Marcel Pigulea (born 24 May 1943) is a Romanian former football player and manager.
Pigulea was born on 24 May 1943 in AlbuleÃÂti, Romania and began playing junior-level football in 1955 at Progresul Strehaia, starting to play for the senior squad a few years later. In 1961 he went for two years at DunÃÂrea Giurgiu, followed by one season at FlacÃÂra RoÃÂie BucureÃÂti and another one at Metalul BucureÃÂti, all of them being in the lower leagues of Romania. In 1965 he signed with Divizia A club, Dinamo BucureÃÂti for which he did not play, one year later returning to Divizia B football at Politehnica BucureÃÂti where he was teammates with Mircea Lucescu.
In 1968, Pigulea joined ArgeàPiteÃÂti where on 8 September coach Ion BÃÂlÃÂnescu gave him his Divizia A debut in a 2âÂÂ1 away loss to Petrolul PloieÃÂti. In the 1971âÂÂ72 season he helped Argeàwin the first title in its history, as coaches Titus Ozon and Florin Halagian gave him 27 appearances. Afterwards he played four games in the 1972âÂÂ73 European Cup, eliminating Aris Bonnevoie in the first round, then in the following one they won a home game with 2âÂÂ1 against Real Madrid but lost the second leg with 3âÂÂ1. Years later in an interview for the AdevÃÂrul newspaper, Pigulea talked about the victory against the Spaniards:"It was an incredible victory for us and for Romanian football. Even now I still have the newspapers somewhere in the attic with the articles written in October 1972 about our victory against Real Madrid. We hoped, we believed, but we did not imagine that we would beat Real. The whole team played very well, and Dobrin was in top form." In his last season at ArgeÃÂ, he played in both legs of the 6âÂÂ2 loss on aggregate to Fenerbahçe in the first round of the 1973âÂÂ74 UEFA Cup.
Pigulea ended his playing career after spending two seasons at Divizia A club FCM ReÃÂiÃÂa, totaling 182 matches with two goals in the competition.
Pigulea started coaching in 1976 at Chimia Râmnicu Vâlcea which he helped gain promotion to the first league two years later. In 1981 he left Râmnicu Vâlcea to coach Politehnica TimiÃÂoara for one year. Afterwards he coached Romania's under-18 national team, helping it qualify to the 1983 European Under-18 Championship, forming players such as Gheorghe Hagi, Marius LÃÂcÃÂtuÃÂ, Gheorghe Mihali, Dumitru Stângaciu, Dorin MateuÃÂ, Zsolt Muzsnay and Emil SÃÂndoi. Since 1985, Pigulea coached several clubs, starting with DunÃÂrea GalaÃÂi, followed by a second spell at Chimia Râmnicu Vâlcea, subsequently working for Gloria BuzÃÂu and UTA Arad. In the early 1990s he started coaching Romania's under-18 side once again, this time promoting players such as IonuàLuÃÂu, Mugur Bolohan, Cristian Ciocoiu and Constantin Schumacher. In 1996 he started working abroad, first at Moroccan side Hassania Agadir, then from 1998 until 1999 at Algeria's national team. In 1999, Pigulea founded the private school "Clubul Pro LuceafÃÂrul" where players such as RÃÂzvan Marin, Ianis Hagi and Nicolas Popescu took their first steps in football.
ArgeÃÂ PiteÃÂti
Chimia Râmnicu Vâlcea