Ion Pârcălab (born 5 November 1941)[3] is a Romanian former football player and manager.
Club career
Early career
Ion Pârcălab, nicknamed "The Carpathian Arrow" by foreign experts was born on 5 November 1941 in Bucharest, Romania, starting to play junior level football at local club, Dinamo, working with coach Petre Steinbach.[4][5][6][7] He was brought by his stepbrother, Nicolae Dumitrescu at UTA Arad who was a junior coach there, winning together the 1958–59 national junior championship after defeating Farul Constanța in the final.[6] He started his senior career at UTA, making his Divizia A debut on 24 May 1959 in a 2–1 loss in front of Jiul Petroșani.[4][5] In his last season spent with The Old Lady, the teenager Pârcălab scored 10 goals in the league.[4]
Dinamo București
In 1961 Pârcălab went to play for Dinamo București where in his first four seasons he helped the club win four consecutive Divizia A titles from 1962 until 1965, in the first he worked with three coaches Traian Ionescu, Constantin Teașcă and Nicolae Dumitru who gave him 24 appearances in which he scored seven goals, in the following two Dumitru and Ionescu used him in 21 matches in which he netted seven times in the first and in 25 with 10 goals scored in the second and in the last one he played 20 games, scoring eight times under the guidance of Angelo Niculescu.[4][8] He also won two Cupa României trophies with The Red Dogs, coach Ionescu using him all the minutes in the 5–3 victory in which he scored a goal against rivalsSteaua București from the 1964 final, then in the one from 1968 Pârcălab played the whole match which was a 3–1 over Rapid București, being coached by Bazil Marian.[9] He would score two more goals against Steaua, including one in a 2–0 victory.[10] In 1965, Pârcălab was awarded the title "Best Football Player" in Romania, also being third on the ranking for the first Romanian Footballer of the Year award in 1966.[5][11] In the 1963–64 European Cup campaign, he played all four games as Dinamo got pass East Germany champion, Motor Jena, being eliminated in the next phase by Real Madrid against whom he scored a goal in a 5–3 loss and also in the 1965–66 edition he scored a goal against Denmark's champion, Boldklubben 1909 which helped the team advance to the next phase where they were eliminated by the winners of the previous two seasons of the competition, Inter Milan but earned a historical 2–1 victory in the first leg, after which he said:"I am happy, very happy! This victory is primarily a lesson for us. We proved to ourselves that we can do much more".[4][12] Pârcălab's last Divizia A appearance took place on 19 July 1970, playing for Dinamo in a 1–1 with Politehnica Iași, having a total of played 232 matches played in the competition in which he scored 66 goals, also appearing in a total of 20 matches in which he scored five goals in European competitions.[4]
Transfer at Nîmes
During Romania's communist era, transfers of Romanian footballers outside the country were rarely allowed, but in June 1970 dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu went on a visit in France where he was invited by president Georges Pompidou.[5][13] Pampidou took him to see Nîmes, a town where the communists were constantly winning the elections, there Ceaușescu talked to the mayor who complained about the poor results of the local football team, Nîmes Olympique so Ceaușescu told him that he is going to send two Romanian footballers to the club.[5][13] Some French people were sent to see the 1970 Cupa României final which was won with 2–1 by Steaua București against Dinamo București and they selected Florea Voinea from Steaua București and Pârcălab from Dinamo to come and play for Nîmes Olympique, where in the 1971–72 season they helped the team finish second in the championship, each of them scoring 11 goals.[4][5][13][14]
In 1980, Pârcălab was coach at Progresul Pucioasa in the third division.[21][22][23][24][25] After a victory in the championship, Pârcălab took his players to a restaurant in order to celebrate, but after a few drinks, a conflict between him and the goalkeeper Nicolae Stancu started because of a waitress.[21][22][23][24][25] They went to the bathroom to solve their problem and it is assumed that there Pârcălab killed Stancu by introducing a broomstick in his throat or by hitting him in the back of his head.[21][22][23][24][25] Pârcălab was sentenced to three years in prison but got released after two.[21][22][23][24][25] In the early 2000s, Pârcălab claimed he was innocent and that he was wrongfully convicted.[23]
Personal life
Pârcălab's stepbrother was Nicolae Dumitrescu, who was also an international footballer and a manager.[6][26]
