Arad 1970)
Dudu Georgescu (Dinamo Bucharest 1971)
Ion Ionescu (Rapid Bucharest 1972)
Anghel Iordanescu (Steaua Bucharest 1972)
Adalbert Kovacs (UTA Arad 1946)
Attila Kun II (UTA Arad 1970)
Marius Lacatus (Steaua Bucharest 1986)
Mircea Lucescu (Dinamo Bucharest 1971)
Adalbert Marksteiner (Ripensia Timisoara 1933)
Andrei Mercea (UTA Arad 1946)
Constantin Moldoveanu (Petrolul Ploiesti 1966)
Viorel Nastase (Steaua Bucharest 1972)
Alexandru Neagu (Rapid Bucharest 1972)
Doru Nicolae (FC Arges 1979)
Costel Orac (Dinamo Bucharest 1984)
Victor Piturca (Steaua Bucharest 1986)
Silviu Ploesteanu (Venus Bucharest 1940)
Marin Radu II (FC Arges 1979)
Florin Raducioiu (Dinamo Bucharest 1990)
Gratian Sepi (Venus Bucharest 1940)
Constantin Tabarcea (Petrolul Ploiesti 1963)
Cornel Talnar (Dinamo Bucharest 1984)
Matyas Toth III (UTA Arad 1946)
Colea Valcov I (Venus Bucharest 1940)
Petea Valcov II (Venus Bucharest 1940)
Volodea Valcov III (Venus Bucharest 1940)
Francisc Zavoda I (Steaua Bucharest 1956)

*twins

Update: v0.02 released - Added U Craiova 1983.
Update: v0.03 released - Added Dinamo Bucharest 1984
Update: v0.04 released - Added FC Arges 1979, fixed Duckadam contract issue.
Update: v0.05 released - Added UTA Arad 1970, finally moved U Craiova to Champions League.
Update: v0.06 released - Added Dinamo Bucharest 1971 and Rapid Bucharest 1972.
Update: v0.07 released - Added Steaua Bucharest 1956 and two players from Steaua Bucharest's 1972 squad.
Update: v0.08 released - Added Petrolul Ploiesti 1966 and one player from Petrolul Ploiesti's 1963 squad.
Update: v0.09 released - Added UTA Arad 1946.
Update: Final version released - Added Rapid Bucharest 1940, Venus Bucharest 1940, Ripensia 1933 and several players from the 90s.
 
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Here's the first update to the database: U Craiova has been revived (as it was extinct). It takes CS Turnu Severin's place in the league, as well as its staff and players - many of them had migrated from Craiova in the first place, particularly after the team's exclusion from all Romanian competitions. U Craiova also takes Vaslui's place in last year's top division standings and, thus, their Champions League place.

These legendary players come from their 1982-1983 UEFA Cup campaign, when they knocked out Fiorentina (featuring Massaro and Passarella), Shamrock Rovers, Girondins de Bordeaux (featuring Giresse and Tigana) and Kaiserslautern (featuring Allofs and Brehme) before losing against Benfica (featuring Coelho and Filipovic) on away goals, in the semi-finals. This was also the backbone of the Romanian national team that qualified for Euro 1984 after winning against World Cup holders Italy in the qualifiers.

Since my intention is to limit these legends to the ones before the Romanian Revolution, this database will be considerably smaller than the other one. I might add several players from 1994 Romanian squad as 14-year olds, though. Also, I will not be reviving Victoria and FC Olt, since rebuilding empty squads is a pain in the ***.

Either way, those who want a sneak peek at the teams that will be featured, eventually, should check this Romanian page: CupaDeLegenda.RO

The next team I'll be working on is Dinamo's 1984 squad.
 
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Dinamo 1984 is done as well.

