Narcis Coman (born 5 November 1946 in Giurgiu) is a retired Romanian footballer who played as a goalkeeper and was selected Romanian Footballer of the Year in 1978.
Club career
Narcis Coman was born on 5 November 1946 in Giurgiu, Romania and grew up as a fan of CCA București (for whom he would get to play when the team was named Steaua) and of goalkeeping after seeing a game of the team on TV, being impressed by how Ion Voinescu defended the goal post. He started playing football as a goalkeeper when he was about 12 years old with his cousin, going three years later at local club, Olimpia where he was coached by Marin Anastasovici, afterwards moving at neighboring team, Victoria. He started playing senior level football at ȘN Oltenița in the regional championship, helping it promote to Divizia C where after playing only two games he was transferred by UTA Arad and he made his Divizia A debut on 26 September 1965 under coach Nicolae Dumitrescu, managing to keep a clean sheet in a 2–0 victory against Universitatea Craiova. After one season he was transferred by Dinamo București who only used him two weeks later as a exchange player for fellow goalkeeper Spiridon Niculescu from Argeș Pitești. At Argeș he spent two seasons, making his debut in European competitions, playing all six games from the 1966–67 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, as the team eliminated Sevilla and Toulouse in the first two rounds, being defeated in the third round with 1–0 on aggregate by Dinamo Zagreb who eventually won the competition, also earning a helping the team earn a runner-up position in his second season spent there. After Argeș's away game from the second leg of the confrontation against Sevilla which ended 2–2, in the following day he was praised by the Marca newspaper:"Coman managed some phenomenal saves and blocked Sevilla. Even though he conceded two goals, the Romanian closed the gate in some difficult phases", also Sevilla's coach wanted to transfer him at the team but he and the team's officials did not accept as transfers outside the country were not allowed by Romania's communist regime and if he would have accepted the offer he would have risked to not see his family again. Afterwards Coman went to play two seasons for Dinamo București, in the first one earning a runner-up position in the league. After a short period spent in his native Giurgiu at Divizia B club, Dunărea, he returned to Divizia A football when he went to play for Steaua București with whom he won the only trophy of his career, the 1970–71 Cupa României in which however he did not play in the final as coach Ștefan Kovács chose Carol Haidu for the eventual 3–2 victory in front of Dinamo. During his period of four seasons spent with The Military Men he also played four games in the 1971–72 European Cup Winners' Cup campaign, as the team reached the quarter-finals by eliminating Hibernians and Barcelona, being eliminated after 1–1 on aggregate on the away goal rule by Bayern Munich when he was congratulated for the way he defended his goal post after the 0–0 from the second leg by the Germans goalkeeper Sepp Maier. Then he went at SC Bacău in Divizia B, where in the first season he helped the team promote to the first league where he played in the following season before transferring at back to Divizia B at CS Târgoviște. As with Bacău, he helped the team from Târgoviște gain promotion to Divizia A after one season where he would have the best period in his career, managing to become the first goalkeeper to earn the Romanian Footballer of the Year award in 1978. An important match which helped him achieve this performance was keeping a clean sheet in a 0–0 against Universitatea Craiova for which he received a 10 in the Sportul newspaper. After making his last Divizia A appearance on 12 March 1980, playing for CS Târgoviște in a 2–2 against Jiul Petroșani, Coman went back to his native Giurgiu to play for FCM where he retired after playing only a few games, having a total of 214 Divizia A appearances and 12 matches in European competitions (including 8 in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup).