Corvinul Hunedoara Lucescu learned many things about coaching from
Viorel Mateianu, being very impressed by his working methods. He would go to study his training sessions at
FC Baia Mare, sometimes asking Mateianu to extend them so he could see more of his methods. During his time at Corvinul, Lucescu demonstrated his ability to discover and promote young players such as
Ioan Andone,
Mircea Rednic,
Michael Klein,
Dorin Mateuț and
Romulus Gabor.
Romania Lucescu's debut as
Romania's head coach took place on 11 November 1981 in a 0–0 draw against
Switzerland in the
1982 World Cup qualifiers. He qualified the team to
Euro 1984 by winning a
qualification group composed of
Czechoslovakia,
Sweden,
Cyprus and
1982 World Cup winner,
Italy, earning a 0–0 away draw and a 1–0 home victory against the latter. In the
final tournament, which was composed of eight teams, Romania earned a point after a 1–1 draw against
Spain, but lost the other two games to
West Germany and
Portugal, thus failing to progress from their group. Lucescu left after a 4–0 victory against
Austria in the
Euro 1988 qualifiers that took place on 10 September 1986.
Dinamo București during a Dinamo training session Lucescu was named coach at
Dinamo București in November 1985, while still working for
Romania's national team. Over the course of almost five years, Lucescu created a team by promoting players from the club's youth center, including
Bogdan Stelea,
Ionuț Lupescu and
Florin Răducioiu, transferred young players like
Dănuț Lupu and
Ioan Sabău, mixing them with players he coached at
Corvinul such as
Ioan Andone,
Mircea Rednic,
Michael Klein and
Dorin Mateuț. In the following season they won the
Divizia A title and the
Cupa României after another win over Steaua in the
final. While coaching Dinamo, on 27 March 1989, Lucescu was one of the three coaches alongside
Artur Jorge and
Nils Liedholm for the Rest of the
World XI in the farewell match of Brazilian footballer
Zico at
Stadio Friuli in Udine. The Rest of the World XI won 2–1 against the
Brazil national team.
Pisa After the
1989 Romanian Revolution, Lucescu moved to Italy in the summer of 1990 to take charge of the newly promoted
Serie A club
Pisa. The
1990–91 season marked Pisa's return to Serie A, widely regarded at the time as the strongest league in the world. Lucescu's task was clear but extremely difficult to keep the newly promoted side in Serie A. The club struggled throughout the season due to limited squad depth and a lack of top-tier Serie A quality, relying mainly on promotion-level professionals and several international players, including a young
Diego Simeone and
José Chamot, both in their first experience in European football, and Danish international
Henrik Larsen. After a good start, in round six they suffered a 6–3 defeat to
Inter Milan, which marked the beginning of problems between Lucescu and the club's president, Romeo Anconetani. Despite these players, the team finished near the bottom of the table and were relegated back to Serie B after one season. At Pisa, Lucescu met Adriano Bacconi, a fitness trainer whom he tasked with recording statistical data on players during matches. This method, which Lucescu had previously used at Corvinul, allowed him to gather detailed performance data on players. The two later worked together at Brescia, where in 1994, they each invested
$35,000 to create FARM (Football Athletic Results Manager), one of the earliest software data monitoring systems in football. Following their elevation to the top flight, Brescia recorded notable victories against several top clubs, including an away win over
AS Roma and home wins against
Juventus,
Napoli,
Sampdoria and
Lazio. However, at the end of the
1992–93 season, the club were relegated after losing a relegation play-off against
Udinese. During this period, the club earned the nickname "Brescia Rumena", as Lucescu brought several Romanian players to the squad, including
Gheorghe Hagi,
Florin Răducioiu,
Dorin Mateuț,
Ioan Sabău and
Dănuț Lupu, in a similar fashion to
AC Milan's Dutch core (
Marco van Basten,
Ruud Gullit,
Frank Rijkaard) and
Inter Milan's German contingent (
Lothar Matthäus,
Andreas Brehme,
Jürgen Klinsmann). The club secured promotion again the
following season and also won the
1993–94 Anglo-Italian Cup at
Wembley Stadium in London. He had under his command players such as
Georges Grün,
Ioan Sabău,
Adolfo Valencia and
Igor Simutenkov. Their first performance was securing the
1997–98 Cupa României after a 1–0 win over
Universitatea Craiova in the
final. Then after a short spell at
Inter Milan, he came back to Rapid, winning the
1998–99 Divizia A, which was the first championship title won by the club after 32 years.
