Costel Orac

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Costel Orac

Orac in 1984
Personal information
Full name	Constantin Orac
Date of birth	(1959-01-22) 22 January 1959 (age 65)
Place of birth	Galați, Romania
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Team information
Current team	Concordia Chiajna (youth center director)
Youth career
1970–1971	Politehnica Galați
1971–1976	FCM Galați
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1976–1981	FCM Galați	90	(11)
1981–1989	Dinamo București	217	(41)
1989–1990	Victoria București	2	(1)
1990	Étoile Carouge	25	(14)
1991	Dinamo București	6	(1)
1991–1992	Unirea Focșani	22	(13)
Total		372	(91)
International career‡
	Romania U21	3	(0)
	Romania Olympic team	5	(0)
1984–1986	Romania	3	(1)
Managerial career
1991–1992	Unirea Focșani (player/assistant)
1992–1994	Unirea Focșani
1994–1995	Selena Bacău
1996–1997	Alki Larnaca
1997–1998	FC Brașov
1999–2000	Bihor Oradea
2000–2001	FCM Poiana Câmpina
2001–2002	FC Baia Mare
2002–2003	Oțelul Galați
2004–2005	Botoșani
2005–2006	Unirea Urziceni
2006–2007	Otopeni
2007–2008	FCM Bacău
2009	Dinamo București (assistant)
2009–2010	Dinamo II București
2010–2011	Concordia Chiajna
2011–2012	Botoșani
2014–	Concordia Chiajna (Youth Center director)
2020–2021	Concordia Chiajna (caretaker)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 16 March 2010 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 16 March 2010

Costel Orac (born 22 January 1959) is a Romanian retired footballer and current coach.

Costel Orac was born on 22 January 1959 in Galați, starting to play junior level football in 1970 at local club, Politehnica, moving one year later at neighboring club, FCM .^[1][2] He made his Divizia A debut on 22 August 1976, playing for FCM Galați in a 1–0 loss in front of Jiul Petroșani, the team relegating after his first season but he stayed with the club, helping it promote back to the first league after two years.^[1]

After playing five seasons in the first two leagues for FCM Galați, Orac was transferred at Dinamo București together with teammate Nicușor Vlad where for several years he would form a successful offensive trio with Ionel Augustin and Gheorghe Mulțescu, together being called "AMO" by the fans, a nickname inspired by their initials from the first letters of their family name.^[1][2][3][4] In his first three seasons spent at Dinamo, he won the league title in all of them, in the first, coach Valentin Stănescu used him in 32 matches in which he scored a personal record of nine goals, in the following two he worked with Nicolae Dumitru who gave him 30 appearances in which he netted four times in the first and 23 games with five goals in the second.^[1][2][5] Orac also won three Cupa României with The Red Dogs, playing in all the finals, in the first one he played all the minutes in the 3–2 over FC Baia Mare, at the second he scored the decisive goal in the 2–1 victory against rivals Steaua București and at the one from 1986, under the guidance of coach Mircea Lucescu he played the whole match in the 1–0 victory with Steaua who had recently just won the European Cup.^[1][2][6] He appeared in 26 matches in which he scored five goals for Dinamo in European competitions, making some notable performances as helping it eliminate Inter Milan by scoring the decisive goal of the 3–2 victory from the second leg in the 1981–82 UEFA Cup season and played seven games in the 1983–84 European Cup campaign, scoring one goal in a 3–0 victory from the first leg that helped them eliminate title holders, Hamburg and his side's only goal in the 3–1 aggregate loss from the semi-finals where the campaign ended in front of Liverpool.^{[1][2][7][8][9]}

In 1989, Orac alongside teammates Dumitru Moraru and Alexandru Nicolae were transferred from Dinamo to Victoria București where because of a conflict he had with coach Florin Halagian, he played only two Divizia A games in which he scored one goal and made one appearance in the 1989–90 UEFA Cup in which he gave an assist in a 1–1 with Valencia.^{[1][2][3][7][8]} After the 1989 Romanian Revolution, Orac went to play in the Nationalliga B where he was recommended by coach Mircea Lucescu to Étoile Carouge's coach Radu Nunweiller.^{[1][2][7][8][10]} In Switzerland, after an injury, Orac found out at a medical control that he has problems with his back, returning to play at Dinamo for a short while, making his last appearance in Divizia A on 11 May 1991 in a 1–1 with Universitatea Craiova after which he went to play in Divizia B at Unirea Focșani where he retired after one season.^[1][2][7][8] During his whole career, Costel Orac played 308 Divizia A matches in which he scored 54 goals and made 27 appearances with five goals in European competitions.^[1][2][7][8]

Costel Orac played three friendly games at international level for Romania, making his debut on 29 July 1984 under coach Mircea Lucescu in a 4–2 victory against China in which he scored one goal.^[11][12] His following two games were a 1–1 and a 0–0 with Iraq.^[11]

Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Orac goal.^[12]

List of international goals scored by Costel Orac

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	29 July 1984	Stadionul 23 August, Iași, Romania	China	3–0	4–2	Friendly

Costel Orac started his coaching career while he was still an active player, being an assistant at Unirea Focșani in the 1991–92 Divizia B season.^[8] From the 1992–93 Divizia B season, he began his career as a head coach at Unirea Focșani and in 1996 he had his only coaching experience outside Romania, for one season and a half in the Cypriot First Division at Alki Larnaca.^[8] He spent most of his career coaching in Divizia B, having a total of 356 games, managing to win four promotions to the first league with Selena Bacău, Baia Mare, Unirea Urziceni and Concordia Chiajna.^[2][7][8] Costel Orac has a total of 73 matches managed in Divizia A and in 2009 he was Dario Bonetti's assistant at Dinamo for a few months.^[2][7][8]

His nephew, Daniel Orac was also a footballer.^[13]

FCM Galați

• Divizia B: 1978–79^[1]

Dinamo București

• Divizia A: 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84^[1]
• Cupa României: 1981–82, 1983–84, 1985–86^[1]

Selena Bacău

• Divizia B: 1994–95^[2]

• Costel Orac at WorldFootball.net
• Costel Orac at National-Football-Teams.com
• Costel Orac manager profile at Labtof.ro