Flavius Domide


Flavius Virgil Domide was a Romanian professional football player and coach. He played as a striker in Divizia A for 14 years before retiring. Domide achieved success with his local club UTA, winning two domestic league titles. He also represented Romania at the 1970 FIFA World Cup.

Club career

Domide was born on 7 May 1946 in Arad, Romania and began playing football as a child on the streets of the Pârneava neighborhood. He later went to play for the juniors of UTA Arad. He made his Divizia A debut on 28 August 1966 under coach Nicolae Dumitrescu in UTA's 0–0 draw against Rapid București. Under the guidance of Dumitrescu, Domide won two consecutive league titles with The Old Lady in the 1968–69 and 1969–70 seasons. In the first one, he contributed with eight goals scored in 30 appearances and in the second he played 29 games and netted a personal record of 11 goals. He also made some European performances with UTA, such as eliminating defending champions Feyenoord in the 1970–71 European Cup season. In the 1971–72 UEFA Cup, Domide helped them reach the quarter-finals, playing eight matches in the campaign, scoring two goals against Austria Salzburg, one against Zagłębie Wałbrzych, one against Vitória Setúbal and his team's only goal in the 3–1 aggregate loss to Tottenham Hotspur who eventually won the competition. On 9 December 1973, he scored the final goal for a 3–0 victory in the West derby against Politehnica Timișoara. He made his last Divizia A appearance on 10 June 1979 in UTA's 1–0 home loss to Gloria Buzău, totaling 342 games with 75 goals in the competition and 16 matches with six goals in European competitions. Domide retired in 1980, after he spent the last year of his career at Vagonul Arad in the third division, helping them gain promotion to the second division.

International career

Domide played 17 matches and scored three goals for Romania, making his debut on 6 November 1968 when coach Angelo Niculescu sent him in the 77th minute to replace Nicolae Dobrin in a 0–0 friendly draw against England. His following game was a 2–0 victory against Switzerland in which he scored a goal in the successful 1970 World Cup qualifiers. Domide was selected by Niculescu to be part of the squad that went to the final tournament, but did not play a single match there. He played five matches in the 1972 Euro qualifiers, managing to reach the quarter-finals where Romania was defeated by Hungary, who advanced to the final tournament. Domide's last game for the national team was a 1–1 draw against Finland during the 1974 World Cup qualifiers.
For representing his country at the 1970 World Cup, Domide was decorated by President of Romania Traian Băsescu on 25 March 2008 with the Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" – class III.

International goals

No.DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
123 November 196823 August Stadium, Bucharest, Romania2–02–01970 FIFA World Cup qualification
230 January 1972Stade Mohamed V, Casablanca, Morocco4–24–2Friendly
317 June 197223 August Stadium, Bucharest, Romania2–23–3Friendly

Post-playing career

After hanging up his boots, Domide managed both UTA’s junior and senior teams. He led UTA to the Divizia B title in the 1992–93 season, earning the club promotion back to Divizia A. Around 1997, he became UTA's president during a period of financial difficulties and contributed some of his own money to keep the club afloat. He coached Politehnica Timișoara in 1999.

Personal life and death

A book about Domide was written by Radu Romănescu and Ionel Costin, titled Flavius Domide – copilul teribil al fotbalului arădean '''', which was released on the occasion of his 70th birthday. In 2023, Domide received the Honorary Citizen of Arad title.
Domide died in Arad on 11 October 2025, at the age of 79.

Honours

Player

UTA Arad
Vagonul Arad

Manager

UTA Arad