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*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.
Club career
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 rivalsSteaua 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]
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]
