László Bölöni

The native form of this personal name is Bölöni László. This article uses the Western name order.

László Bölöni

Bölöni in 1984
Personal information
Full name	László Bölöni
Date of birth	11 March 1953 (1953-03-11)
Place of birth	Târgu Mureş, Romania
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	PAOK (coach)
Youth career
1967–1970	Chimica Târnăveni
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1970–1984	ASA Târgu Mureş	406	(64)
1984–1987	Steaua Bucureşti	97	(24)
1987–1988	Racing Jet Wavre	16	(0)
1988–1989	Creteil	11	(2)
1989–1992	Orléans	77	(4)
Total		607	(94)
National team
1975–1988	Romania	108	(25)
Teams managed
1994–2000	Nancy
2000–2001	Romania
2001–2003	Sporting Lisbon
2003–2006	Rennes
2006	Monaco
2007–2008	Al-Jazeera
2008–2010	Standard Liège
2010	Al-Wahda
2011	Lens
2011–	PAOK
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

László Bölöni (also called Ladislau Bölöni; born 11 March 1953) is a Romanian-born football manager and former player of Hungarian ethnicity, who currently manages Greek club PAOK.

Club career

Born in Târgu Mureş to a Transylvanian Hungarian family from Târnăveni, Bölöni's first team was Chimica Târnăveni. In 1970 he moved to ASA Târgu Mureş where he stayed until 1984, until he joined Steaua Bucureşti, being part of the team which won the European Champions Cup in 1986 (despite missing his penalty in the shootout in the final) and the European Super Cup the following year. Bölöni remained at Steaua until 1987.

In 1988, aged 35, Bölöni left the country to play in Belgium at Racing Jet Bruxelles and then in France at US Créteil. He retired from professional football in 1992.

On 25 March 2008 he was decorated by the president of Romania, Traian Băsescu with Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" — (The Order "The Sportive Merit") class II for his part in winning the of 1986 European Cup Final.

International career

Playing for the Romanian national team in 1983, Bölöni scored one of his most vital goals ever, in the 1–0 win against Italy in a Euro 84 qualification match which eventually proved invaluable to the country's qualification for the tournament. At the finals themselves in France, he played in all three of Romania's games, and scored the equaliser in the 1–1 draw with Spain in Saint-Etienne.

In total, Bölöni won 108 caps for Romania including Olympic games, and scored 25 goals.

National stats

Romania's goal tally first.

László Bölöni - International goals
#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	24 March 1976	23 August Stadium, Bucharest, Romania	France	1–0	1–0	1976 Olympic Games Qual.
2	2 July 1976	Aryamehr Stadium, Tehran, Iran	Iran	1–1	2–2	Friendly
3	28 November 1976	23 August Stadium, Bucharest, Romania	Bulgaria	2–1	3–2	Balkan Cup
4	21 September 1977	Stadionul Steaua, Bucharest, Romania	Greece	2–0	6–1	Friendly
5	21 September 1977	Stadionul Steaua, Bucharest, Romania	Greece	4–1	6–1	Friendly
6	13 November 1977	Stadionul Steaua, Bucharest, Romania	Yugoslavia	3–2	4–6	1978 FIFA World Cup Qual.
7	16 February 1980	Stadio San Paolo, Napoli, Italy	Italy	1–0	1–2	Friendly
8	14 April 1982	Lokomotiv Stadium, Rousse, Bulgaria	Bulgaria	2–1	2–1	Friendly
9	1 May 1982	Corvinul Stadium, Hunedoara, Romania	Cyprus	3–1	3–1	UEFA Euro 1984 Qual.
10	15 July 1982	Areni Stadium, Suceava, Romania	Japan	3–0	4–0	Friendly
11	18 July 1982	23 August Stadium, Bucharest, Romania	Japan	1–1	3–1	Friendly
12	16 February 1980	Ernst Thalmann Stadion, Chemnitz, Germany	East Germany	1–2	1–4	Friendly
13	2 February 1983	Alkazar Stadium, Larissa, Greece	Greece	1–0	3–1	Friendly
14	9 March 1983	Târgu Mureş Stadium, Romania	Turkey	3–1	3–1	Friendly
15	16 April 1983	23 August Stadium, Bucharest, Romania	Italy	1–0	1–0	UEFA Euro 1984 Qual.
16	12 November 1983	Tsirion Stadium, Limassol, Cyprus	Cyprus	1–0	1–0	UEFA Euro 1984 Qual.
17	22 January 1984	Estadio Modelo, Guayaquil, Ecuador	Ecuador	1–0	3–1	Friendly
18	14 June 1984	Stade Geoffroy-Guichard Saint-Étienne, France	Spain	1–1	1–1	UEFA Euro 1984
19	8 October 1986	Ramat Gan Stadium, Israel	Israel	2–1	4–2	Friendly
20	4 March 1987	19 Mayıs Stadium, Ankara, Turkey	Turkey	2–1	3–1	Friendly
21	25 March 1987	23 August Stadium, Bucharest, Romania	Albania	2–1	5–1	UEFA Euro 1988 Qual.
22	2 September 1987	Stadion Zawiszy, Bydgoszcz, Poland	Poland	1–3	1–3	Friendly
23	7 October 1987	Stadionul Steaua, Bucharest, Romania	Greece	2–2	2–2	Friendly
24	3 February 1988	Kiryat Eliezer Stadium, Haifa, Israel	Israel	1–0	2–0	Friendly
25	30 March 1988	Kurt-Wabbel Stadion, Halle, Germany	East Germany	1–1	3–3	Friendly

