Marius Ninel Șumudică (born 4 March 1971) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player, currently in charge of Liga I club CFR Cluj.
Șumudică played as a striker and started out at Sportul Studențesc in 1989, going on to represent five other teams in his native country, as well as Marítimo, Debrecen, and Omonia abroad. In the 1998–99 season, he was part of Mircea Lucescu's Rapid București squad that won the national title, scoring 17 goals in the process. He also claimed two Cupa României trophies with "the White-Burgundies".
After retiring as a player, Șumudică returned to Rapid București as an assistant coach in 2005. He went on to manage numerous sides both home and abroad, notably bringing Astra Giurgiu its first Liga I title in the 2015–16 season at his third stint with the club. As a result, Șumudică was named the 2016 Romania Coach of the Year by the Gazeta Sporturilor newspaper. Apart from his time in Romania, he has coached teams in Greece, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.
Managerial career
Astra Giurgiu On 28 April 2015, Șumudică was appointed as manager of Astra Giurgiu, following Dorinel Munteanu's resignation. It was his third term at the club, after two short spells in 2009 and 2011. He led the team to a 4th-place finish, qualifying them for the UEFA Europa League. The European campaign was almost a success, as Astra stopped short of reaching the Europa League group stages after knocking out West Ham United in the third round, but lost to AZ Alkmaar in the play-offs.
Domestically, despite the poor start which saw Astra losing 1–5 to previous runner-ups ASA Targu Mures, Astra managed to finish the regular season on first place, 3 points above Dinamo București. However, Șumudică was suspended 6 months by the Romanian FA on charges of betting on football matches. He later managed to have his sentence reduced to 2 months by appeal. Despite his suspension, Astra kept their momentum during the play-offs, ending up in them being crowned Liga I champions for the first time in their history, also marking Șumudică's first domestic title as manager.
After a quick exit to Danish champions Copenhagen in the UEFA Champions League, Șumudică managed to guide Astra to 2016–17 UEFA Europa League group stage eliminating West Ham – for the second time in a row – along the way, after a 1–0 win in London. In the group stages, he faced Roma, Viktoria Plzeň and Austria Wien. Despite losing the first two games of the group with Austria Wien (2–3 at Giurgiu) and Roma (0–4 in Italy), Astra managed two 2–1 away wins at Plzeň and Wien (along with a home draw with Viktoria) to stay in the race for a place in the knock-out stages. In the end, Astra's 0–0 draw with Roma and Austria Wien's failure against Plzeň in the last matchday secured Astra's place in the tournament's round of 32. There, they were eliminated by Belgian side Genk after a 2–2 draw at Giurgiu followed by 0–1 defeat in Belgium.
Astra's campaign in the league, meanwhile, was disappointing, with the team finishing 5th and losing the Romanian Cup final to FC Voluntari. However, due to Astra's position in the league and Voluntari not applying for a European license, the vacant spot was given to Astra, thus qualifying yet again in Europe.
Gaziantep On 14 June 2019, Șumudică was appointed as manager of Turkish club Gaziantep. In January 2021, following an away defeat in the Süper Lig against Sivasspor, the club announced that they had parted ways with the Romanian manager, following a few weeks of tension and public discussion about his contract.
CFR Cluj On 28 August 2021, CFR Cluj terminated the contract of Șumudică, ending his 3-month stint in charge after a disappointing campaign for Europe.
Al-Shabab On 23 March 2022, Șumudică returned to manage Al-Shabab until the end of the 2021–22 season.
Al-Raed On 30 June 2022, Șumudică was appointed as manager of Al-Raed.
Managerial statistics
+ Managerial record by club and tenureTeamFromToRecordRocar București20062007AS Dodu Berceni20072007Inter Gaz București20082008Progresul București27 February 200815 December 2008Farul Constanța5 July 200915 November 2009Gloria Bistrița4 January 201031 May 2010Rapid București10 June 201028 April 2011Kavala15 July 201110 August 2011Astra Ploiești11 August 201131 October 2011FC Brașov2 November 201116 April 2012Vaslui11 July 201224 September 2012Universitatea Cluj9 November 201215 November 2012Al Shaab27 December 201231 December 2013Concordia Chiajna13 March 20146 April 2015Astra Giurgiu28 April 20158 June 2017Kayserispor3 July 201715 May 2018Al Shabab14 June 201813 June 2019Gaziantep14 June 201911 January 2021Çaykur Rizespor25 January 20214 March 2021CFR Cluj2 June 202128 August 2021Yeni Malatyaspor8 October 20217 February 2022Al Shabab23 March 202228 June 2022Al Raed1 July 20221 June 2023Gaziantep7 September 20236 March 2024Rapid București21 August 202420 May 2025Al-Okhdood5 January 202618 March 2026CFR Cluj14 August 2026presentTotal
Honours
Player Rapid București Divizia A: 1998–99 Cupa României: 1997–98, 2001–02 Supercupa României runner-up: 1998
Marítimo Taça de Portugal runner-up: 2000–01
Coach Astra Giurgiu Liga I: 2015–16 Supercupa României: 2016
CFR Cluj Supercupa României runner-up: 2021
Individual Gazeta Sporturilor Romania Coach of the Year: 2016 Saudi Professional League Manager of the Month: December 2018
References
External links