Marius Ninel Șumudică (born 4 March 1971) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player, he is the current manager of Saudi club Al-Raed. Șumudică was a striker who began his senior career with Sportul Studențesc and represented five other teams in his native country, as well as Marítimo, Debrecen and Omonia abroad. Șumudică was part of Mircea Lucescu's squad that won Rapid București the national title in 1999, scoring 17 goals during the season. He also claimed two Cupa României trophies with "the Burgundy Eagles". Șumudică began his managerial career in 2005 as an assistant at Rapid București. He brought Astra Giurgiu its first Liga I title in the 2015–16 campaign, during his third stint with the club. For that performance, Șumudică was named the 2016 Romania Coach of the Year by the Gazeta Sporturilor newspaper. Apart from his time in Romania, he has coached sides in Greece, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. Managerial career Astra Giurgiu On 28 April 2015, Șumudică was appointed as manager of Astra Giurgiu, following Dorinel Munteanu's resignation. It was his third term at the club, after two short spells in 2009 and 2011. He led the team to a 4th-place finish, qualifying them for the UEFA Europa League. The European campaign was almost a success, as Astra stopped short of reaching the Europa League group stages after knocking out West Ham United in the third round, but lost to AZ Alkmaar in the play-offs. Domestically, despite the poor start which saw Astra losing 1–5 to previous runner-ups ASA Targu Mures, Astra managed to finish the regular season on first place, 3 points above Dinamo București. However, Șumudică was suspended 6 months by the Romanian FA on charges of betting on football matches. He later managed to have his sentence reduced to 2 months by appeal. Despite of his suspension, Astra kept their momentum during the play-offs, ending up in them being crowned Liga I champions for the first time in their history, also marking Șumudică's first domestic title as manager. After a quick exit to Danish champions Copenhagen in the UEFA Champions League, Șumudică managed to guide Astra to 2016–17 UEFA Europa League group stage eliminating West Ham – for the second time in a row – along the way, after a 1–0 win in London. In the group stages, he faced Roma, Viktoria Plzeň and Austria Wien. Despite