Coaching career

As a football coach, Bölöni started with French club AS Nancy, where he was head coach for several years. He promoted with the team in Ligue 1. In 2000 he was appointed as national team coach, but in the summer of 2001 decided to leave the job.

Then he joined Portugal's club Sporting Lisbon, where he won both the Portuguese championship and cup in his first year. He was fired at the end of the next season due to mediocre results. His legacy at Sporting was the introduction of youth team players such as Ricardo Quaresma, Hugo Viana and Cristiano Ronaldo into the senior's team starting lineup.

In 2003, he returned to France as manager of Stade Rennais; in 2005, he managed the team to their best position in the history (4th in Ligue 1), and a subsequent UEFA Cup qualification.

In May 2006, Bölöni signed a two-year contract with AS Monaco but was fired on 23 October for lack of results (Monaco being 19th out of 20 in the league by that date).

On 9 June 2008, Belgian team Standard Liège appointed Bölöni as their new manager, as he succeeded Michel Preud'homme, who led the club to their first Belgian First Division title in 25 years (season 2007-2008). On 24 May 2009, he won the Belgian First Division title in his first season at Standard (season 2008-2009) after playing the championship play-off against Anderlecht. On 10 February 2010, Bölöni resigned from his coaching position at Standard Liege.

On 29 May 2010, it was officially announced that Bölöni signed a contract with United Arab Emirates side Al-Wahda. On 2 September 2010, Al-Wahda sacked Bölöni, despite the team's 3–1 win over Ittihad Kalba.

On 2 January 2011, he was hired by RC Lens, on a one year contract, but he couldn't save the team from relegetion. Bölöni was immediately released on June, and signed a two year contract with PAOK on 8 June 2011, following a short negotiation period.

Hungarian identity

Romanian nationalists fiercely criticise Bölöni for holding on his Hungarian identity, or simply dub him only Romanian. One of the most widely known incident was the "squealer case", when someone found his notepad containing tactical notes in Hungarian, and informed against him. In 2008, Bölöni was one of the potential candidates for mayor of Târgu Mureş, although he refused the request, supporting László Borbély, candidate of Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania. Though, for the mayoral elections of 2012, some politicians want to have him as a common mayoral candidate of Hungarian parties of Romania.

Honours

Player

• Steaua Bucureşti:
  • Romanian League: 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87
  • Romanian Cup: 1984–85, 1986–87
  • European Cup: 1985–86
  • European Super Cup: 1986

Manager

• AS Nancy:
  • Ligue 2: 1997-98

• Sporting Portugal:
  • Portuguese League: 2001-02
  • Portuguese Cup: 2001-02
  • Portuguese Super Cup: 2001-02

• Al-Jazira:
  • Gulf Club Champions Cup: 2007

• Standard Liège:
  • Belgian League: 2008-09
  • Belgian Super Cup: 2008, 2009

Individual

• Romanian Footballer of the Year Winner: 1977, 1983
• Romanian Footballer of the Year In Top 5: 1976, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1987
• Belgian Manager of the Year: 2009