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Gavrilă Birău
Personal information
Date of birth	11 August 1945 (age 79)
Place of birth	Sfântu Gheorghe, Romania
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s)	Right back
Youth career
1958–1964	Textila Sfântu Gheorghe
Senior career*
Years	Team
1965–1976	UTA Arad
1976–1977	Aurul Brad
International career
1966	Romania U23
Managerial career
1981–1982	Strungul Arad
1982–1983	UTA Arad
1987–1988	UTA Arad
1989–1990	UTA Arad
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Gavrilă Birău (also known as Gabor Biro; born 10 February 1945) is a Romanian former football right defender and manager.^[1]^[3]^[4]

Career

Gavrilă Birău was born on 10 February 1945 in Sfântu Gheorghe, Romania and practiced ice hockey, skiing, boxing and football until he was around the age of 18 when he started focusing only on football.^[1]^[3]^[4] He played junior level football at Textila Sfântu Gheorghe as a forward and in 1963 coach Gheorghe Ola called him up at a Romania youth team for a match against Turkey in which he was seen by UTA Arad's coach Nicolae Dumitrescu who proposed him to come at UTA and Birău accepted, Dumitrescu giving his Divizia A debut on 14 March 1965 in a 1–0 home victory against Steagul Roșu Brașov, also from this point on his playing position was right back.^[1]^[3] His first performance was reaching the 1966 Cupa României final which was lost with 4–0 in front of Steaua București, afterwards he won two consecutive titles, Dumitrescu using him 30 matches in both of these seasons, scoring a goal in the second one.^[1]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7] He also made some European performances with The Old Lady as eliminating Feyenoord in the 1970–71 European Cup who were European champions at that time and reaching the 1971–72 UEFA Cup quarter-finals where they were eliminated by Tottenham Hotspur who would eventually win the competition.^[1]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[8] He spent 12 seasons at UTA, his last Divizia A match being a 3–2 away loss against ASA Târgu Mureș, having a total of 319 appearances and three goals scored in the competition, also making 14 appearances in European competitions.^[1]^[3] Birău retired after he spent a season in Divizia B at Aurul Brad.^[1]^[4] After he ended his career, Birău coached teams from Arad like Strungul, Indagrara, CPL and even UTA on a few occasions, also he worked as a youth coach.^[3]^[4] A book about him was written by Radu Romănescu and Ionel Costin, called Gabi Birău – povestea fundașului de fier (Gabi Birău – the story of the iron defender), which was released with the occasion of his 73rd birthday.^[4]^[5]^[6]

Honours

UTA Arad

Divizia A: 1968–69, 1969–70^[1]
Cupa României runner-up: 1965–66^[7]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l Gavrilă Birău at RomanianSoccer.ro (in Romanian)
^ "Gavrilă Birău profile". 11v11. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "Fundașul de fier al Bătrânei Doamne a împlinit 70 de ani. Gabor Biro: "Am iubit UTA toată viața mea!"" [The iron defender of the Old Lady is 70 years old. Gabor Biro: "I've loved UTA my whole life!"] (in Romanian). Glsa.ro. 12 August 2015. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "Covăsneanul campion" [The champion from Covasna] (in Romanian). Welovesport.ro. 10 April 2023. Retrieved 15 April 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Biro. Gabor Biro. Omul, activitatea, viața unui mare campion" [Biro. Gabor Biro. The man, the activity, the life of a great champion] (in Romanian). Specialarad.ro. 16 August 2018. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Volumul "Gabi Birău – povestea fundașului de fier" a văzut lumina tiparului la a 73-a aniversare a gloriei utiste" [The volume "Gabi Birău - the story of the iron defender" saw the light of the pattern at the 73rd anniversary of the UTA glory] (in Romanian). Sportarad.ro. 13 August 2018. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Romanian Cup - Season 1965-1966". RomanianSoccer. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
^ "Fotbalul de altă dată: UTA Arad – Tottenham Hotspur, Cupa UEFA, 1972" [Football of another time: UTA Arad - Tottenham Hotspur, UEFA Cup, 1972] (in Romanian). Tackle.ro. 10 February 2019. Retrieved 15 April 2023.