Miodrag Belodedici (; ; born 20 May 1964) is a Romanian former professional footballer who played as a sweeper.

Nicknamed The Deer due to his elegant tackles, he spent the majority of his 19-year professional career with Steaua București (ten seasons), winning the European Cup with that team and Red Star Belgrade, thus becoming the first player (to play in the final) to win the trophy with two clubs and the only player to win the trophy with two different Eastern European teams. Belodedici also played in Spain and Mexico.

Belodedici won 55 caps with Romania, representing the nation in the 1994 World Cup and two European Championships.

Club career

Early career

Belodedici was born on 20 May 1964 in a family of Serbian ethnicity in the village of Socol, Romania, near the border with Yugoslavia. He spoke only Serbian until elementary school, and completed his first four grades in that language. In the fifth he began learning Romanian.

Steaua București

In the summer of 1982, Belodedici was signed by Steaua București, having been selected by the club's chairman Ion Alecsandrescu. He finished his first season with 17 league appearances, playing alongside his childhood idol Ștefan Sameș. The team won The Double in the 1984–85 season, with Belodedici playing 25 matches and scoring three goals under coaches Florin Halagian and Emerich Jenei. He also played the entire match in the 2–1 victory in the Cupa României final over Universitatea Craiova. In the following season, he won the league title, scoring two goals in the 32 appearances given to him by Jenei. In the final, he played the entire match, including extra time, in the eventual 2–0 victory after the penalty shoot-out against Barcelona. After the game, he was praised by the Spanish press:"A defender so good that even if he had played for two days and two nights, he would have continued to run and always be exactly where he needed to be." He finished the season by winning another Double with Steaua, as coaches Jenei and Anghel Iordănescu gave him 32 league appearances in which he scored five goals. In the next season, Belodedici was used by Iordănescu in 31 league games in which he scored three goals, as The Military Men won another title. In the first half of the 1988–89 season, Iordănescu gave him 15 appearances in which he scored once. During these years, Belodedici was placed three times among the top three in the Romanian Footballer of the Year ranking, finishing second in 1987.

Red Star Belgrade

In 1988, when Nicolae Ceaușescu was still in power, Belodedici defected from his home country to the neighboring Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. A friend tried to persuade him to sign for Partizan, but the player insisted that he would only play for Red Star Belgrade. Once he arrived in Belgrade, after a Red Star – Partizan derby, he contacted Dragan Džajić, the president of Red Star. The Ceaușescu regime found him guilty of treason and sentenced him to 10 years of prison in absentia, but after the 1989 Romanian Revolution, all the charges were dropped. He also played the entire match in the 1–0 win over Hajduk Split in the Yugoslav Cup final. In the following season, Belodedici won the league title, playing 34 matches and scoring once under coach Ljupko Petrović. He also played in all nine games in the historical European Cup campaign. He finished the season by winning another title, as coach Vladica Popović gave him 24 appearances in which he scored once.

Spain and Mexico

Belodedici signed with Valencia, making his La Liga debut on 5 September 1992 under coach Guus Hiddink in a 1–0 victory against Rayo Vallecano. Two years later, he joined Valladolid for the 1994–95 season, totaling 80 appearances in the Spanish top-league.

Return to Steaua București

In 1998, aged 34, Belodedici returned to Steaua. The team was composed mostly of former professional football players, including Tom Cristea, Daniel Iftodi, Bogdan Andone, Silvian Dobre, and Costel Mozacu. In 2014, 50-year-old Belodedici had an offer to play for Argeș 1953 Pitești, but the move fell through as GVD asked for a transfer fee.

International career

Early years

Between 1981 and 1987, Belodedici made several appearances for Romania's under-18, under-21 and Olympic teams.

Belodedici played 55 matches and scored five goals for Romania, making his debut on 31 July 1984 – aged 20 – under coach Mircea Lucescu in a 1–0 friendly win over China. He played six matches and scored one goal in a 5–1 victory against Albania in the Euro 1988 qualifiers. Subsequently, they were eliminated by Sweden after the penalty shoot-out in the quarter-finals, with Belodedici missing the last spot kick. He played as a starter in all five games under coach Anghel Iordănescu.

Euro 1996 and Euro 2000

Belodedici played seven games, scoring the opening goal in the 3–0 win over Azerbaijan during the Euro 1996 qualifiers. In the final tournament, Iordănescu used him in both 1–0 losses to France and Bulgaria. The team also lost the game against Spain and left the competition without earning a single point in the group stage. There, Belodedici played in the last group stage game, when he replaced injured captain Gheorghe Popescu in the 30th minute of the 3–2 victory against England.

Style of play

Belodedici was nicknamed "Căprioara" (The Deer) due to his elegant tackles and for not receiving a red card in his entire career. A book about him was written by Robert Popa, titled Belodedici. Românul care a triumfat de două ori în Cupa Campionilor Europeni (Belodedici. The Romanian who triumphed twice in the European Champions Cup), which was published in 2020. A sports hall named after him was inaugurated in 2023 in his native Socol.

Career statistics

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|+ Appearances and goals by national team and year

Red Star Belgrade

  • Yugoslav First League: 1989–90, 1990–91, 1991–92
  • Yugoslav Cup: 1989–90