This squad reached the semi-finals of the Champions Cup in 1983-1984, one year after U Craiova. On their way, they knocked out Kuusysi Lahti (who would be knocked out in the quarter-finals by Steaua Bucharest, 2 years later), Hamburger SV (the current holders, managed by Ernst Happel) and Dynamo Minsk. They were defeated by Liverpool, who went on to win the trophy against AS Roma. Many of the players from this squad had also played in the 1981-1982 UEFA Cup, when Dinamo knocked out Levski Sofia and, more significantly, Inter Milan (featuring Bergomi and Altobelli, who would go on to win the World Cup in 1982), before losing to IFK Goteborg, who went on to win the trophy against HSV. There are several players from this older squad that aren't present in this version: they will, however, be added along with their 70s squad.

The next team I'll be working on is FC Arges's 1979 squad.
 
FC Arges 1979 is done. There will be two small expansions for it, but all players are 18-19 years old, just like Craiova's players. Essentially, the logic I'll be applying is that teams with only one generation of legends will have players born in 1993, while those with two generations will have one generation born in 1991 (possibly 1989) and one in 1996. Those teams that will have players from the aforementioned World Cup team from 1994 will have players born in 1998, if not later.

So, this team didn't impress as much as the previous two teams. In 1978-1979, they knocked out Panathinaikos in the UEFA Cup, but were defeated by Valencia: despite grabbing a 2-1 win at home, they were soundly defeated 5-2, also thanks to a double from World Cup winner Mario Kempes. However, what made this season memorable was their outstanding league performance. In those years, when teams like Dinamo and Steaua would receive some help from the regime and the officials, FC Arges managed to reach the final match day in first place, two points ahead of Dinamo Bucharest, who had the same goal difference. FC Arges had lost the title on account of goal difference during the previous season, when they had 60-49 compared to Steaua's 75-49. This time, FC Arges played Dinamo in the final game and Dinamo needed only a win in order to win the title. What followed was one of the most spectacular games in Romanian football: Dinamo gained the lead, Arges equalised and scored two more, Dinamo received two penalties and equalised again and then, in the very last minute of the game, Dobrin scored the winning goal, making it 4-3 for Arges, home at Dinamo, thus winning FC Arges's second title, in spite of the dubious refereeing.

FC Arges would go on to play in the Champions Cup, where they only knocked out AEK Athens and were defeated by current holders and future winners Nottingham Forest. They once again managed to get past the first round in the UEFA Cup, in 1981-1982, knocking out Apoel Nicossia, but losing to eventual winners Aberdeen. Their only other European presence after this season was in 1998-1999, when they knocked out Dinamo Baku and Istanbulsport, but were thoroughly thrashed by Celta Vigo 0-1 and 0-7. This was in Adrian Mutu's earliest years.

In short, FC Arges's success was mostly connected to one player, Nicolae Dobrin. He was the youngest player to debut for FC Arges, playing his first game at the age of 14, in 1962. Other than a break between 1980 and 1982, when he played for CS Targoviste, he only played for FC Arges, taking part in all of the team's most memorable successes: knocking out Sevilla and Toulouse in 1966, winning their first title in 1972, grabbing a home win against Real Madrid in the following edition of the Champions Cup (they were, however, beaten 3-1 in the second leg) and this memorable second and last title in 1979.

As such, the two small expansions will feature players from their 1966 and 1972 teams. Since many of those players are dead and will have to be created from scratch, there won't be many new additions - particularly since I can't find detailed player histories for many of them - some will have to be made just to add up to their total number of games and goals for the team. Besides, a good number of players from these two, older squads were still to be found in their 1979 campaign.

I don't think I'll be dealing with them yet, so the next update will concern UTA Arad's 1970 squad.

Edit: Also, I've fixed the league history so that Vaslui is replaced by U Craiova in the Champions League. FC Arges is temporarily 5th and, therefore, eligible for the Europa League. I think.
Edit 2: And, upon messing a bit with Steaua, I noticed that Duckadam didn't have a starting date for his contract (since he had carried over as Director), which made Barcelona immediately snap him, even though he was still in my squad. He was, however, ineligible for competitive matches. As such, his contract has been fixed and he won't be leaving on a free transfer too soon.
 
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UTA Arad 1970 is done.

This is the squad that won two consecutive titles, in 1968-69 and 1969-70. They played twice in the Champions Cup, then once in the UEFA Cup. In their first Champions Cup tie, they were drawn against Legia Warsaw and were heavily beaten, losing 2-1 and 8-0. In 1970-71, they were drawn against current holders Feyenoord Rotterdam and expected nothing less than another severe beating. What happened was nothing short of miraculous: they grabbed a 1-1 draw on Feyenoord's home field (with a goal from Florian Dumitrescu based on a free kick assist from Mircea Axente) and defended this away goal in their home game thanks to a goalless draw. This came as a gigantic surprise - it seems that a certain Italian magazine, when making a list of surprising results in European football, placed this qualification in first place - other results being an Albanian draw against Barcelona or Ajax losing 4-0 to a team from Cyprus. It should be noted, however, that all those other examples still ended with qualifications from the favorites, as Barcelona had an away goal and Ajax had previously won 10-0 and was using reserves. It should also be noted that Feyenoord was being managed by Ernst Happel, the same man who would win the Champions Cup with Hamburger SV and be knocked out in the first round of the following season against Dinamo Bucharest. Unfortunately, UTA Arad didn't go further than the next round, where they were drawn against Red Star Belgrade, who defeated them 3-0 at home and 3-1 in Arad. It should be noted that three of Red Star's goals were scored by Filipovic, the same man who would score Benfica's precious away goal against U Craiova, in 1983.

The following season is, according to the players themselves, the better one: UTA Arad played in the UEFA Cup, knocking out Austria Salzburg (4-1/1-3), Zaglebie Walbrzych (1-1/2-1 a.e.t.) and Vitoria Setubal (3-0/0-1) and managing to be the first Romanian team to ever qualify for what Romanians call "the European spring". In other words, they managed to reach the later phases of a European competition, thus having to play during the following year, calendar-wise. They were, however, drawn against eventual winners Tottenham Hotspur, losing 0-2/1-1. It should be noted that Romanian teams were disadvantaged (as they are even now) by the the league fixture system: since Romanian winters tend to be heavy and fields tend to be bad, there is a three-month break between the two halves of the domestic season. As such, Romanian teams that do manage to qualify for the later phases of European competitions are likely to face adversaries who have been playing league games all this time.

UTA's only other European games would take place in the following season, when IFK Norrkoping quickly disposed of them 2-1/2-0 (two of their goals being scored by Ove Kindvall, who had been knocked out by UTA while playing for Feyenoord). UTA's decline seemed inevitable and, as more and more players from this squad started retiring (Lereter was already 37 when playing Feyenoord, which deterred other European teams from buying him, despite his great games), UTA dropped lower and lower in the league standings and finally got relegated in 1979, after 33 consecutive years in the top division, a record at the time (Steaua Bucharest is the current holder of the record, being founded in 1947 and playing in the top division from day one to this day. Dinamo Bucharest is second, being founded in 1948).

I could have picked two goalkeepers for this period, but, due to eventual bickering over first team spots, I ended up picking Gheorghe Gornea, who did not play in the 1971-1972 campaign. He did, however, have a good game against Feyenoord and was also one of the main contributors in Romania's creditable 1-1 draw on Wembley against then-World Cup holders England. Miroslav Vidac only played in 1971-1972, but is fondly remembered among UTA supporters for his saves in the 1-0 defeat against Vitoria Setubal. Gornea, along with Domide, was also part of Romania's 1970 World Cup squad.

Again, all these players are 15-16 years old, which, as you might have guessed, means that there will be an older squad added at a later point - their first golden generation, before any European competition had been founded.

Also, I've finally fixed Vaslui's being replaced by U Craiova in the Champions League. I had forgotten that it was still registered in the competition's database page. CFR Cluj will likely be dropped from their champions' spot as well. I'm not sure who will take their place, but, whether it's Steaua or Dinamo, it will happen only after adding their older legendary squads.

The next update might seem less remarkable, but it's a contemporary squad with its own performances in the UEFA Cup - Rapid Bucharest's 1972 squad. And, after that, Dinamo Bucharest's team from the 1970s.
 
