Iosif Lereter (23 July 1933 – 26 January 2024) was a Romanian footballer and manager.
Club career
Iosif Lereter was born on 23 July 1933 in Oțelu Roșu, Romania and at the beginning of his career he played as a forward and midfielder, ending his career as a centre-back.[1][2][3][4] He started to play football in the lower leagues of Romania at the local club from his town, Energia Oțelu Roșu in 1949.[1][2]
In 1967 he went to play for UTA Arad, where under the guidance of coach Nicolae Dumitrescu he won two consecutive league titles, in the first he contributed with 10 goals scored in 30 appearances and in the second he scored 7 goals in 29 matches.[1][2][4][6] He also made some European performances with The Old Lady as eliminating the defending European Cup champions Feyenoord in the 1970–71 European Cup season and playing eight games in the 1971–72 UEFA Cup campaign when the team reached the quarter-finals where they were eliminated by Tottenham Hotspur who would eventually win the competition.[1][2][4][7] On 16 October 1971, while playing for UTA Arad in a match against Argeș Pitești, he became the first footballer to reach 300 Divizia A appearances, that is why every time a footballer reaches 300 appearances in the Romanian top-league, the press says he entered the "Iosif Lereter Club".[2][3][4][8][9][10] He made his last appearance in Divizia A on 1 October 1972, playing for UTA Arad in a 4–2 loss against Jiul Petroșani, having a total of 327 appearances with 79 goals scored in the competition (including five goals in the West derby, all of them while playing for Politehnica), also having a total of 16 appearances in European competitions.[1][4][11][12]
^The 1957 championship called Cupa Primăverii is unofficial, so the appearances and goals scored at that competition for Politehnica Timișoara are not official.[1]