Bazil Marian-Cedar Herald Index

Bazil Marian (7 November 1922 – 19 January 2008) was a Romanian professional footballer and coach.

Club career

Bazil Marian nicknamed "Bombardierul" (The Bomber) because of his powerful shots was born on 7 November 1922 in Uioara de Sus, Romania and started playing junior level football at age 11 at local club Solvay. He made his Divizia A debut playing for Victoria Cluj on 24 September 1947 in a 2–1 home victory against Venus București. Victoria relegated by the end of the season, but he stayed in Divizia A, playing one season for Mica Brad before moving at Carmen București. At Carmen in December 1946 in a game against Ciocanul București at the score of 4–0 he ran alone towards the opposite goal, dribbled the goalkeeper, after which he sat down with his bottom on the ball and his hand over his eyes, as if looking for his opponents, before pushing the ball into the net. At the end of the season, following another victory against Ciocanul with 6–0 in which he scored two goals, the Carmen team was dissolved by the Communist regime that just took over the country, so he and teammate Valentin Stănescu wanted to flee to Italy, going on a ship from the Port of Constanța but were caught by the authorities who told them that they can choose from either going to jail or play for a working-class team such as Locomotiva București and both of them chose the latter. At Locomotiva he managed to score 32 goals in 24 appearances in the 1947–48 Divizia A season but did not win the top-goalscorer of the league as ITA Arad's Ladislau Bonyhádi scored a record of 49 goals. In 1950 in a game against CFR Timișoara, The Bomber scored a goal with a powerful shot from 18 meters that broke the net and after the game the opponents goalkeeper, Dumitru Pavlovici said:"I am the happiest that Marian's bomb was a goal. Otherwise, if his kick would have hit me in full, I would have gone straight to the hospital". At the end of the 1951 Divizia A season, Locomotiva relegated to Divizia B but Marian stayed with the club, helping it promote back to the first league after one season, also in a match played in a cold weather against Metalul București he scored a goal which was cancelled by the referee so he ran to the fence from the stands, where boiled țuică was sold and drank a cup, afterwards coming back to the pitch, scoring another goal which the referee cancelled again so he went to drink another cup of țuică, then he went and shook the referee's hand and asked to be replaced, leaving the pitch saying that if he scores another goal and it gets cancelled, he'll have to drink another cup and he will get drunk. He retired to start his coaching career after playing for Locomotiva on 14 November 1954 in a Divizia A match which ended with a 3–2 loss against Progresul Oradea, however six years later at age 39 he came out of retirement after he promoted Jiul Petroșani to the first league because the squad wasn't too strong, playing 14 games in which he scored two goals.

Bazil Marian

International career

Bazil Marian played 18 games and scored two goals at international level for Romania, making his debut on 1 June 1941 under coach Virgil Economu in a friendly which ended with a 4–1 loss. He scored his first goal for the national team in a 2–2 friendly against Slovakia, afterwards making two appearances at the 1946 Balkan Cup, played four games in which he scored a goal in a 3–2 away victory against Bulgaria at the 1947 Balkan Cup and made two appearances at the 1948 Balkan Cup. Marian's last appearance for the national team took place on 8 May 1949 in a home friendly which ended with a 2–1 victory against Poland.

Bazil Marian