| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | (1916-12-01)1 December 1916 | ||
| Place of birth | Zlatna,Kingdom of Romania | ||
| Date of death | 15 February 1989(1989-02-15) (aged 72) | ||
| Place of death | Kovin,Yugoslavia | ||
| Position(s) | Defender | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1938–1941 | Vojvodina | ||
| 1943–1944 | Juventus Bucharest | 7 | (0) |
| 1945–1948 | Partizan | 17 | (0) |
| Total | 24 | (0) | |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1963–1964 | Rijeka | ||
| 1964–1965 | Legia Warsaw | ||
| 1965–1966 | Partizan (assistant) | ||
| 1966–1967 | St. Gallen | ||
| 1968–1970 | Morocco Olympic | ||
| 1970 | Wormatia Worms | ||
| 1970–1972 | KAC Kénitra | ||
| 1972–1973 | JSK Kabylie | ||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Virgil Popescu (1 December 1916 – 15 February 1989)[1] was aRomanianfootballer and later coach. In Yugoslavia, he was known asStanislav Popesku.
He was born in 1916 during theFirst World War, in theTransylvanian town ofZlatna,[2] back then withinAustro-Hungary, nowadays inRomania.[3] In 1918, at the end of the war, his parents moved to the newly formedKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later renamedYugoslavia. He began playing forNovi Sad clubFK Vojvodina and was part of Vojvodina's so calledMillionaires team at the beginning of the 1940s.[4] He played with Vojvodina in theNovi Sad subassociation league in the 1938–39 season[5] and then in theSerbian League between 1939 and 1941.[6][7]
TheSecond World War started in Yugoslavia in 1941. Popescu was at the time attending the Commercial Academy in Belgrade, and by 6 April 1941, he was a second lieutenant defending the country against German forces.[2] It took four days, on 10 April, when he was captured by Axis forces nearBelgrade and taken to Romania to a concentration camp inTurnu Măgurele.[2] After spending two years in the camp, in 1943 he caught the attention ofJuventus Bucharest boss Cezar Popescu who got the news that this 27-year-old defender who had played in Serbia was in the camp 8.[2] By explaining how Virgil Popescu was a Romanian and as such a German ally, he managed to release him from the camp and brought him to the team.[2] He made his debut forBucharest side Juventus on 6 October, in a match against Craiova. He made 7 appearances for Juventus in the 1943–44 RomanianDivizia A.[8] However, not very long afterwards he entered the club offices and said that he had to leave to fight alongsideYugoslav Partisans andMarshal Tito in freeing Yugoslavia, and club officials accepted his will, so he returned to Yugoslavia and joined the resistance.[2]
He fought the Germans, and at the end of the war, in 1945, he was among the founders of Belgrade-basedFK Partizan which became one of the major powers of Yugoslav football.[9] His passion for Serbia was such that he adopted a Serbian name, Stanislav.[2] He played with Partizan in theYugoslav First League for two seasons. He played a total of 65 matches and scored once for Partizan, of which 17 matches were in the league.[10] Earlier, he played with SAP Vojvodina in the1945 Yugoslav Football Tournament.[11] With Partizan he won the first Yugoslav post-World War II championship.
He later became a coach.[12] He coachedMiroslav Blažević atNK Rijeka in the Yugoslav First League.[13] and was the assistant manager toAbdulah Gegić at Partizan when they reached the1966 European Cup Final.[14] He also coached Polish sideLegia Warsaw in the season 1964–65.[15] Popescu then managedSwiss teamSt. Gallen andWormatia Worms in Germany[16] before moving toMorocco andAlgeria to help develop football in those countries, there he coached theMoroccan Olympic side andKAC Kénitra.[17] In the 1972–73 season, he was at the helm of Algerian sideJS Kabylie, with whom he won the championship.[18]