- Mario Marinică
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Mario Marinică Personal information Full name Mario Marinică Date of birth 13 December 1964 Senior career* Years Team Apps† (Gls)† Rocar Bucureşti Dinamo Bucureşti Steaua Bucureşti 0 (0) Total 0 (0) Teams managed 2001–2002 Rocar Bucureşti (assistant coach) 2003 Argeş Piteşti 2003–2004 Cimentul Fieni (caretaker) 2008–2009 FC Gloria Buzău (interim manager) 2009 Black Leopards 2010 Sportul Studenţesc (Technical Director) * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). Mario Marinică (born 13 December 1964) is a football manager and coach, currently Technical Director at Sportul Studenţesc.
He holds the UEFA Pro Licence, the highest football coaching qualification. Marinica is a highly qualified, experienced and ambitious coach, with a proven track record of developing young talent. He has coached at Romanian clubs FC Gloria Buzău, Sportul Studenţesc, Argeş Piteşti, Rocar Bucureşti, and Cimentul Fieni. He has also coached at Black Leopards in South Africa. In England, he has worked at Crystal Palace FC and Arsenal FC's Academies as well as Leyton Orient FC's School of Excellence. His playing career included spells at Rocar Bucureşti, Dinamo Bucureşti and Steaua Bucureşti.
Playing career
Mario Marinică featured most notably in the youth and reserve teams at Rocar Bucureşti, Dinamo Bucureşti and Steaua Bucureşti, eventually retiring from playing in 1993.
Coaching career
His coaching career commenced in 1993 at Leyton Orient FC. In a varied coaching role, he directed "Football in the Community" courses, and developed players both at the School of Excellence and first team; working closely with Grant Cornwell, John Sitton and Chris Ramsey.
During the 1998-1999 season he coached Haringey Borough FC. He was both Head of Youth Development and First Team Coach as well as the club's Fitness Trainer. He would later return to the club as first team Manager for a brief spell at the end of the 2005-2006 season. Winning 6 out of the last 7 games, he saved the club from relegation together with his assistant Ged Searson.[1]
From 1999 to 2001, Marinică was a coach at the Arsenal F.C. Academy, primarily in charge of the under-15 team. During this period, as part of an exchange programme he spent a short time assisting Massimo Pedrazzini within the technical department of Internazionale.
In the 2001-2002 season he returned to Rocar Bucureşti as Assistant Manager. Here he helped to develop a number of players including Cristian Neamtu, Cristian Silvasan, Ionut Rada, and Silviu Balace, that have since been capped by their country.
During 2002-2003, he became a development coach at the Crystal Palace FC Academy. He managed the U15 side, and coached from U14 to U19 levels. He worked with a number of players who have since turned professional and received International honours: Wayne Routledge, Gary Borrowdale, Ben Watson, Tom Soares, Sam Togwell, Lewis Grabban, Rhoys Wiggins, Andrew Julius, David Hunt, Gavin Heeroo, Teerathep Winothai, Will Antwi and Craig Dobson.
At the start of 2003, he was appointed First Team Coach at Argeş Piteşti, working with players such as Nicolae Dică, Andrei Prepeliţă, Raul Marincău, Marius Bilaşco, and Adrian Iordache.
His progress at Argeş Piteşti brought him to the attention of Romanian Serie B club, Cimentul Fieni. He was appointed Caretaker Manager of the Club, towards the end of 2003. In a limited time, and with scarce playing and financial resources, he managed to save Fieni from relegation and help restore pride to the team.
In recent years he has been a member of the Technical Support Staff of the Romanian Football Federation. His coaching and Coach-Educator expertise [2][3] have been used to help develop their UEFA-A and UEFA-B licence coaching courses. He has also consulted on player development programmes for the U16 through U21 teams. He co-ordinated the 2006 visit to Romania of Howard Wilkinson.[4] The former Technical Director of The Football Association was brought over by Marinica to conduct a session of the Romanian Football Federation's UEFA Pro Licence course.
"I have known Mario for a long time. He is an intellectual coach; methodical, a statistician, and an excellent personality." Mircea Rădulescu, Technical Director of the Romanian Football Federation.[5]
He has been employed by Hertha Berlin, Watford FC, Stockport County FC and Notts County FC for scouting and technical analysis of forthcoming adversaries. He has also been employed to assist Romanian clubs Steaua Bucureşti and Dinamo Bucharest in preparation to face English opposition in European competition. His unsurpassed tactial analysis provided the basis for Steaua Bucureşti's defeat of Middlesbrough FC [6] and Dinamo Bucharest's 5-1 defeat of Everton F.C. in the UEFA Cup. It was the first time Everton F.C. had conceded five goals in European competition.[7]
During the 2006 FIFA World Cup, he assisted the Paraguay national football team, providing technical analysis of their group B rivals: England, Sweden and Trinidad & Tobago.
