Mircea Lucescu

Galatasaray

After coaching the Romanian national team, Lucescu had a long career in Italy, where he coached clubs such as Pisa, Brescia, Reggiana and Inter Milan. He won with Galatasaray the UEFA Super Cup against Real Madrid. Under Lucescu's managership, Galatasaray qualified to the quarter-finals in the UEFA Champions League in the 2000–01 season. In the quarter-finals, they lost to Real Madrid. The same year, he lost the Turkish League title to rivals Fenerbahçe. The next year, Galatasaray qualified to the second phase of the Champions League and won the Turkish League title under his managership. Lucescu was sacked at the end of the season, despite winning the league champion title, and was replaced by Fatih Terim.

Beşiktaş

Shortly after his departure from Galatasaray, in June 2002 he signed a contract with rivals Beşiktaş. It was a very important season for Beşiktaş since, in 2003, the reputable Turkish club was celebrating its 100th year since its foundation. They won the Turkish title, having only one loss and collecting 85 points – a record points tally in the Süper Lig in a single season.

The 2003–04 season started well for Lucescu and Beşiktaş. The team could not qualify from a difficult Champions League group, but was able to get a ticket to the UEFA Cup by holding the third position in its group – only to be knocked out by Valencia, who eventually went on to win the competition. At the beginning of the second half of the 2003–04 Süper Lig season, Beşiktaş were in first position and eight points ahead of their rivals Fenerbahçe, who were in second. On 25 January 2004, Beşiktaş played against Samsunspor at home, where referee Cem Papila showed five red cards to Beşiktaş players. After this match, the team's performance declined drastically, and Lucescu could not stop the decline. He blamed the Turkish Football Federation for one-sided decisions by the referees. After a disastrous second half, Lucescu decided to leave Turkey claiming that his championship was stolen.

Shakhtar Donetsk

In May 2004, Lucescu joined Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk and led their rise to prominence in Ukraine the following years. His first trophy with the club came in the 2003–04 Ukrainian Cup, defeating Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 2–0 in the final on 30 May. In his first full season with the club, he secured the 2004–05 Premier League title.

The following season, he secured both the Premier League and the Super Cup. He failed to win any trophies the following season, however, though he made up for it in the 2007–08 season, winning the Premier League title and the Ukrainian Cup. His only domestic success in the 2008–09 season came in the Super Cup, although he was able to guide Shakhtar to their first ever European trophy, winning the last ever UEFA Cup before it was renamed the UEFA Europa League. He won the final against Werder Bremen 2–1 after extra time.

The 2009–10 season saw Shakhtar regain the Premier League title. The 2010–11 season was very successful for Lucescu. He guided Shakhtar to a domestic treble, winning the Premier League, the Ukrainian Cup and the Super Cup. They also had their most successful Champions League campaign, reaching the quarter-final stage before being defeated by eventual winners Barcelona.

The following season saw Shakhtar retain their Premier League and Ukrainian Cup titles. This gave Lucescu his sixth Premier League and fourth Ukrainian Cup with the club. Shakhtar had a disappointing Champions League campaign, finishing in fourth place in their group. His son, Răzvan Lucescu, is a former goalkeeper who at several points managed Rapid București, a team his father had also previously managed. Coincidentally, Shakhtar and Rapid met in the group stage of the UEFA Cup in November 2005.

On 29 May 2009, Lucescu was granted the title "Honorary citizen of Donetsk" by the city council of Donetsk for "earning the UEFA Cup, development and popularization of the Ukrainian football, improvement of the Donetsk, Donetsk region and Ukraine authority in the world".

In December 2009, he turned down an offer to coach the Ukraine national team, his reason being to avoid another potential clash with his son, Răzvan, who then managed the Romania national team and could qualify for UEFA Euro 2012, which Ukraine was to host.

Lucescu has won the Coach of the Year award in Ukraine in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

He led Shakhtar into the semi-finals of Europa League during his last season in charge, being eliminated by defending champions and eventual winners Sevilla. He announced his resignation in early 2016, ending a 12-year period in charge of Shakhtar and becoming the club's greatest manager. In his last match in charge, he won the 2015–16 Ukrainian Cup after defeating Zorya Luhansk 2–0 in the final.

Zenit Saint Petersburg

On 24 May 2016, Lucescu signed a two-year contract with Russian club Zenit Saint Petersburg, with an option for another year.

On 28 May 2017, Zenit dismissed him after one season in which the club failed to qualify for the Champions League by coming in third in the league.

Turkey national football team

On 2 August 2017, he was appointed as the new head coach of Turkey, succeeding Fatih Terim. He announced that this will be the last team he coaches.

Personal life

Lucescu is known to be a very educated person. He learned six foreign languages at a young age: English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French and Russian in addition to his native Romanian. As a coach in Romania, he was often cited as telling his players that going to the theatre or reading a book is far more beneficial than going to restaurants. He also pressured his players to go to university.

On 15 July 2009, he suffered an attack of pre-infarct angina, and was operated in an emergency hospital in Donetsk.

On 6 January 2012, he was involved in a road accident in Bucharest and was seriously hurt.

Managerial statistics

Orders