Lucian Cristian Marinescu (born 24 June 1972) is a former Romanian professional footballer who played as a midfielder, who works as football agent.
Marinescu was born on 24 June 1972 in Bucharest, Romania. He began playing senior-level football in 1993 at CSM ReÃÂiÃÂa in Divizia B. In the 1996âÂÂ97 season he scored 13 goals that helped ReÃÂiÃÂa earn promotion to the first league. In the following season he went to play for Rapid BucureÃÂti, making his Divizia A debut on 6 August 1997 under coach Mircea Lucescu in a 2âÂÂ0 away victory against Dinamo BucureÃÂti. By the end of the season, Marinescu netted 13 league goals and won the Cupa României, with Lucescu using him the entire match in the 1âÂÂ0 victory against Universitatea Craiova in the final in which he scored the goal from a penalty. He also represented The Railwaymen in the 1997 Intertoto Cup, playing in two games in the group stage, a 2âÂÂ0 win over à ½ilina and a 1âÂÂ1 draw against Austria Vienna.
Salamanca paid â¬1.3 million for Marinescu's transfer from Rapid in 1998, making his La Liga debut on 30 August under coach Miguel ÃÂngel Russo in a 3âÂÂ1 win against Deportivo La Coruña. He was a colleague of fellow Romanians Bogdan Stelea and CÃÂtÃÂlin Munteanu, and during that time the team was nicknamed "Salamanca Rumana", because Ovidiu Stîngàand Gabriel Popescu also played for the club around that period. In his first season he made a total of 10 league appearances as the team was relegated. In the following season, Marinescu went to play for Farense, making his Primeira Liga debut on 17 October 1999 under coach Nicolau Vaqueiro in a 2âÂÂ2 draw against Santa Clara in which he closed the score from a penalty. He scored a total of 11 goals until the end of the season, including a double in a 3âÂÂ3 draw against Porto, helping his side finish in 14th place and avoid relegation. Afterwards he returned to Salamanca where he played two seasons in the second division.
In 2002, Marinescu came back to Portugal, spending the following two seasons at Académica in the first division. Then he went for one year in the second division at Chaves. In 2005 he was brought to Greece at Akratitos together with Bogdan Stelea by their compatriot Ilie Dumitrescu who was coach, ending his career after one year.
Marinescu earned eight caps for Romania, making his debut on 19 November 1997 when coach Anghel IordÃÂnescu sent him in the 67th minute to replace Iulian Filipescu in a friendly 1âÂÂ1 draw against Spain.
He was selected by IordÃÂnescu to be part of the squad that went to the 1998 World Cup final tournament where he played in all four games. In the group stage they earned victories in the first two rounds over Colombia and England, thus mathematically being qualified before the last group match against Tunisia. In order to celebrate, the players dyed their hair blonde and presented themselves like that at the game. In the round of 16 he made his last appearance for the national team as IordÃÂnescu sent him in the 76th minute to replace Dan Petrescu in the 1âÂÂ0 loss to Croatia.
After ending his playing career, he worked as a sports agent.
CSM ReÃÂiÃÂa
Rapid BucureÃÂti