Inter Milan In December 1998, Lucescu was named head coach at
Inter Milan, working with players such as
Ronaldo,
Roberto Baggio,
Youri Djorkaeff,
Andrea Pirlo,
Javier Zanetti and
Ivan Zamorano. They managed to reach the quarter-finals of the
1998–99 Champions League, being eliminated 3–1 on aggregate by
Alex Ferguson's
Manchester United, who eventually won the competition. He left the club in March 1999, one of the reasons being a conflict with Ronaldo.
Galatasaray In June 2000, he replaced
Fatih Terim at Turkish club
Galatasaray, with whom, alongside Romanian players
Gheorghe Hagi and
Gheorghe Popescu, he won the
2000 UEFA Super Cup, after a 2–1 win against
Real Madrid. Under Lucescu's leadership, Galatasaray reached the quarter-finals of the
2000–01 Champions League season, where after a 3–2 victory in the first leg against
Real Madrid, they lost the second leg 3–0. The following year, Galatasaray qualified to the second group phase of the
Champions League and won the
Turkish League title. He managed to win the Turkish title, having only one loss and collecting 85 points – a record points tally in a single
Süper Lig season. In the following season, the team could not progress from a difficult
Champions League group, but was able to get a ticket to the
2003–04 UEFA Cup by finishing third in its group – only to be knocked out by
Valencia in the third round, who eventually won the competition. On 25 January 2004, during a home game against
Samsunspor, referee Cem Papila showed five red cards to Beşiktaş players. After this match, the team's performance declined drastically, Lucescu blamed the
Turkish Football Federation for one-sided decisions by the referees.
Shakhtar Donetsk in a
Ukrainian Premier League match against
Arsenal Kyiv, October 2013. In May 2004, Lucescu joined Ukrainian side
Shakhtar Donetsk and led their rise to prominence in
Ukraine the following years. His first trophy with the club came in the
2003–04 Ukrainian Cup, defeating
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 2–0 in the
final on 30 May. In his first full season with the club, he secured the
2004–05 Premier League title. The following season, he secured both the
Premier League and the
Super Cup. He failed to win any trophies the following
season, however, though he made up for it in the 2007–08 season, winning the
Premier League title and the
Ukrainian Cup. His only domestic success in the 2008–09 season came in the Super Cup, although he was able to guide Shakhtar to their first ever European trophy, winning the last
UEFA Cup before it was renamed the UEFA Europa League. He won the
final against
Werder Bremen 2–1 after extra time. The
2009–10 season saw Shakhtar regain the
Premier League title. The
2010–11 season was very successful for Lucescu. He guided Shakhtar to a domestic treble, winning the
Premier League, the
Ukrainian Cup and the Super Cup. They also had their most successful
Champions League campaign, reaching the quarter-final stage before being defeated by eventual winners
Barcelona. The following
season saw Shakhtar retain their
Premier League and
Ukrainian Cup titles. This gave Lucescu his sixth
Premier League and fourth
Ukrainian Cup with the club. Shakhtar had a disappointing Champions League campaign, finishing in fourth place in their
group. His son,
Răzvan Lucescu, is a former goalkeeper who at several points managed
Rapid București, a team his father had also previously managed. Coincidentally, Shakhtar and Rapid met in the group stage of the UEFA Cup, the duel was disputed in only one leg at
Donetsk in November 2005 ending with 1–0 win for Rapid. in 2013, one of a large number of Brazilians to sign for Shakhtar during his spell. On 22 May 2009, Lucescu received the National Order "Cross of Romania" in the rank of Knight from Romanian president
Traian Băsescu, as a recognition of his coaching career, highlighted by winning the 2009 UEFA Cup in Istanbul. On 29 May 2009, he was also awarded the title of
Honorary citizen of
Donetsk by the city council, in recognition of his contribution to the development and promotion of
Ukrainian football and for raising the profile of Donetsk and Ukraine internationally. In December 2009, he turned down an offer to coach the
Ukraine national team, his reason being to avoid another potential clash with his son, Răzvan, who then managed the
Romania national team and could qualify for
UEFA Euro 2012, which Ukraine was to host. Lucescu won the Coach of the Year award in Ukraine in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. He led Shakhtar into the semi-finals of Europa League during his
last season in charge, being eliminated by defending champions and eventual winners
Sevilla. He announced his resignation in early 2016, ending a 12-year period in charge of Shakhtar and becoming the club's greatest manager. In his last match in charge, he won the
2015–16 Ukrainian Cup after defeating
Zorya Luhansk 2–0 in the final. Early in his time at Shakhtar, Lucescu had Romanians
Flavius Stoican,
Cosmin Bărcăuan,
Daniel Florea,
Ciprian Marica and
Răzvan Raț under his command, but only the latter stayed with him to win the
2008–09 UEFA Cup. In later years he relied heavily on young Brazilian players such as
Willian,
Fernandinho,
Douglas Costa,
Luiz Adriano,
Elano,
Alex Teixeira,
Ilsinho,
Jádson,
Brandão or
Matuzalém.
