Victor Pițurcă was born on 8 May 1956 inOrodel,Dolj County, Romania, starting to play football in 1964 at the youth center ofUniversitatea Craiova, being loaned in 1974 for one year to Dinamo Slatina inDivizia B, where he started his senior career.[1][2][3][4][5] When he returned to "U" Craiova, coachConstantin Cernăianu gave himDivizia A debut on 19 November 1975 in a 4–0 home win overArgeș Pitești.[1][2] However, during his two seasons spent at Craiova, he played rarely, so he went to play again in Divizia B, this time atPandurii Târgu Jiu under coachConstantin Oțet for whom in his first season from the total of 37 goals scored by the team, Pițurcă scored over half but the team relegated toDivizia C.[2][3][4][5][6][7] In the1978–79 Divizia C season, Pițurcă scored 46 goals of the team's total of 98, helping it promote back to Divizia B after one year.[5][6][7] In 1979 he went back to Divizia A football, when he went to play forOlt Scornicești, making regular appearances during his four-years spell.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
In July 1983 he was wanted bySteaua București where Constantin Cernăianu was coaching, but his coach from Scornicești,Florin Halagian tried to keep him there, eventually at the insistence ofEmerich Jenei the transfer to Steaua was fulfilled.[2][3][8] In hisfirst season, he did not win any trophies, but afterwards he helped the team conquer five league titles in a row, starting withThe Double from the1984–85 season when Pițurcă was the second top-goalscorer of the league, having only one goal behindSportul Studențesc'sGheorghe Hagi, as he scored 19 goals scored in the 32 matches coaches Halagian and Jenei used him, also scoring the decisive goal of the 2–1 victory from theCupa României final over his former team, Universitatea Craiova.[1][2][4][9][10][11][12][13] In thefollowing season, he was again the league's second top-goalscorer, this time with two goals behind Hagi, having scored 29 in the 34 appearances given to him by Jenei who also used him in all the nine games from the historicalEuropean Cup campaign in which Pițurcă was the team's top-goalscorer, netting five times in all the home matches, one against each ofVejle,Budapest Honvéd andKuusysi Lahti and a brace in the 3–0 win from the semifinals withAnderlecht, then playing as a starter until the 111th minute ofextra time when he was replaced withMarin Radu in the eventual 2–0 victory after the penalty shoot-out from thefinal againstBarcelona.[1][2][4][5][9][10][11][12][14] He started the1986–87 season by playing all the minutes in the 1–0 win overDynamo Kyiv from theEuropean Super Cup and in the loss from theIntercontinental Cup with the same score in front ofRiver Plate, by the end of it helping Steaua win another Double, coaches Jenei andAnghel Iordănescu giving him 31 league appearances in which he scored 22 goals, being surpassed only byDinamo București's controversialEuropean Golden Shoe winner,Rodion Cămătaru who scored double, also appearing the full 90 minutes in the 1–0 victory from theCupa României final over Dinamo.[1][2][4][5][10][11][12][15] In thenext season, Pițurcă was used by Iordănescu in 33 league games in which he scored 34 goals, being the top-goalscorer of the championship andEuropean Bronze Boot as onlyTanju Çolak (39) andJohn Eriksen (36) scored more and he made another continental performance with the team as they reached the semi-finals of theEuropean Cup where they lost in favor ofBenfica, Pițurcă contributing with one goal scored againstRangers in the 8 matches played.[1][2][4][5][10][11][12][16] In hislast season spent withThe Military Men, the team won another Double, Iordănescu using him in 22 league matches, managing to score 23 goals, also appearing the whole game in another 1–0 victory in theCupa României final overrivals Dinamo and made another European performance by playing 7 games in theEuropean Cup campaign, including all the minutes from the 4–0 loss in front ofAC Milan from thefinal, scoring one goal in the semi-finals againstGalatasaray when goalkeeperZoran Simović kicked the ball in the back of his head and it went in the goalpost but the referee wrongfully cancelled the goal.[1][2][4][11][12][17] His last Divizia A game took place on 17 June 1989 in Steaua's 4–1 home win overFlacăra Moreni with him scoring a goal, having a total of 301 appearances with 65 goals in the competition and a total of 29 matches and 6 goals in European competitions.[1][2][4][5]
