Cornel Dinu (born 2 August 1948) is a Romanian retired professional footballer and manager who played as a sweeper or a defensive midfielder. He started out his playing career at hometown club Metalul Târgoviște in 1965, and went on to spend the rest of his career at Dinamo București with which he won eight domestic trophies. Internationally, Dinu appeared in over 60 matches for the Romania national team and scored three goals. He was named the Romanian Footballer of the Year three times, in 1970, 1972 and 1974, and in the former year also finished on the 24th place in the Ballon d'Or voting. After retiring as a player, Dinu coached Dinamo București on five occasions among other stints, initially in the role of an assistant. Between 1992 and 1993, he was at the helm of the Romania national team. Club career Cornel Dinu was born in Târgoviște to a Moldavian father from Bârlad who worked as a magistrate, lawyer and was a doctor of law and a Serbian mother from Târgoviște who worked as a economist. He started to play football in 1963 at the junior teams of Metalul Târgoviște, making his debut for the senior team on 17 March 1965 in a 1–0 victory, in which he gave the assist of the goal against UTA Arad in the 1964–65 Cupa României, after being noticed by Rudolf Wetzer who was the counselor of head coach Gheorghe Nuțescu. Dinu also played in the following game of the 1964–65 Cupa României in the quarter-finals against Dinamo București which ended with a 5–0 loss for Metalul where he was noticed by Dinamo's officials, later being brought there at the request of coach Traian Ionescu. Dinu debuted for Dinamo București in Divizia A under coach Traian Ionescu on 25 September 1966 in a 1–0 loss against Steagul Roșu Brașov. He remained at Dinamo throughout his career, winning six Divizia A titles, a competition in which he made 454 appearances and scored 53 goals, also winning two Cupa României and playing 33 games in which he scored 3 goals in European competitions. His last game played was a Divizia A match which took place on 18 June 1983 against Universitatea Craiova which ended 1–1. During his period spent at Dinamo, he graduated the Faculty of Law at the University of Bucharest in 1972, which earned him the nickname "Procurorul" (The Prosecutor). Dinu won three