From 2005 to 2007, he completed the UEFA Pro Licence with the Irish Football Association, graduating alongside him were Chris Coleman, Jim Gannon and Bernard McNally; amongst others.[8][9]
In the 2008-9 season, he was the interim manager of Romanian Liga I (Premier Division) side FC Gloria Buzău. He had been initially employed as Technical Director, and developed young players such as Eric Bicfalvi, Alexandru Tudose, and Alin Litu, all of whom are current members of the Romania national under-21 football team. He took over the Head Coach role in late 2008,[10] and helped turn around a club that had made the worst ever start to a season in the Romanian League. He secured a notable draw, away to traditional powerhouse Steaua Bucureşti.[11]
In June 2009, he was appointed Manager of South Africa National First Division side Black Leopards.[12] Fans heralded Marinica as 'the messiah' upon his appointment, but after just over a month in the hotseat he had to return to Bucharest due to family problems.[13] Former South Africa national team and current Mamelodi Sundowns coach Ted Dumitru commented at the time; "Mario is a very tactical coach and I’m convinced that he would have turned the team around. He has very strong scientific aspects of hard performance in football."[14]
Since July 2010 he has been employed as Technical Director at Romanian Premier League side Sportul Studenţesc, [15] following speculation linking him with the Zambia national football team job. [16]
References
- ^ "Haringey Borough FC appoint Marinica and Searson". 2006-03-03. http://www.nonleaguedaily.com/news/index.php?&newsmode=FULL&nid=33458.
- ^ "15th UEFA Course for Coach Educators, Amsterdam, Netherlands - List of Official Representatives". 03-06-2005. http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/uefa/UEFAMedia/305952_DOWNLOAD.pdf.
- ^ "Mario Marinica with Marcello Lippi and Mircea Rădulescu at the 16th UEFA Course for Coach Educators, Coverciano, Italy". 15-07-2009. http://www.sportm.ro/Fotbal-intern/interviu-mario-marinica-sa-antrenez-romania-la-cupa-mondiala.html.
- ^ "Howard Wilkinson to address Romania's top coaches". 2006-06-24. http://www.sport365.ro/Howard_Wilkinson_ne_preda_lectii-n1700.html.
- ^ "Super Mario - Profile of Mario Marinica". 15-07-2009. http://www.sportm.ro/Fotbal-intern/profil-mario-marinica-super-mario-in-africa.html.
- ^ Walker, Michael (2006-04-21). "Steaua Bucharest 1 - Middlesbrough 0". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2006/apr/21/match.sport. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
- ^ Gaunt, Ken (15-09-2005). "Dinamo Bucharest 5 - Everton 1". The Independent (London). http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/dinamo-bucharest-5-everton-1-507063.html. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
- ^ "Pro Licence Group attend Chelsea Training Session". 2006-03-21. http://www.irishfafinance.com/the-ifa/news/2063/pro-licence-group-attend-chelsea-training-session.
- ^ "Mario Marinica and his Pro-Licence classmates visit Steve Bruce at Birmingham City FC". 15-07-2009. http://www.sportm.ro/Fotbal-intern/profil-mario-marinica-super-mario-in-africa.html.
- ^ "Mario Marinica interview on GSP TV". 07-11-2008. http://www.gsptv.ro/viewVideo1.php?video_id=9020&title=M__Marinic______quot___nfr__ngerea_este_nemeritat____quot.
- ^ "Mario Marinica - Football-Lineups.com". http://www.football-lineups.com/coach/1178/?t=12&s=1368.
- ^ "Romanian appointed Leopards coach". 14-06-2008. http://www.supersport.com/football/article.aspx?Id=304126.
- ^ "Marinica leaves Leopards post". 2009-07-27. http://www.football365.co.za/story/0,22162,14340_5455537,00.html.
- ^ "Veteran coach Ted Dumitru speaks highly of Marinica". 2009-07-29. http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1041279.
- ^ "Match preview - Victoria Branesti v Sportul Studentesc". 2010-09-10. http://www.sport365.ro/Avancronica_meciului_Sportul_Studentesc_Bucuresti___Victoria_Branesti-n123975.html.
- ^ "The race to be the next Zambia coach". 2010-04-12. http://www.lusakatimes.com/?p=25394.
Categories:- 1964 births
- Living people
- UEFA Pro Licence holders
- Romanian footballers
- Romanian football managers
- FC Steaua Bucureşti players
- FC Dinamo Bucureşti players
- Black Leopards F.C. managers
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