Dinamo București Răducioiu, nicknamed
Minunea blondă ("The Blonde Wonder"), was born on 17 March 1970 in
Bucharest, Romania and began playing junior-level football in 1978 at local club
Dinamo where he worked with
Iosif Varga. Coach
Mircea Lucescu gave 16-year old Răducioiu his
Divizia A debut on 10 May 1986 in a 2–1 home victory against
Politehnica Timișoara. In the
following season, Dinamo won
The Double with Răducioiu playing 24 Divizia A games in which he scored 14 goals, including one in a 2–2 draw against
rivals Steaua București. He also scored a
hat-trick in the 6–4 victory against them in the
Cupa României final. Additionally, he appeared in eight matches in the
1989–90 European Cup Winners' Cup campaign, scoring once against
Panathinaikos and three times against
Partizan Belgrade, reaching the semi-finals where they were eliminated 2–0 on aggregate by
Anderlecht. In the 85th minute of the second leg in the semi-final against Anderlecht, Răducioiu received a red card after fighting with an opponent and quarreled with the referee, Lucescu giving him a slap for that. However, he appreciated the coach, praising him years later after he ended his career:"He was my mentor, teacher, everything! Without him, I would never have become a footballer. He believed in me and gave me the opportunity to play. He showed me what football is all about, but I also learned a lot of other things." He made his
Serie A debut on 9 September, as coach
Gaetano Salvemini used him as a starter in a 2–0 away loss to
Atalanta. One week later he netted his first goal in a 2–1 home victory against
Torino. He scored his first goal for
The Mastiffs on 16 November in a 2–1 victory against
Genoa.
Brescia Răducioiu went to play for the
1992–93 season at Mircea Lucescu's "
Brescia Romena", as around that period, his fellow Romanians
Gheorghe Hagi,
Ioan Sabău,
Dorin Mateuț and
Dănuț Lupu also played for the club. He made his debut on 5 September 1992 in a 0–0 draw against
Napoli, two weeks later scoring his first goal in a 1–0 win over
Pescara, by the end of the year managing a brace in a 2–2 draw against
Genoa. In the second half of the season he scored goals in victories over Napoli and
Juventus, and in May 1993 he managed two doubles, first in the 2–0 success over
Atalanta and then in the 2–2 draw against
Udinese. His first appearance was in the
1993 Supercoppa Italiana when coach
Fabio Capello sent him at half-time to replace
Marco Simone who had scored the only goal in the victory against
Torino. He made his Serie A debut for
The Devil on 12 September 1993, closing the score in a 2–0 home win against
Atalanta, and on 4 December he netted the only goal in a home victory over Torino. On 11 December, he was used by Capello as a starter in the 3–2 loss to
São Paulo in the
1993 Intercontinental Cup. Răducioiu also played two games in the
Champions League group stage, scoring once in a 3–0 win over
Porto which was the 300th goal of the club in European competitions. In his single season with Milan he scored only four goals in 14 appearances across all competitions, having to compete for a place in the offence with players such as
Jean-Pierre Papin,
Daniele Massaro,
Dejan Savićević and Marco Simone, but still managed to win the
league title and the
Champions League. He would describe his opportunity to play for Milan as "a dream come true". One week later he scored again in a 4–0 away victory against
Real Valladolid, managing to score nine goals until the end of the season, including a brace in a 2–0 win over
Atlético Madrid. He started the
following season strong by scoring a brace in the first round and one goal in the second in victories against
Salamanca and
Tenerife respectively, but scored only two more goals in wins against
Real Sociedad and Real Oviedo until the end of it. Having scored his country's only goal in
Euro 1996, manager
Harry Redknapp signed him for
West Ham United in 1996. There, he was teammates with compatriot
Ilie Dumitrescu. He made his
Premier League debut on 24 August when he replaced
Marc Rieper in the 39th minute of a 2–1 home win over
Southampton. Most famously, he scored a goal in a 2–2 draw against
Manchester United after being criticized by Redknapp for going shopping with his wife at
Harvey Nichols on a previous match day, a claim Răducioiu denied. Despite showing promise, he never adapted to the pace and competitive nature of the English game, making no real impact at
Upton Park. Having fallen out with manager Redknapp at the East London club, he was transferred back to Espanyol after his short underachieving spell, having scored just two goals in the Premier League. In the summer of 1997 he joined
VfB Stuttgart. He played for them in three games in the early stages of the
1997–98 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup campaign in which Stuttgart reached the
final.
Comebacks to Brescia and Dinamo In 1998, Răducioiu made a comeback at
Brescia, this time playing for two years in
Serie B. He made his last Divizia A appearance on 24 November 2000 in a 3–2 win over
Astra Ploiești, totaling 84 matches with 30 goals in the competition. He netted for the first time on 3 February in a 6–1 victory over
Metz, then on 17 March he opened the score in a 4–3 home win against
Troyes. He retired in 2004, after a short stint with French
Ligue 2 side
Créteil. ==International career==