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And now it's time for a bigger update: Dinamo Bucharest 1971 and Rapid Bucharest 1972. Note that the year is only there because of the site I've been using. Some players could be from before that season or after it.

With this update, Dinamo Bucharest is essentially complete. There might be one or two players once I reach the 1994 team that played in the World Cup quarter finals.

So, did this Dinamo squad knock out any big names in European football? Sadly, no. They did set the record for biggest win in the Champions Cup, after thrashing Crusaders 11-0. Otherwise, their victims were usually the likes of Sliema Wanderers or Spartak Trnava. They also lost quite clearly against Feyenoord two years after UTA's surprising win - the Dutch beat them 5-0 on aggregate.

However, this squad was one of their most famous ones: Cornel Dinu managed the team several times later on and was known as "The Attorney", because, well, he was one. He also had a short stint as manager of the national team. Unfortunately, Romania was soundly defeated by Czechoslovakia, losing 5-2. Florea Dumitrache was one of Romania's best strikers, while Dudu Georgescu famously won the Golden Boot twice in a row, once by scoring 47 goals in one season. Romania's dominance in these goal-scoring awards was one of the reasons for the current point system, mostly because opposing teams were asked to allow these players to get their goals. Even so, a bad player would miss most of those chances, so one should appreciate his good technique - he also had a considerable amount of goals in European competitions and for the national team.

Also famous were the Nunweiller brothers, the oldest of whom was nicknamed "The Red Dog", which ended up being not only the team's nickname, but also part of their logo. He was also one of the first Romanian players to play abroad during communist years, playing in Turkey, back when their teams could boast, at most, that they knocked out Romanian teams. Ilie Datcu was Dinamo's goalkeeper some time before 1971, but he played 40 games for the national team and an amazing 220 games for Fenerbahce. He decided to stay abroad, to which the Turkish officials complied, converting him to the Muslim faith and changing his name to Ilyas Datca, to avoid problems with the Romanian regime.

Rapid's squad, on the other hand, is the one that won the first title in 1967 and the cup in 1972. Their title success came surprisingly late, considering the team was founded in 1923 and had been one of the more important teams before World War II - but that's a story for another time. Rapid's return to European competitions (after their participation in the Mitropa Cup) only came thanks to this first title: they knocked out Trakia Plovdiv after losing 2-0 in the first leg and scoring an 108th minute goal to clinch qualification in the second leg. They were then defeated by Juventus Torino, who beat them 1-0 at home and had a 0-0 draw in Bucharest. Interestingly enough, there were 40000 spectators in the second leg against Trakia Plovdiv, but only 5510 against Juventus. The next season, they conceded three goals in extra-time against OFK Belgrade. Then, in 1969, they lost 2-7 on aggregate against Vitoria Setubal, who would lose two years later against UTA Arad. After a one-year break, Rapid played in the first season of the UEFA Cup, where they were pitted against the hardest opponents out of all the Romanian teams: champions Dinamo played Spartak Trnava, representing the one national team we defeated in the 1970 World Cup (when Romania was drawn against Brazil, England and Czechoslovakia), cup holders Steaua played Hibernians Paola, while UTA played Austria Salzburg. Rapid, on the other hand, was to play Napoli, featuring Dino Zoff and Jose Altafini. In the first leg, surprisingly, only UTA won (4-1), while both Steaua and Dinamo had goalless draws. Rapid only lost due to an own goal, which made the Italians overconfident: they even refused to exchange shirts with the Romanian players. The second leg brought an away goal qualification for Dinamo, an own goal win for Steaua, a near-defeat for UTA and, for the first time since 1938, when Ripensia had knocked out FC Milan (3-0/1-3), a Romanian team had beaten an Italian team: Rapid won 2-0 in front of 36000 fans, thus forcing the press to regret quoting "Vedi Napoli e poi muori" - "See Naples and then you can die".

