Gheorghe Albu

Gheorghe Albu
Personal information
Full name	Gheorghe Albu
Date of birth	18 November 1909
Place of birth	Arad, Austria-Hungary (now in Romania)
Date of death	26 June 1974 (aged 64)
Place of death	Făgăraș, Brașov County, Romania
Position(s)	Defender
Youth career
1924–1928	AMEF Arad
Senior career*
Years	Team
1929–1933	Gloria Arad
1933–1940	Venus București
1940–1944	FC Craiova
International career
1931–1938	Romania
Managerial career
1946–1947	FC Craiova
1947–1948	Dermata Cluj
1950	Romania
1952	UT Arad
1957–1958	Textila Sfântu Gheorghe
1958–1959	Foresta Fălticeni
1959–1962	AMEF Arad
1962–1964	Vagonul Arad
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Gheorghe Albu (12 September 1909 in Arad, Austria-Hungary, (now in Romania) – 26 June 1974 in Făgăraș, Brașov County, Romania) was a Romanian football player and manager. He was a member of the Romania national football team which played at the 1934 FIFA World Cup.

Player career

Club career

Albu started his career in 1924, playing as a youth for

Gloria CFR Arad lost the final, 0–3.^[3]

In 1933, he moved to

Champion of Romania. Until 1940, when he left Venus, he won four championship titles. Between 1940 and 1944, the year of his retirement from professional football, Albu played for FC Craiova.^[4]

International career

Gheorghe Albu made his first appearance for the Romania national football team in May 1931, in a match against Bulgaria, won by the Romanians, 5–2.^[2]

After that, he made 39 consecutive appearances in the starting lineup for Romania, including the 1934 FIFA World Cup match against Czechoslovakia, lost by Romania, 1–2.^[2]

After a short break, he was called up again to the national team for another three consecutive matches.^[2] He was the captain of the national side of Romania nineteen times.^[2] He played his last match in December 1938, against Czechoslovakia. In this match Gheorghe Albu's opponent, the legendary Josef Bican, scored four goals, as Romania lost by 2 goals to 6.^[2]

Managerial career

After World War II, Gheorghe Albu trained a number of teams, including

UT Arad, and was also, for a short time, the manager of the national team. In 1959, he returned to Arad, acting as manager of AMEF Arad until 1962 and Vagonul Arad between 1962 and 1964. From 1964 until his death, he worked at Făgăraș, where he trained the youth teams of Nitramonia Făgăraș.^[5]