[2][3][4][5] Nicolae "Coco" Dumitrescu was born on 8 December 1921 in Bucharest, Romania and he started to play football in 1938 at local club, Suter.

[1][2][3][7][9] In the 1950 Divizia A season he won another title with the club, being used by coach Francisc Dvorzsák in 15 matches in which he did not score, also appearing in the 1950 Cupa României final which was lost with 3–1 in front of CCA București.

[1] Nicolae Dumitrescu played 10 games and scored two goals at international level for Romania, making his debut under coach Colea Vâlcov on 25 May 1947 in a 4–0 away victory against Albania at the 1947 Balkan Cup, a competition in which he made a total of three appearances.

[12] Dumitrescu started his coaching career shortly after he ended his playing career at the junior squads of UTA Arad in 1956 where he stayed until 1964, a period in which he reached three national junior championship finals, winning the first two in front of Dinamo București and Farul Constanța and losing the third in front of Rapid București, also he discovered and promoted talents like Mihai Țârlea, Constantin Koszka or his stepbrother, Ion Pârcălab.

[2][15][16][17][18] In 1965, Dumitrescu became the head coach of UTA's senior squad with whom he reached the 1966 Cupa României final which was lost with 4–0 in front of Steaua București and won two consecutive Divizia A titles in the 1968–69 and 1969–70 seasons.