Rapid was then drawn against Legia Warsaw, who was familiar to Romanian teams: they had scored 10 goals against UTA Arad two years earlier. Legia had reached the semi-finals back then, only losing against Feyenoord, then had reached the quarter finals, bowing to Atletico Madrid only on away goals. Rapid amazingly defeated them 4-0 at home, but the away game gave goalkeeper Rica Raducanu the fright of his life: 6 minutes into the game, Rapid had conceded two goals. Luckily, though, the Polish team didn't manage to score more than that. Rapid then played eventual winners Tottenham Hotspur, losing 5-0 on aggregate. During that same round, UTA Arad had avenged their defeat at the hands of Vitoria Setubal - the team that had beaten Rapid in the same season that UTA had lost against Legia. As you know, UTA would then lose against the same English team.

Rapid played in the following season's Cup Winners' Cup. They knocked out Landskrona Boys (3-0/0-1) and the more famous Rapid Wien (1-1/3-1). Once again, a Romanian team reached the so-called "European spring" and, once again, an English team stood in their way - this time, it was future finalists Leeds United. Leeds smashed Rapid on Elland Road 5-0, later confirming their win with another 3-1 in Bucharest. Even though Rapid had no chance at all, 30000 fans came to see the second leg. It should be noted that during that season, the only other team to have gone past the first round was FC Arges Pitesti, who had then lost against Real Madrid. Rapid would have only one more European tie before the 1990s, in 1975, against eventual winners Anderlecht Bruxelles. They did win 1-0 at home, but lost 2-0 in the away leg. In the following season, 10 years after their hard-earned title, Rapid faced relegation, returning 8 years later. They were relegated once again in 1988-1989, returning in 1990-1991.

So, next will be either Steaua's team from the 50s or Petrolul's team from the 60s. In Steaua's case, I'll add some players from the 70s on account of their honorable results in the same season in which they had barely defeated the Maltese team.
 
Steaua's 1956 team is done. You might notice that the Romanian link I posted earlier specified the 1952 squad. The thing is that, starting with 1951 and going on for ten more years, Steaua fans called this period the "Golden Decade", as they won 9 trophies - 4 titles and 5 cups. Admittedly, they would win far more titles in the 90s, but considering the team had only been formed a few years earlier, this was quite the performance, regardless of whatever help they had from the regime - especially considering the fact that Dinamo was another regime-supported team.

The reason I picked the 1956 squad in particular is due to Steaua's international debut. Considering we were only at the dawn of the European Cups, one of the main ways to attract foreign teams was through friendlies. Romania was thus visited by an English team, Luton Town (who had just gained its first promotion to the top division). What everyone expected was, of course, a fine lesson in football from a representative of the founding fathers of this sport. Surely enough, Dinamo lost 2-1 in the first game and those who would follow were the team of the Army, the C.C.A. (Casa Centrala a Armatei - The Central House of the Army) from Bucharest - later to be known as Steaua Bucharest. The final score was 5-1, not for the Englishmen, but for a team that hadn't even celebrated its tenth birthday - the likes of Gheorghe Constantin had contributed to a thorough thrashing of an English team. As a result of this humiliating defeat, Luton Town's representatives invited Steaua to play several friendlies in England, including a second game against their own team.

Steaua's first opponents were Arsenal London who, in their last three games, had scored no less than 14 goals. Constantin dribbled the defense and lobbed the ball over the English goalie, making it 1-0. By the end of the game, Arsenal had only managed to equalize. Their next adversaries were Sheffield Wednesday, whose fans were keen to announce that their team was in a bad shape, having won against San Lorenzo by only 9 goals - they would probably not score as many against C.C.A. (which, according to the tickets, was the "national team of Rumania"). Steaua conceded an early goal, then another ball that had been caught by Voinescu, but he had been pushed with it by one of the opposing players so hard, that he had injured his shoulder. Sheffield's third goal came from a handball and it was 3-1 for the English team. Steaua's substitute striker scores one goal, then dribbles the defense and walks the ball in for a late equalizer, making it 3-3 - in fact, the same player had been very close to actually clinching the winner, but the English defenders managed to block it.

