Nicolae Pescaru
Nicolae Pescaru was a Romanian football play and manager, who worked mostly for Steagul Roșu Brașov.
Club career
Pescaru was born on 27 March 1943 in Breaza, Prahova County, Romania. He began playing junior-level football in 1959 at Someșul Beclean, and after one year he moved to Progresul Făgăraș. He started to play senior football at Chimia Făgăraș in Divizia B. Subsequently, Pescaru was transferred to Steagul Roșu Brașov where he made his Divizia A debut on 23 September 1962 under coach Silviu Ploeșteanu in a 4–2 home victory against Știința Cluj.He spent a total of 19 seasons at Steagul, serving as the team's captain for approximately 13–14 seasons, and was known for telling his teammates:"You have to defend the honor of being flagbearers!". The highlights of this period were a fourth place in the 1964–65 Divizia A season and 11 games played in European competitions. He scored a goal in the 1965–66 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup 4–2 victory against Espanyol Barcelona and played in the 3–2 win on aggregate against Beşiktaş in the 1974–75 UEFA Cup. During these years, the club was relegated twice to Divizia B, but Pescaru stayed with the club, helping it get promoted back to the first division each time.
Pescaru played his last Divizia A match on 23 November 1980 in a 3–1 away loss to Progresul București. In this competition he is Steagul's leader in both appearances and goals, totaling 311 matches with 62 goals. Pescaru went to play one season for Divizia B side, Șoimii IPA Sibiu, retiring in 1982.
International career
Pescaru played three friendly games for Romania, making his debut under coach Angelo Niculescu, when he came as a substitute and replaced Ion Dumitru at half-time in a 2–0 loss to France. His following two games were a 2–2 draw against Peru and a 2–0 loss against the Soviet Union. Pescaru was a member of Steagul Roșu Brașov's "Mexican trio", as together with Stere Adamache and Mihai Ivăncescu they were part of Romania's 1970 Mexico World Cup squad. However, coach Niculescu did not play him in any games there. For the participation in that tournament he was decorated by President of Romania Traian Băsescu on 25 March 2008 with the Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" — class III.Managerial career
Pescaru worked as a junior coach. He also coached Steagul Roșu Brașov's senior team on two occasions, and accumulated a total of 70 Divizia A matches as coach.Personal life and death
His father, also a footballer who played at Dinamo Brașov, advised Pescaru that if he were to become a footballer, he should play for Steagul Roșu Brașov.Pescaru died of cardiorespiratory arrest on 25 May 2019 at the age of 76.