Name Marian Mihail Playing position Role Football player | 1969-1975 FC Brasov Position Defender Years Team | |
Full name Marian Cucchiaroni Mihail Date of birth (1958-05-07) 7 May 1958 (age 57) | ||
Marian Cucchiaroni Mihail (born 7 May 1958) is a Romanian football manager and former player. He served as National Technical Director of the Romanian Football Federation from August 2011 to February 2014, having overall responsibility for the development of football in Romania.
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Mihail has managed top flights teams and also held technical director positions in his native Romania and across the Middle East. In the course of his career he always had en eye for future talent.
In May 2009, at a ceremony celebrating the centenary of the Romanian Football Federation, Mihail received the Order of Merit for his services to Romanian football.
Playing career
Mihail played professionally in Romania for 17 years, beginning his career as a right winger with his home town club FC Brasov, before moving onto play as a right full back for the top flight side Sportul Studentesc. His first competitive game for Sportul Studentesc was in Octobre 1976 against the German side FC Schalke 04 in UEFA Cup. With Sportul Studentesc, he won the Balkans Cup in 1980, and was Romania vice-champion in 1986 and Romania Cup finalist in 1979. Mihail also won five caps for Romania. He made his international debut on 14 March 1982 against Belgium.
Managerial career
After his playing career ended, Mihail turned to coaching and began his career as manager of his former club Sportul Studentesc. He then managed other two Romanian top flight teams, FC Brasov and FC Bacau.
In October 1999 Mihail became the head of technical department at Steaua Bucharest, Romania's most successful club, with responsibility for first team, player recruitment, scouting and academy. During his time at Steaua Bucharest, the first team won two major trophies, the Romanian League title and the Romanian Super Cup, in 2000-01 season.
In June 2002, after a spell as manager of the Romanian side Rocar Bucharest, Mihail moved to the Middle East, where he had successful stints in Syria, with Al Qardaha, and in Saudi Arabia, with Al Riyadh.
In June 2004, Mihail returned home to Romania to complete his UEFA Pro Licence. During that time he was employed with the Romanian Football Federation as youth technical adviser and helped to set up the national youth program. He also had a short spell as manager of the Romanian side FC Sibiu.
In June 2006, Mihail moved again to the Middle East where he managed Al Jaish in Syria and Al Jahra in Kuwait. He also worked as academy technical director at Al Wahda Abu Dhabi, the UAE's leading youth academy. It was under his leadership that the academy won two UAE youth league titles, at U17 and U19 age groups, in 2009-10 season.
In between, Mihail returned home to Romania for a third spell as manager of the Romanian side Sportul Studentesc.
In August 2011, Mihail was appointed as National Technical Director of the Romanian Football Federation (FRF). The position was new in the FRF at the time. It included responsibility for the overall development and direction of football in Romania. Mihail's main task was to restore the competitiveness of Romanian football. After becoming familiar with the situation in Romanian football and many analyses and consultations, both within the football family and with external partners, Mihail presented his strategic blueprint to stop the decline of Romanian football and to achieve new success at all levels of competition. Priority was given to improve the quality of youth coaches, the performance of the national youth teams and to develop strong partnerships with the Royal Spanish Football Federation to promote new technical standards across the country. In only three years the new performance strategy laid a good foundation for the future of Romanian football. That included reforming its coach education system, revamping the format of the youth leagues and the success of the national youth teams program, both boys and girls, among other healthy developments.
Mihail left the FRF in February 2014, just before the election of a new President for the Romanian Football Federation.
In October 2016, Mihail returned to coaching as manager of Iraqi Premier League side Zakho FC. His first league game in charge was a 0-0 away draw against Naft Al-Wasat, the best team in the league at that time. Despite the team showed strong signs of progress, Mihail left Zakho FC on 4 December 2016, citing a lack of direction due to financial uncertainty.