Luton Town was next, hoping to get even. Indeed, within 30 minutes, they had a healthy 3-0 lead. Steaua once again managed to turn it around, this time winning the game, thanks to a double from the same Constantin. Their last opponents were Wolverhampton Wanderers, those who famously caused the birth of the European Champions' Cup after declaring themselves world club champions after winning several friendlies, including one against Honved's Mighty Magyars. The refereeing was quite obviously favorable to the hosts, so much that the Steaua players didn't even want to return to the field after being led 2-0 at half-time. They did concede three more after half-time and it took Billy Wright's persuasion to stop the Romanian representatives from boycotting the following dinner to protest against the refereeing. The Wolves promised to have a rematch in Romania, which, sadly, never happened, mostly due to the Hungarian Revolution from that same year, 1956.

Steaua would also be the second Romanian team to play in the Champions Cup (after Dinamo), where they were drawn against the likes of Borussia Dortmund. The first leg ended with a 4-2 defeat, mostly due to both of Steaua's keepers being injured beforehand, which forced them to use a volleyball player instead! Steaua then won the home leg 3-1, which would have been enough to qualify them nowadays, but back then, it only led to a decisive game. Steaua lost in Bologna 3-1. As an interesting tidbit, Steaua's first successful qualification in the Champions Cup would only come in 1985-1986, against a certain Vejle BK. In other words, when they did manage to qualify, they won the trophy as well.

Which isn't to say that they were bad in other cups. The reason I added Viorel Nastase and Anghel Iordanescu to the Legends' squad is that they both played in Steaua's honorable run in the Cup Winners' Cup from 1971-1972. As you might recall, they had barely knocked out Hibernians Paola (0-0/1-0). They were then drawn against FC Barcelona, featuring players such as Rexach and Sadurni. Viorel Nastase played his first European games against the blaugrana, scoring the winning goal in the first leg: 1-0. In the second leg, Steaua won again, 2-1, with a double from this same Nastase. They would then be knocked out by Bayern Munich, featuring Beckenbauer, Muller and other world champions, and even then, only on away goals (0-0/1-1). This, too, took place in the so-called "European spring". It should be noted that this squad had been built by manager Stefan Kovacs, who would go on to win every possible trophy with Cruijff's Ajax. As for Viorel Nastase, he would score only one more goal in the European Cups, against Barcelona, once again, in 1977. Unfortunately, Steaua lost both games against Barca (5-1/3-1), but their adversaries had strengthened themselveves with the likes of Neeskens and Cruijff. As for Anghel Iordanescu, he is Steaua's all-time top goalscorer and played in the extra-time of the final in 1986. As manager, he would lead Steaua to the Champions Cup final in 1989 and Romania to the quarter finals of World Cup 1994.

So, next will likely be Petrolul, who came close to knocking out Liverpool, right in 1966.

Also, note that those players who have two entries in their player history for 1957 have them for a good reason. Romania adopted the Russian system (with seasons starting in spring and ending in winter) in 1951, but ended up giving up on it after 1956, mostly because of the new European Cups, which meant that the champions would play after one year and a half. Thus, to fill the time until the first season in the newer system, there was a so-called "Spring Cup", in which the 12 teams were divided in 2 groups, with the winners playing a final. Since the game only allows you to specify one year, you have two 1957s, but they are in fact "1957" and "1957-1958".
 
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Thanks

Hey, I just want to say I'm a massive U Craiova fan and your work hasn't gone unnoticed. Thanks so much for the Craiova fix and the legends databases :D keep up the great works, it's much appreciated by all of us Romanian football manager fans out there, even if we don't always comment!
 
I had some computer problems, hence the huge delay for this update.

