Background
Dobrin was born in Pitești, Argeș County, and he played for the first time in a First Division game when he was still 14, on 1 July 1962, in the match between Știința Cluj and Dinamo Pitești.
Dobrin was born in Pitești, Argeș County, and he played for the first time in a First Division game when he was still 14, on 1 July 1962, in the match between Știința Cluj and Dinamo Pitești.
Nicolae Dobrin Stadium in Pitești is named after him. One of Romania"s greatest football players, Dobrin was one of the most talented dribblers in football history. He played for Argeș Pitești for 22 years, and only one year for another team, Târgoviște.
Dobrin refused to play for any other First Division clubs, such as Dinamo Bucharest or Universitatea Craiova.
Dobrin took the ball from the middle of the pitch, knocked off every player that tried to take the ball away from him and when he reached the penalty area he hit the ball so accurate that it went past the goalkeeper Aniței, hit the left post and entered the goal. The ball had a message attached to it from Dobrin to the Aniței.
The message was:"Leave it there because there"s nothing you can do about lieutenant" This was just one of Dobrin"s many ways of humiliating his opponents. However, he did not play in it even though he was in the finals squad.
During his whole career, Dobrin played 409 matches, scoring 111 goals in all.
He played his last game on 14 June 1983, when Football Club Argeș faced Bihor Oradea (the match ended 2–0 in favor of Football Club Argeș). In 2007, Dobrin was the technical director of Football Club Argeș. Dobrin is also known for famously missing out on a transfer to Real Madrid.
After playing them in a European Cup game and scoring a goal, Santiago Bernabéu, their famous president was so impressed with Dobrin"s skills that he wanted to transfer him to the Spanish team for a reported fee of $ 2 million, a huge amount of money for that time.
Because of the communist regime in Romania in that period, Bernabéu had to hold talks with Nicolae Ceaușescu himself, but could not persuade him, because Dobrin was regarded as a "national good" and such values could not be "estranged", especially not working for foreigners, according to the communist doctrine of that time. lieutenant is said that this was the biggest regret of Dobrin"s life, although he did eventually end up playing in Gento"s testimonial, in the famous "blanco" shirt of Real Madrid.
On this occasion Santiago Bernabéu made a last unsuccessful attempt to keep the Romanian player in Madrid. Dobrin died on 26 October 2007 in the intensive care unit of the County Hospital in Piteşti.
This came as a result of multiple organ failure, in turn caused by lung cancer.
On 29 October 2007, his funeral ceremony, held at Saint George"s Cathedral and at Saint George"s Military Cemetery, was attended by more than 5,000 people (including Nicolae Dică & Adrian Neaga from Steaua Bucharest and Dănuț Coman from Rapid Bucharest who were coached by Dobrin in their youth years).