Incredible! A coach with more titles than Guardiola? It's not Ferguson
Mircea Lucescu won a total of 35 titles, 4 more than Guardiola.
When we think of winning coaches, we surely think of Alex Ferguson, the most successful in history, who won more than 40 titles in his career. Other winning coaches could be Pep Guardiola or even Jose Mourinho. However, there is a Romanian coach with more titles than Guardiola or Mourinho and his name is Mircea Lucescu.
Mircea was born on July 29, 1945, in Bucharest (The capital of Romania). As a player, he made his professional debut at the age of 18 at FC Dinamo Bucharest, a team where he played almost his entire career as a footballer. He played all his life in Romania (lower level league) and managed to get 10 local titles.
Lucescu played more than 20 years as a football player
In 1979 (34 years old) he became the coach of his Corvinul Hunedoara team. At that time, he was still the player so he performed both roles at the same time. 2 years later, Mircea retired as a player and started managing the Romanian National Team. He spent a total of 5 years and his greatest achievement was qualifying for UEFA Euro 1984, but he did not qualify for the 1986 World Cup, which is why he was fired.
For the next 7 years he was in Italy, coaching Serie A and Serie B teams. His career was regular, as he achieved 2 promotions but was also relegated on 2 occasions. His next team was Rapid Bucharest, a team with which he won 2 Romanian leagues and 2 Romanian cups. Thanks to this, he managed to be hired to lead Inter Milan, but his results were appalling. From 2000 to 2004, he moved to Turkey and managed 2 of the most famous teams in that country, Galatasaray and Beikta. With each team, he won a Turkish league and then a European Super Cup with Galatasaray, his first international title.
Lucescu won 4 titles in Turkey
In the middle of 2004, he received an offer to manage FC Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine, a well-known team today, but back then they had barely won 1 Ukrainian league. Mircea Lucescu was the coach who made that team one of the most important in Ukraine. In total, he spent 12 seasons managing FC Shakhtar Donetsk, he managed 573 games, got 75% of the points and won many titles, including 8 Ukrainian Leagues, 6 Ukrainian Cup and 7 Ukrainian super cups. But the most important achievement in his history was in the 2008-09 season when he beat Werder Bremen of Germany and became champion of the UEFA Cup (Europa League). It was the first and last time that a Ukrainian team won an international title.
Mircea Lucescu won the UEFA Cup with Shakhtar Donetsk
In 2016, he decided to terminate his contract with Shakhtar Donetsk as he felt he had already met his goals. His next team was Zenit Russia, with which he won a Russian Super Cup, but due to poor results he was fired. Later, he managed the Turkish National Team but again, his poor results were decisive for his dismissal.
Currently, he manages Dynamo Kyiv, Shakhtar Donetsk's rival team. With this team, he has already won 3 titles, 1 league, 1 cup and a super cup. This decision to join the rival of his former team was very controversial and for that, Mircea received many threats. Despite this, he is still the team's coach.
Mircea Lucescu is now the coach of Shakhtar Donetsk's closest rival
In 33 years of coaching career, Mircea Lucescu obtained a total of 35 titles. Except for Alex Ferguson, there is no other coach with more titles than him. However, already has 31 titles and it is possible that in the coming years he will manage to surpass it.
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