Răzvan Lucescu

Răzvan Lucescu (born 17 February 1969) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player, who is currently managing Greek Super League club PAOK.

As a player, he operated as a goalkeeper and spent most years of his career at Sportul Studențesc during three stints.

Lucescu also represented Național București, FC Brașov, Rapid București and FCM Bacău in his country, as well as Crema Calcio abroad.

He won his only national title with Rapid in the 2002–03 campaign.

He began his coaching career with FC Brașov in the 2003–04 season spanning 15 matches in the first league.

He returned to Brașov in 2004 for his first role as a manager, before moving to Rapid where he guided the team to the Cupa României in the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons.

In June 2004, he was named coach of Rapid București.

In his first season, he qualified for the UEFA Cup, finishing third in the domestic league.

In the 2005–06 season, he had a dramatic start of the season, being dismissed for one night, before the owner of the club, George Copos, decided to take him back.

Lucescu and his side managed to defeat teams such as Feyenoord Rotterdam, Shakhtar Donetsk (his father's team), Hertha Berlin and Hamburger SV, reaching to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup.

Rapid was taken out by city rivals Steaua Bucharest after two draws.

In the league, he finished as runners-up, after being sixth at the half of the season.

The 2006–07 season was not as good.

Rapid got eliminated from the UEFA Cup group stages after 4 draws, finishing fourth.

Răzvan won the Romanian Cup with Rapid in 2006 and 2007, both leading Rapid into the UEFA Cup.

However, in 2007 Lucescu decided not to continue with Rapid, after a fallout with some of the supporters and several disagreements with the club owner.

He opted to return to Braşov.

Between 2009 and 2011, Lucescu was in charge of the Romania national team.

His other managerial honours include six domestic trophies with El Jaish, PAOK and Al Hilal combined.

On 29 April 2009, he was appointed head coach and general manager of Romania, leaving Braşov after a ninth-place finish in the first division and replacing Victor Piţurcă in this position.

Lucescu decided to start all over and, instead of accepting to manage bigger clubs from abroad, he decided to coach FC Brașov, who relegated two years before and finished 10th in the last season of the second division.

He didn't disappoint and won promotion from the first place.

Bringing Braşov back in the first league.

In June 2011, Lucescu returned to Rapid București for a second spell as coach.

Lucescu's Rapid side defeated Polish champions Śląsk Wrocław 4–2 on aggregate in the play-off round to qualify for the UEFA Europa League group stage.

The club finished fourth in Liga I and reached the finals of the 2011–12 Romanian Cup.

After two years in control he gave up the national team, following the 3–0 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina, leaving it with chances of qualifying to the UEFA Euro 2012.

On 31 May 2012, he was appointed at the helm of Qatari side El Jaish on a two-year deal.

In his first season in charge Lucescu won the 2012–13 Qatari Stars Cup and led his side into the knockout stages of the AFC Champions League.

His contract with El Jaish was terminated in January 2014 and he was replaced by coach Nabil Maâloul who led the club to the runner-up spot in the Qatar Stars League.

In March 2014, he was named the head coach of Liga I side Petrolul Ploiești replacing Cosmin Contra.

He was sacked six months later, Petrolul finished third in the domestic league and were knocked out in the semi-finals by Astra Giurgiu in the Romanian Cup and also eliminated in the play-offs of the Europa League.

On 24 September 2014, Lucescu signed a one-year contract with Greek Super League club Skoda Xanthi.

He guided them to their first Greek Cup final in their history.

Lucescu went on to extend his contract with the Akrites for a further two seasons.

On 11 August 2017, Lucescu would return to the benches of Superleague Greece as he signed a three-year contract with PAOK.

His tenure at the club started against Ostersund for the play-off round of 2017–18 UEFA Europa League.

PAOK went to win the first leg in Thessaloniki, 3–1, but a 0–2 defeat in Sweden in the second leg eliminated them from the competition, as they failed to reach the Europa League group stages for the first time in 5 years.

With the latter side, he also won the AFC Champions League in 2019.

Born in Bucharest, Lucescu made 243 appearances in the Divizia A for Sportul Studențesc, Național București, Brașov, Rapid București and FCM Bacău.