Iulian Mihăescu

Iulian Mihăescu (born 11 September 1962) is a Romanian former footballer who played as a midfielder and defender.^[1][2]

Iulian Mihăescu was born on 11 September 1962 in Târgoviște, starting his senior career by playing as a forward at Divizia B club, Flacăra Moreni.^[1][3] In 1985 he was transferred at Dinamo București, where he played mainly in the defense, making his Divizia A debut on 8 March 1986 when coach Mircea Lucescu sent him on the field at half-time to replace Alexandru Nicolae in a 3–1 victory with FCM Bacău.^[1][3][4] On 28 May he scored his first goal in the league, the decisive one in the 2–1 win over rivals Steaua București, then on 25 June in the Cupa României final, Lucescu sent him at half time to replace Nelu Stănescu, playing until the 89th minute when he got replaced by Nistor Văidean in the 1–0 victory against the same team, at the time of these both events, The Military Men were the recent winners of the European Cup.^[4][5] During his period spent with The Red Dogs, Mihăescu won two league titles in the 1989–90 and 1991–92 seasons, in the first one, coach Lucescu used him in 27 games in which he scored seven goals, in the second appearing in 27 games in which he scored one goal under the guidance of coach Florin Halagian as the team won the title undefeated.^[1][6][7] He also won the 1989–90 Cupa României but did not play in the final and made 22 appearances with one goal scored in European competitions, helping the team reach the quarter-finals in the 1988–89 European Cup Winners' Cup where they were eliminated on the away goals rule after 1–1 on aggregate by Sampdoria and in the following edition of the same competition Dinamo reached the semi-finals where they were eliminated after 2–0 on aggregate by Anderlecht with Mihăescu playing seven games in the campaign and scoring once in a 2–0 win over Dinamo Tirana from the first round.^{[1][3][8][9][10]}

After six seasons and a half spent at Dinamo, Mihăescu went to play for the last two seasons of his career at Petrolul Ploiești and Sportul Studențesc, gaining a total of 205 Divizia A appearances with 39 goals scored, his last appearance taking place on 24 April 1994, playing for Sportul in a 3–1 loss in front of Steaua București.^[1]

At international level, Mihăescu played one game for Romania's under-21 national team in a 1–0 victory against Austria U21 which took place on 9 September 1986 and because he never played for Romania's senior team, on 13 May 2020, Gazeta Sporturilor included Mihăescu on a list of best Romanian players who never played for the senior national team.^[11][12]

After he ended his playing career, Mihăescu worked mostly as an assistant, having only short periods spent as head coach, the most notable being at Unirea Urziceni in Liga I.^{[8][9][13][14]}

Flacăra Moreni

• Divizia B: 1985–86^[1]

Dinamo București

• Divizia A: 1989–90, 1991–92^[1]
• Cupa României: 1985–86, 1989–90^[1][8]