Thus, I've added Petrolul Ploiesti's squad from the late 50s and the 60s. This team was the first Romanian team to reach the quarter finals of a competition (namely in the 1962-1963 Inter-cities Fairs Cup, knocking out Spartak Brno and the Leipzig XI before finally losing to Ferencvaros). Their most notable performance, other than the three titles it won, was in the 1966-1967 Champions Cup, when they faced the champions from the fresh World Cup holders, Liverpool. Liverpool won the home leg 2-0, but Petrolul won the game in Ploiesti 3-1. Had this been after the birth of the away goal rule, Petrolul would have been knocked out regardless. However, back then, such situations were solved by having the two teams play an extra game on a neutral field - in this case, the infamous Heysel in Bruxelles, where Liverpool won 2-0 again. One year earlier, Dinamo had nearly taken Inter Milan to a third game, but the Italians managed to score one last 89th goal, deciding the tie within the two legs. As such, Petrolul's win was quite remarkable.

Next will be either UTA's team from the 50s or one of the pre-WW2 teams: Ripensia, Venus or Rapid.
 
And here's a quicker update.

This time, it's UTA Arad's team from the late 40s and the early 50s, when they were the dominant force in the Romanian league (right after the war ended, but before Dinamo and Steaua's growth). This was after the Central European Cup had ended its run and before the European Cups were born, so we don't have much in terms of continental action. However, there are some notable things.

For one thing, there's Petschovschi, one of the greatest Romanian players of all time - there's even a book dedicated to him, but I can't find it as a PDF, so I'll have to keep an eye out for old books. On the other hand, there's Gyula Lorant, one of the Mighty Magyars. He only played one season for UTA, in 1946-1947, but his links with his teammates were strong enough for him to exchange shirts and tears with Bacut when Hungary beat Romania 6-2, some years later. He had also played for one of the Hungarian champions of the 40s, Nagyvaradi AC, better known as Clubul Atletic Oradea in Romania.

It's from this same team that came Ladislau Bonyhadi, a striker who was top goalscorer two years in a row, the latter of which was achieved with a record 49 goals! As a result, UTA scored 126 goals in 29 games during that season. Why 29? Because the final games ended up not being played, as they wouldn't affect the standings anyway.

Next will be one of the pre-WW2 teams. I'm thinking of stealing staff and players from the current ACS Poli for Ripensia. As for Venus, it'll either be Chiajna or Otopeni. I'm leaning towards Chiajna, who will likely not be missed. I might consider adding some Juventus Bucharest players to Petrolul (who inherited the 1920s team, unlike the current Juventus Bucharest), but Petrolul looks solid in the test run I'm doing. I'll give it more thought after filling the other 20s-30s teams.

After that, I'll have to think whether to add anything else. I'm not really tempted to redo Sportul Studentesc, since Hagi will be leaving for Steaua in the second season of the game. U Cluj might be interesting, but eh. CFR Cluj might get an extra player, unless I decide to add some CA Oradea players to FC Bihor.
 
Hey mate this is brilliant. Have you got a recent update with the 86 Steaua Bucharest team with Petrescu, Hagi, Lacatus etc? Loved that team. Also some other greats from the same era from Eastern Europe at their original clubs would be great also (Savicevic, Stoijkavic, Boban, Pancev, Skuhravy, Jugovic, Jarni, Poborsky etc) would be awesome. Thanks
 
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Well, the Steaua team from '86 per se is already included in this database (I think it was there from the very first version). Hagi technically joined after the final in Sevilla, so he's part of the team as of the second season in here as well. Dan Petrescu might be added at a later point, since he played in the final against AC Milan, four years later.

I don't think I'll be adding players from other countries. This is first and foremost a database containing Romanian players from before 1990. I have books on them, but not on the greats from the other Eastern European countries.
 
Check the first post, that's where they all are. Current version is 0.09.

You're right about Dan Petrescu. I simply didn't include him because he didn't play in any of those games. I will be including him later on, though.
 
Hate to be a pain, but do you have a version of the Romanian league without the european teams having been edited?
 