On 25 March 2008, he was decorated by the president ofRomania,Traian Băsescu for the winning of the1985–86 European Cup with Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" — (The Order "The Sportive Merit") class II.[19]
Victor Pițurcă played 13 games and scored 6 goals at international level forRomania, making his debut on 27 March 1985 under coachMircea Lucescu in a friendly which ended 0–0 withPoland.[20][21] After making two appearances at the1986 World Cup qualifiers, he scored his first two goals for the national team in a 3–1 win overNorway in a friendly game.[20] He scored another brace in a 4–2 friendly victory withIsrael and made five appearances at theEuro 1988 qualifiers where he scored two goals in two victories withAlbania andSpain, also making his last appearance for Romania on 18 November 1987 in a 0–0 withAustria.[20]
In 1996, he was named coach ofRomania's under-21 side, leading the team to its first qualification to a European Championship in 1998, which ended up being hosted by Romania.[2][3][4][5][23][25][26][27] The qualification was succeeded after the team won thegroup 8 of the qualifiers with 8 victories out of 8 matches againstIceland,Republic of Ireland,Lithuania andMacedonia.[25] At thefinal tournament which was composed of 8 teams, they were eliminated byNetherlands with 2–0 in the quarter-finals, also losing the games for the 5th-8th places and for the 7th place in front ofGermany, respectivelyRussia.[25][26][27] However, from the 20-players squad that took part at that tournament, only five did not get to play forRomania's senior team throughout their career.[25]
At the beginning of the year 2000, he returns at Steaua, finishing the championship on the 3rd position, but managed to win thefollowing one and also the2001 Supercupa României with a 2–1 victory againstDinamo București.[2][4][5][23][32] He resigned in June 2002 after an argument with the club's chairman,Gigi Becali but they reconciled and Pițurcă came back in October the same year.[2] He finished the2002–03 and2003–04 seasons on the second place, also guiding the team in the2003–04 UEFA Cup season whenThe Red and Blues eliminated in the first two roundsNeman Grodno andSouthampton, obtaining a 1–1 in the first leg of the following round withLiverpool, losing the away leg with 1–0, thus the campaign ending.[2][4][33] In July 2004, Pițurcă resigned after another argument with Becali who fired playerRomeo Pădureț without his approval.[34]
On 14 June 2011, he returned for a third spell in charge of theRomania national team when the chances forqualifying at theEuro 2012 were very low, his objective being to create a team which would qualify for theEuro 2016.[2][39] He was close to qualify at the2014 World Cup, finishing thequalification group on the second place behind Netherlands but aboveTurkey,Hungary,Estonia andAndorra, thus reaching theplay-off where they lost 4–2 withGreece.[2][28] He started with two victories against Greece andFinland and a draw with Hungary at theEuro 2016 qualifiers, then leaving the team to go in Saudi Arabia, but Romania still managed to qualify at the final tournament by using many of the young players that Pițurcă promoted in the last years.[2][28][40] Victor Pițurcă has a total of 96 games from his three spells at the national team consisting of 53 victories, 23 draws and 20 losses.[2][28]
On 16 October 2014, he signed a two-year deal withAl-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia.[2][4][41] In January 2015, he was heavily criticized for excluding Al-Ittihad's top starsMohammed Noor andHamad Al-Montashari due to disobeying training procedure.[42] He was dismissed by the club in June 2015 because the club's officials were unsatisfied that the team finished the season on the fourth place.[4][43] He was replaced byLászló Bölöni but came back at the club in December the same year only to leave again in July 2016.[2][4][44]
On 22 August 2019, he signed a contract withUniversitatea Craiova, resigning in January 2020, being unsatisfied that the club's officials did not want to transfer the players he wanted.[3][4][45][46] Victor Pițurcă has a total of 204 matches as a manager in the Romanian top-division, Liga I, consisting of 116 victories, 43 draws and 45 losses.[45][47]
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Norway
Israel
Albania
Spain
