Eugen Trică

Eugen Trică (born 5 August 1976) is a Romanian football manager and former footballer who played as a midfielder.

Club career
Eugen Trică was born on 5 August 1976 in the village of Teslui from Romania where he spent the first years of his life, being raised mainly by his grandparents until age 7 when he had to move to Craiova in order to go to school. Shortly after arriving in Craiova, his father noticed his talent while seeing him play football in the neighborhood so he took him to local club Universitatea where he started his career as a youth, being promoted in the first team in 1995, making his Liga I debut on 17 June 1995 in a 5–4 loss against Electroputere Craiova. He played 91 Liga I games for "U" Craiova in which he scored 14 goals, managing to reach the 1998 Cupa României final in 1998 which was lost in front of Rapid București, also during this period he earned the nickname José after teammate Ionel Gane compared him to José Mari Bakero. He then joined Steaua București in 1998, winning in his first season the 1998–99 Cupa României, being introduced by coach Emerich Jenei to replace Cristian Ciocoiu in the overtime of the final against Rapid București which was won at the penalty shoot-out where he scored a goal. He also won a championship with The Military Men in the 2000–01 season, being used by coach Victor Pițurcă in 30 games in which he scored 7 goals, also scoring two goals in Steaua's 2–1 victory against Dinamo București in the 2001 Supercupa României. Litex Lovech was the third club Trică played for after being transferred in 2003, where he scored 22 goals in 54 league matches, winning the Bulgarian Cup in 2004. He joined the squad of Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2005, but after only a few months he returned to Bulgaria, this time at CSKA Sofia where he played alongside fellow Romanians Florentin Petre and Alexandru Pițurcă, managing to win the 2005–06 Bulgarian Cup and the 2006 Bulgarian Supercup. Trică was one of the highest scoring foreign players in the Bulgarian league as in the 98 appearances made in the competition he had 39 goals to his name. In 2007, Trică returned to Romania, signing with CFR Cluj, where he was part of the team that won for the first time in the club's history the championship and the cup in 2008 with Trică being the team's top scorer, netting the goal 13 times in the 31 league matches coach Ioan Andone used him. He also played five games in the 2008–09 Champions League group stage with The Railway Men, in the first one providing Emmanuel Culio with two assists for the goals that obtained the team a historical 2–1 victory on Stadio Olimpico against AS Roma. Trică moved in 2009 to Anorthosis in Cyprus, but after the end of the season, he returned to CFR Cluj where he won the 2009 Supercupa României. In 2009, Trică came back to his first club, Universitatea Craiova, but after a year, in 2010, he joined Concordia Chiajna, a team from the second Romanian division which he helped promote to Liga I for the first time in history and after a few games in the first division for Concordia, in October 2011, Trică decided to end his playing career. Through his career, Eugen Trică earned a total of 289 matches with 51 goals scored in Liga I and 30 appearances with 7 goals in European competitions.

International career
Eugen Trică played four games for Romania, making his debut on 3 March 1999 when coach Victor Pițurcă introduced him in the 74th minute to replace Dennis Șerban in a friendly which ended with a 2–0 victory against Estonia. His following game was a 1–0 victory in a friendly against Ukraine and the last two were appearances at the successful Euro 2008 qualifiers, a 3–1 victory against Belarus and a 1–0 loss against Bulgaria.

Managerial career
Eugen Trică started his coaching career in 2012 at Juventus București, after which he coached various other teams, including as an assistant coach, his biggest performances being a runner-up position in a Cupa României final with CFR Cluj and two promotions from the third league to the second and from the second to the first with FC U Craiova.

On 22 September 2022, he became the head coach of Liga II side Concordia Chiajna.

Personal life
Eugen Trică was married to Lorena, daughter of Ilie Balaci, one of the best Romanian football players from the past. They divorced in 2015. Their son, Atanas Trică is also a footballer.

Player
Universitatea Craiova Steaua București Litex Lovech CSKA Sofia CFR Cluj
 * Cupa României runner-up: 1997–98
 * Divizia A: 2000–01
 * Cupa României: 1998–99
 * Supercupa României: 2001
 * Bulgarian Cup: 2003–04
 * Bulgarian Cup: 2005–06
 * Bulgarian Super Cup: 2006
 * Liga I: 2007–08
 * Cupa României: 2007–08
 * Supercupa României: 2009

Manager
CFR Cluj FC U Craiova
 * Cupa României runner-up: 2012–13
 * Liga II: 2020–21
 * Liga III: 2019–20