On April 7 at 20:30, the Bucharest University Emergency Hospital confirmed the death of Mircea Lucescu. He was 80 years old. The third most decorated coach in the history of world football — after Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola — died following an acute myocardial infarction he suffered on April 3.
A Month Between a Match and Death
On March 26, Lucescu was still on the coaching bench of the Romanian national team in a match against Turkey — a 0:1 loss, and qualification for the 2026 World Cup slipped away. Five days later, on March 31, he officially resigned. Already the next morning, April 1, he lost consciousness during a training session before a friendly match against Slovakia. Hospitalization, stabilization — and another heart attack just before discharge. According to the hospital, cardiac arrhythmia proved to be critical.
This was not the first warning sign: back in December, Lucescu suffered severe pneumonia that did not respond to antibiotics, and was hospitalized twice in January and February. He continued to coach.
12 Years and 22 Trophies — in a City That No Longer Exists
From 2004 to 2016, Lucescu transformed Donetsk Shakhtar from a strong Ukrainian club into a team that twice reached the Champions League quarterfinals and in the 2010/11 season lost only to the future champion — Guardiola's Barcelona with scores of 1:5 and 0:1. In total, under his leadership, the miners played 573 official matches and won 22 trophies: 8 championships, 6 Cups, 7 Super Cups, and the 2009 UEFA Cup — the final in Istanbul against Werder.
"Lucescu is the most decorated coach in Shakhtar's history. His name is immortalized on the club's 'Wall of Fame'."
Official FC Shakhtar website
He received the title of Honorary Citizen of Donetsk — a city that has been under the control of Russian armed formations since 2014 and where Shakhtar no longer plays.
The Formula He Invented
Lucescu built Shakhtar on a principle unusual for Eastern Europe: Brazilian creativity in attack — Fernandinho, Jadson, Douglas Costa, Elano — and Central European discipline in defense. Czechs Hubschman and Lashtuvka became the foundation of defense for years. This model became a template that the club uses to this day.
- 8 Ukrainian championship titles with Shakhtar
- 2009 UEFA Cup — the only one for a Ukrainian club
- Then — the "golden double" with Dynamo (2020/21), against their principal rival
- Over 35 trophies throughout his coaching career
The move to Dynamo in 2020 — amid living fans who protested outside the stadium — became a separate chapter. Lucescu won the championship, Cup, and Super Cup with the Kyiv club in his first season. He became one of few coaches in history to win trophies with both rivals of one classic derby.
A Return That Did Not End
In August 2024, at age 79, Lucescu took charge of the Romanian national team for the second time — 38 years after his first tenure, when he first led the country to Euro-1984. The goal was simple: a ticket to the 2026 World Cup. He did not have time to achieve it.
His son Razvan Lucescu — head coach of Greek PAOK — urgently left the team on the eve of a decisive derby against Panathinaikos and flew to Bucharest. His father died that same evening.
Shakhtar, which just a few days earlier wrote words of support to the hospitalized coach — "We are with you, Mister!" — now says goodbye to the man who built the club in a city that no longer exists in the form he knew it. If Donetsk ever returns to Ukraine — will anything remain of that "Wall of Fame" where his name was carved?
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