Famous football coach Mircea Lucescu died on Tuesday, at the age of 80.

The announcement was made by the Bucharest University Emergency Hospital, where the former coach had been hospitalized for more than a week.

The Bucharest University Emergency Hospital informs that the death was declared around 8:30 p.m.

''Mr. Mircea Lucescu was one of the most successful Romanian coaches and football players, the first to qualify the Romanian national team for a European Championship, in 1984. Entire generations of Romanians grew up with his image in their hearts, as a national symbol. May God rest his soul!'', the hospital representatives said.

Mircea Lucescu was urgently hospitalized on March 29 at the Bucharest University Hospital, after feeling sick during a technical meeting prior to a training session of the national football team. He later suffered a heart attack, and his health deteriorated and no longer responded to treatment.

A former international footballer and one of the most decorated coaches in football history, Mircea Lucescu was born on July 29, 1945 in Bucharest.

He was the head coach of the Romanian national team between 1981 and 1986, managing to qualify the team for the UEFA European Championship in France - Euro '84. During this period, he led the national team in 59 matches. He then coached Dinamo Bucharest (starting in 1986), winning a national title (1989 - 1990) and two Romanian Cups (1985 -1986 and 1989 - 1990), and also securing qualification to the Cup Winners' Cup semifinals (1990).

In the summer of 1990, he left for Italy, where he coached Pisa, Brescia and Reggiana. In 1997, he returned to Romania and was appointed head coach of Rapid Bucharest, winning the Romanian Cup in 1998.

On November 30, 1998, he was appointed head coach of the renowned Italian club Internazionale Milano, but was dismissed a few months later (March 1999). He returned to Rapid, leading the team to the 1998 - 1999 championship title.

From 2000 to 2002, Lucescu coached Galatasaray Istanbul, winning the UEFA Super Cup (2000) and the Turkish championship (2002). In the summer of 2002, he moved to rivals Besiktas Istanbul, where he won the league title in his first year and reached the UEFA Cup quarterfinals.

On May 16, 2004, he officially took over Shakhtar Donetsk, the Ukrainian team he would transform into a major force in European football. Under his leadership, Shakhtar won eight national titles (2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014), six Ukrainian Cups (2004, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016) and seven Super Cups (2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015), and most notably the UEFA Cup in 2009, after the final against Werder Bremen (2 - 1). In 2013, Lucescu became the longest-serving coach in the club's history, and in 2014 he was named Ukraine's Coach of the Year for the eighth time.

After his prolific period at Shakhtar, he coached FC Zenit Saint Petersburg between 2016 and 2017, and then the Turkish national team from 2017 to 2019.

On August 6, 2024, Mircea Lucescu was officially appointed head coach of the Romanian national team, a position he had previously held 38 years earlier. He ended his term on April 2, 2026.AGERPRES(RO - writing by: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - writing by: Bogdan Gabaroi)