Marian Cucchiaroni Mihail is a Romanian professional football manager and former player. He served as National Technical Director of Romania from 2011 to 2014. Mihail has managed teams in Romania, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. In May 2009, at a ceremony marking the centenary of the Romanian Football Federation, Mihail received the Order of Merit in Ruby for services to football.
Playing career
Mihail played professionally in Romania for 17 years, beginning his career as a right winger with his home town club Brasov, before moving onto play as a right full back for Romanian top-flight side Sportul Studentesc. His first competitive game for Sportul Studentesc was in October 1976 against the German side Schalke 04 in UEFA Cup. With Sportul Studentesc, he won the Balkans Cup in 1980, and was Romania vice-champion in 1986 and Romania Cup finalist in 1979. Mihail also won five caps for Romania. He made his international debut on 14 March 1982 against Belgium.
Managerial career
After his playing career ended, Mihail turned to coaching and began his career as manager of his former club Sportul Studentesc, in Romania′s top tier. He then managed other two Romanian top flight teams, Brasov and Bacau. In October 1999 Mihail became the head of technical department at Steaua Bucharest, Romania's most successful club, with responsibility for first team, player recruitment, scouting and academy. During his time with Steaua Bucharest, the first team won two major trophies, the Romanian League title and the Romanian Super Cup, in 2000–01 season. In June 2002, after a short spell as manager of Romanian second tier side Rocar Bucharest, Mihail moved to the Middle East, where he had successful stints in Syria, with top-tier side Al-Qardaha, and in Saudi Arabia, with top-tier side Al-Riyadh. In June 2004, Mihail returned home to Romania to complete his UEFA Pro Licence. During that time he was employed with the Romanian Football Federation as youth technical adviser and helped to set up the national youth program. He also had a short spell as manager of the Romanian side Sibiu. In June 2006, Mihail moved again to the Middle East where he first managed Syrian top-tier side Al-Jaish and then Kuwaiti top-tier side Al-Jahra. He also served as Technical Director of Al-Wahda Abu Dhabi, where he was responsible for the club′s youth academy. It was under his leadership that the academy won two UAE youth league titles, at U17 and U19 age groups, in 2009–10 season. In between, Mihail returned home to Romania for a third spell as manager of Sportul Studentesc. In August 2011, Mihail was appointed as National Technical Director of the Romanian Football Federation. The position was new in the FRF at the time. It included responsibility for the overall development and direction of football in Romania. Mihail's main task was to restore the competitiveness of Romanian football. After becoming familiar with the situation in Romanian football and many analyses and consultations, both within the football family and with external partners, Mihail presented his strategic blueprint to stop the decline of Romanian football and to achieve new success at all levels of competition. Priority was given to improve the quality of youth coaches, the performance of the national youth teams and to develop strong partnerships with the Royal Spanish Football Federation to promote new technical standards across the country. In only three years the new performance strategy laid a good foundation for the future of Romanian football. That included reforming its coach education system, revamping the format of the youth leagues and the success of the national youth teams program, both boys and girls, among other healthy developments. Mihail left the FRF in February 2014, just before the election of a new president for the Romanian Football Federation. In October 2016, Mihail returned to coaching as manager of Iraqi top-flight side Zakho. His first league game in charge was on 15 October 2018, when Zakho drew 0–0 away against Naft Al-Wasat, the best team in the league at that time. In December 2018, despite team showed strong signs of progress, Mihail left Zakho for "personal and family reasons" to return to Romania. In December 2017, Mihail was named the new manager of Vietnamese top-flight side FLC Thanh Hóa, replacing Ljubomir "Lupko" Petrović of Serbia. His first competitive match as manager of the team was on 23 January 2018, when FLC Thanh Hóa won 4–2 away against Eastern AA from Hong Kong, in an Asian Champions League 2018 match.