This is the one. This is different from the one that was uploaded on the site. I was gonna upload the new "independent version" once it was done. I've given up on the really edited one, since it was a freaking mess on many levels. This one only contains added players, with people being at most changed into younger versions. There is no division modification, nor is there any modification of any non-Romanian team. The point is that each generation that I've added has between 11 and 13 players, while also keeping the current, modern players, in order to avoid injury crises messing with your results. As such, this version has Steaua from the 50s and '86, Dinamo from the 70s and 80s, Rapid from the 70s, UTA from the 40s and 70s, FC Arges from the 70s and U Craiova from the 80s, as well as 3 or 4 players who are either from different generations or play for different teams (in the latter case, there's Hagi who's at Sportul for one season, before he moves to Steaua).

tl;dr This is a simpler and improved version of the older Romanian Legends Database, containing just the Romanian teams.
 
Okay, there will be a bit of a delay with the next release, but I intend to make it the last one, at least as far as FM13 is concerned. This will now include Venus Bucharest, Ripensia Timisoara (and maybe Poli Timisoara) and Rapid's 30s-40s squad. I've also added a new goalkeeper to FC Arges, have added +10 to the current ability of all Craiova players and have made Craiova reigning champions, with Steaua second, Rapid third, Dinamo fourth and UTA fifth, these five teams playing in continental competitions.

I've also gotten rid of the insanity that is Romania's current first team kit, changing it from red to the yellow-blue-red of the 70s. The red kit is now the second kit.

Oh, and I also fixed U Cluj's unreadable font color.
 
http://www.mediafire.com/?g9a1zrlzfprc8uv - Here is the final version. I will also upload it on the main site.

So, the additions are as follows:

Rapid's team from the 1930s and 40s. This was before Steaua and Dinamo were born, so you could call these their true glory days. The team featured very talented players, one of the most known being Baratky who, according to people who saw him play, was comparable to the likes of Dobrin or Hagi. Rapid also managed to qualify for the final of the Central European Cup, but that final never got to be played due to World War II and due to the fact that their adversaries were to be Ferencvaros, the representative of the country that had just taken a good chunk from Transylvania.

Venus Bucharest was the rich team of those times. This was most apparent from the fact that they afforded to bring a foreign player, Kostas Choumis. Note that Romanian teams back then also had German or Hungarian players - however, they were Romanian citizens, or at the very least minorities. Kostas Choumis also ended up playing for the Romanian national team. Venus also featured three brothers in its attack: Colea, Petea and Volodea Valcov (who, like all brothers, are numbered in order to distinguish them in the match engine). Out of the three, only the oldest one was to live longer, as he ended up managing teams even in the 40s, including the national team. Petea Valcov chose to join the army during World War II (even though he could have avoided it) and died on the front. Volodea Valcov, on the other hand, was to die in the late 40s from tuberculosis. Venus did not have much success in Europe, though. Also to be noted is the Romanian Cup final between Rapid and Venus from 1940: the two teams played each other no less than four times, with the first game ending 2-2, the second 4-4, the third 2-2 and, finally, the fourth ending with a 2-1 win for Rapid. This game was replayed so many times that the following season had already started!

Finally, Ripensia Timisoara was the first professional football club in Romania. That being said, they were not allowed to take part in the league, which was mostly amateur back then - this is why Ripensia's players only start having credits as of 1933. Ripensia managed to defeat FC Milan 1-3/3-0, which prompted the Italians to claim that some of their players could easily play in Europe - this was indeed the case, as Nicolae Simatoc was to play for Barcelona and Internazionale.

Since Venus and Ripensia were extinct, I decided to have them replace Concordia Chiajna and ACS Poli and take all their staff and players. Also, in Ripensia's case, I also added two well-known players from Poli Timisoara's 1980s team, the one that knocked out Celtic Glasgow: Dan Paltinisanu, the stadium's namesake, and Emeric Dembroschi (better known as Dembrovschi). I've also added Narcis Coman, an award-winning goalie that played for Arges, as well as several players from the so-called Golden Generation of the 90s: Dorinel Munteanu, Dan Petrescu, Gica Popescu, Michael Klein and Florin Raducioiu.

I've also added to the wage budget of all modified teams, to be able to cover contract renewals when the players will want to leave. The AI tends to sell them off ASAP, making the team filthy rich. On the other hand, they buy **** players, so you're better off managing them yourself. That, or building a strong team with Romanian stars.

At any rate, yes, it's done.
 
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