Marius Predatu (born 15 August 1967) is a Romanian former footballer who played as a striker.[2][3]
Club career
Marius Predatu was born on 15 August 1967 in Sibiu, Romania and started playing junior level football at local club, Inter.[1][4] In the 1989–90 season he started his senior career, playing 26 Divizia A games in which he scored six goals for Inter.[1] In the middle of the following season he went to play for Argeș Pitești for one year and a half.[1]
In 1992 he signed with Universitatea Cluj where in his first season under the guidance of coach Remus Vlad he scored a personal record of 14 goals, including four in a 5–0 with Rapid București which earned him the nickname "Ïl Principe", also he would become a fan-favorite, the team's gallery chanting:Marius Predatu, va băga patru(Marius Predatu, will give four).[1][4][5][6][7] In the following two seasons he appeared and scored regularly for "U", going to play for the 1995–96 season in the Greek first league at Panionios, alongside fellow Romanians Marian Ivan and coach Emerich Jenei, scoring eight goals in 28 matches.[1][4][8][9][10]
In 1997 he returned for a short while at Universitatea Cluj, then playing for the rest of the season at Gloria Bistrița.[1][4] Afterwards he went for a third spell at "U" Cluj, staying two seasons before he signed for a second spell at Bistrița where he stayed one year, making his last Divizia A appearances, having a total of 253 games with 67 goals in the competition.[1][4]
In the 2000–01 season, he played for the last time for Universitatea Cluj, this time in Divizia C, under the guidance of player-coach Ioan Sabău, helping the team win promotion to Divizia B.[4][11]
After he ended his playing career, Predatu worked as a youth coach at Universitatea Cluj and coached the senior side of Arieșul Mihai Viteazu in the 2021–22 Liga IV season, however he resigned after a loss in the first round.[5][14][15][16]