Dr. Maximillian Surubaru, Ph.D.
Born in the unofficial capital of Transylvania, Cluj, Maxi was born of a blue-collar mining family here in the mountains of Transylvania. Before his earliest memory, they moved to Covasna County, a very rural part of the Carpathian Mountains. Covasna County is the second least populous county in Romania. Like most mountain peoples, they mostly lived in the valleys, and thus they lived jam-packed closer together along rivers and valleys, rather than spread out.
They lived in a small hollow up a mountain about 25 minutes from the county capital of St. George, where his father secured work at the Căpeni Coal Mine, the largest in Romania, in Baraolt.
Unlike his father, grandfather, and uncles, Maxi didn’t take to coal mining. He displayed a strong and keen sense of sporting, as well as a love of gaming. From video gaming to sports, he was drawn to the intellectual side of games. He would outthink people twice his age at board games, was the local winner of a chess tournament in St. George at 14, and more. All of the people of the hollow where he grew up were suitably proud of him and his accomplishments, and Maxi was the pride of them. Maxi played the game quite well, and was brought in at the U17 level for Romanian National team after doing well at the local club, Oltul.
At the age of 16, Maxi was offered a hot prospect contract by two Liga I clubs, Cluj and Concordia. Maxi chose to remain close to home, and went to Cluj. He played in the Cluj youth system for three years, was loaned out to lower level Romanian clubs, and was never really caught on. His greatest achievement was helping a club in Liga III get to promotion playoffs and barely losing on PKs in extra time as a loaner. He did make the U19 squad for Romania during this run.
When his contract finished, Maxi had offers from five clubs, all Liga III or IV. He didn’t want to be playing at that level as one of those “Where is Maxi now” type stories, of someone who was once on the U19 Youth Team for Romania, but never made it higher. Plus, Maxi had always been more intellectually challenged by the game, specifically tactically.
Maxi decided to leave football behind as a career, and enrolled in Saint Petersburg Polytechnic University, one of the highest rated universities in Eastern Europe, and historically a major central house of knowledge for the region, with multiple Nobel winners, and one of the great chess clubs in Europe.
Maxi’s enrollment in the major university was a big day and a holiday of sorts was declared in his small hollow as everyone gathered to see the 19 year old Maxi off.
Maxi arrived, and embraced St. Petersburg as his new home for eight years. He studied chess under former chessmaster David Bronstein who now taught there, as well as has major, Environmental Studies. He enjoyed it so much that he stayed after getting a lower level degree, and defended his dissertation and was a doctor by 25, the sixth youngest doctorate that year of the few hundred or so to get their terminal degrees.
While in the city, Maxi developed a passion for local club, Dynamo St. Petersburg, in the 2nd division of the nation. While there, Maxi’s own history for Romanian came into play, and he was welcomed into the youth development of the city’s football programs as a scout for Dynamo and Zenit, the bigger club in St. Petersburg.
Two years later, Maxi has developed into a youth coach on the side to develop skills of those here in the city, and he was really well known for teaching people the tactics and mental side of the game. Seeing his success, Zenit approached him to be a youth coach for them, teaching tactics.
Maxi’s teaching and research has reached a natural end, as the research dollars were not there for environmental studies in Eastern Europe. He moved to teach part-time and took the full-time youth couch gig for Zenit.
Three years later, Maxi was considered the best tactics coach in Russia and he was teaching the senior squad. He had stopped teaching as the money from coaching had outpaced the others, and he was the tactics coach for the senior squad at Zenit. He was involved in planning tactics for Zenit, and helped to push them to a EURO win in 2010. In 2011, Maxi was successful moving to an Assistant Manager role for another club in Russia - FC Anzhi Makhachkala. Anzhi had just been purchased by a mega-billionaire, and he was invested in heavily upgrading the staff, personnel, and infrastructure. Maxi Surubaru was one of the folks who came into a new Anzhi. In 2011/12 it finished at 5th in the Russian Premier League, then 3d in 12/13. However, serious financial issues and scandals arose, and it was relegated next year for 13/14. After that, big names and staff were let out of jobs, and Maxi lost the Assistant Manager job three years after getting it.
Maxi had been a bright rising star of Russian tactical football, but was not making any short lists for selection for another AM role.
Then Maxi saw a job open back home. And he applied for it instead. Based on his success with youth in Zenit Russia, in 2014, Maxi took over as the U19 Youth Manager for Romania. He takes over the U21 after the coach there left for Saudi Arabia.
Its 2017, and at 41, Maxi is now the manager of the U21 squad at Romania. He won qualification to the 2017, U21 Euro Championships in Poland, but lost early. But it was just the 2nd time in Romanian history that they even had made it to the final 12. He also used these years to finish his qualifications.
After winning qualification, Maxi’s name and history became a big name in Romanian football. He was the old kid come home and take the U21 national squad to success. Maxi agreed to take over newly promoted Sepsi and to push their push. After the U21 Euro Championships finished, Maxi took over the newly promoted team.
And the board looked back and smiled. They had gotten their man. He was born and lived here in the county growing up, played for their spiritual predecessor in St. George, and had been successful managing at the national club level in Romania. Dr. Maximillian Surubaru was their guy.