Nicolae Pantea

Nicolae Pantea (born 12 February 1946) is a Romanian former footballer and manager.

Club career
Nicolae Pantea was born on 12 February 1946 in Beliu, Arad County, Romania and he started to play junior level football in 1961 at Rapid Arad for three years, afterwards moving at UTA Arad where he made his Divizia A debut on 30 August 1964 under coach Coloman Braun-Bogdan in a 3–0 away loss against Steagul Roșu Brașov. He reached with UTA the 1966 Cupa României final in which coach Nicolae Dumitrescu used him all the minutes, however they lost with 4–0 in front of Steaua București. Shortly afterwards Pantea went to play for Steaua, a team with whom he won the 1967–68 Divizia A title in which coach Ștefan Kovács used him in six matches, also helping the club win four Cupa României. During his period spent with The Military Men he also played 14 games in European competitions, taking part in the 1971–72 European Cup Winners' Cup campaign, playing six games as the team reached the quarter-finals by eliminating Hibernians and Barcelona, being eliminated after 1–1 on aggregate on the away goal rule by Bayern Munich. After 9 seasons spent at Steaua, Pantea went to play in Divizia B at Petrolul Ploiești, retiring shortly afterwards, having a total of 249 appearances with 30 goals scored in Divizia A and 35 matches in which he scored 7 goals in Cupa României.

International career
Nicolae Pantea played two games at international level for Romania, making his debut on 23 April 1972 under coach Gheorghe Ola in a friendly against Peru which ended 2–2. In his last match for the national team, he scored his first and only goal for The Tricolours, it was the fifth goal of the team's biggest ever victory, a 9–0 against Finland at the 1974 World Cup qualifiers. In 1971, Pantea also made an appearance for Romania's Olympic team in a 2–1 away victory against Albania.

Managerial career
Nicolae Pantea first worked as a coach at Steaua's Center for Children and Juniors, in various age categories, in parallel, in certain periods also being an assistant at Romania's national youth team. In 1984, he was for a short time head coach at UTA while the team was in Divizia B. From 1985 to 1990, he was the head of Steaua's Center for Children and Juniors, then he worked for the Romanian Football Federation as a deputy general secretary, being responsible for the youth sector, also in 2000 he was the head of the Central Commission of Referees for a few months. In 2016, the stadium from Nicolae Pantea's native commune, Beliu was renamed after him in his honor.

Honours
UTA Arad Steaua București Petrolul Ploiești
 * Cupa României runner-up: 1965–66
 * Divizia A: 1967–68
 * Cupa României: 1966–67, 1968–69, 1969–70, 1970–71
 * Divizia B: 1976–77