Pârcălab, nicknamed "The Carpathian Arrow" by foreign experts was born on 5 November 1941 in Bucharest, Romania, starting to play junior level football at local club, Dinamo, working with coach Petre Steinbach.

[5][11] In the 1963–64 European Cup campaign, he played all four games as Dinamo got pass East Germany champion, Motor Jena, being eliminated in the next phase by Real Madrid against whom he scored a goal in a 5–3 loss and also in the 1965–66 edition he scored a goal against Denmark's champion, Boldklubben 1909 which helped the team advance to the next phase where they were eliminated by the winners of the previous two seasons of the competition, Inter Milan but earned a historical 2–1 victory in the first leg, after which he said:"I am happy, very happy!

During Romania's communist era, transfers of Romanian footballers outside the country were rarely allowed, but in June 1970 dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu went on a visit to France where he was invited by president Georges Pompidou.

[5][14][15] Pârcălab played 26 games and scored three goals at international level for Romania, making his debut on 8 October 1961 under coach Gheorghe Popescu I in a friendly which ended with a 4–0 victory against Turkey.

[22][23][24][25][26] After a victory in the championship, Pârcălab took his players to a restaurant in order to celebrate, but after a few drinks, a conflict between him and the goalkeeper Nicolae Stancu started because of a waitress.

[22][23][24][25][26] They went to the bathroom to solve their problem and it is assumed that there Pârcălab killed Stancu by introducing a broomstick in his throat or by hitting him in the back of his head.