Mihai Stoichiță


Mihai Stoichiță is a Romanian football manager who last coached Liga I side Petrolul Ploiești.

Coaching career

Stoichiță joined Steaua București in 1994 as an assistant coach under Dumitru Dumitriu. When Dumitriu stepped down at the beginning of the 1997–98 season, Stoichiță became head coach. He led the team to the league title, and followed this success by winning the 1998 Supercupa României.
Stoichiță led Panama to a fourth-place ranking at the 2001 UNCAF Nations Cup held in Honduras. The Kuwait Football Association hired him in 2006 to coach its national football team. Stoichiţă's was tasked to earn one point from the away match at Uzbekistan to qualify for a two-legged play-off against Bahrain in the World Cup Qualifiers. Despite leading with two goals after the first 30 minutes, Bahrain lost 2-3 and was eliminated from the World Cup.
On 18 September 2009, two hours after Cristiano Bergodi was sacked, he was announced by Steaua București's owner, Gigi Becali, as the new manager of the team. He resigned in May 2010, after finishing the 2009–10 season on the fourth position. In June 2010, Stoichiţă joined Astra Ploiești but was sacked after only a couple of months due to poor results. He returned to Cyprus, for a second spell at AEL Limassol.
In September 2011, Stoichiţă returned to Romania to help newly promoted CS Mioveni in their attempt to avoid relegation, but an offer from Apollon Limassol made him move back to Cyprus. At the beginning of March 2012, he ended his contract and returned to Romania. On 27 March 2012, he returned to Steaua, signing a contract until the end of the season. His contract wasn't renewed because he failed to win the title with Steaua.

Honours

Player
Jiul Petroşani
Manager
Steaua Bucureşti
Sheriff Tiraspol
Pyunik Yerevan