Zenit Saint Petersburg On 24 May 2016, Lucescu agreed to a two-year deal with Russian club
Zenit Saint Petersburg, with an extension option for another year. He won the
2016 Russian Super Cup after a 1–0 victory against
CSKA Moscow. However, he was dismissed roughly one year later, as Zenit failed to qualify for the Champions League after finishing third in the
Russian Premier League.
Turkey On 2 August 2017, he was appointed the new head coach of
Turkey, succeeding
Fatih Terim. On his debut a month later, he lost 2–0 away to
Ukraine in
2018 FIFA World Cup qualification. The team failed to qualify for the World Cup, with their campaign ending with a 3–0 home loss to
Iceland in the penultimate fixture on 6 October. In the
inaugural season of the
UEFA Nations League, Turkey were relegated to League C in November 2018. The following February, his contract was terminated by mutual consent. During his tenure as coach of the Turkey national team, Lucescu debuted several players, notably
Zeki Çelik,
Merih Demiral, and
İrfan Can Kahveci.
Dynamo Kyiv On 23 July 2020, Lucescu returned to Ukraine after signing a two-year contract with the
main rival of his former club Shakhtar Donetsk,
Dynamo Kyiv. His spell started in a controversial way, as he attempted to resign from his position after only a couple of days. The reason behind his actions was that Dynamo Kyiv fans fiercely protested the decision to hire Lucescu because of his long-term spell at Shakhtar. Dynamo president
Ihor Surkis initially told press that he knew nothing about the resignation, and later that day both sides confirmed that their cooperation will in fact continue. manager in 2023 On 20 October, in Dynamo Kyiv's opening Champions League match of the season against
Juventus, Lucescu became the oldest manager to take charge of a game in the competition, at the age of 75 years and 83 days; The match ended in a 2–0 home loss. Lucescu secured his first league title with Dynamo Kyiv on 25 April, following a 5–0 victory against
Inhulets, and on 13 May he secured the double with a 1–0 win over
Zorya Luhansk in the
2021 Ukrainian Cup Final. In his first season at the club, he transferred compatriot
Tudor Băluță on a one-season loan from
Brighton & Hove Albion. Lucescu was living in
Kyiv in February 2022 when
Russia invaded Ukraine. He initially wanted to stay put, but fled to his homeland on the advice of the Romanian embassy, as a way to help Dynamo's foreign players get to safety. On 3 November 2023, Lucescu announced that he would step down as the manager of Dynamo Kyiv after a 1–0 home defeat against their rivals Shakhtar Donetsk, and on the following day he was succeeded by
Oleksandr Shovkovskyi.
Return to Romania On 6 August 2024, Lucescu returned as the head coach of the Romania national team, 38 years after his first tenure. His first match in charge was on 6 September, an away 3–0 victory against
Kosovo in the
Nations League C. He ultimately won the Nations league group, winning all six matches and achieving promotion to the Nations League B. In the
qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, Romania ultimately underperformed, losing at home and away to
Bosnia and drawing against
Cyprus, leading to Lucescu's team missing out on both direct qualification and an easier play-off route for the
World Cup. On 26 March 2026, Romania was eliminated from World Cup contention following a 1–0 defeat to Turkey in the play-off semi-finals held in Istanbul, extending Romania's absence from the FIFA World Cup to seven consecutive tournaments, dating back to 1998. On 2 April 2026, Lucescu resigned as the head coach of Romania after being hospitalized on 29 March for heart arrhythmia following a training session. ==Personal life and death==