Alexandru Apolzan
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Alexandru Apolzan (born February 6, 1927 in Sibiu - died December 23, 1982) was a Romanian football player, who played mainly for CCA Bucharest and also for Romania. He is considered as one of the best fullbacks in the history of Romanian football, only Miodrag Belodedici and Gheorghe Popescu, in the recent years, being able to play at the same level.
[edit] An inventor of modern football
The history of football suggests that Franz Beckenbauer was the one who invented the role of sweeper or libero in football, but this is wrong. It was the Romanian Apolzan who first played in this role, while at CCA Bucharest. However, Apolzan played during the darkest period in the history of Romania, when the connections with the outside world were almost cut completely.
Apolzan signed his first contract with Şoimii, a local team from Sibiu, in 1941. After the war he joins the squad of CFR Bucharest and then between 1949 and 1962, at the end of his career, played for CCA Bucharest.
The great Hungarian coach Gusztav Sebes, the builder of the great Hungarian team from the first half of the '50s - the Magical Magyars, said in 1954, after the 1954 FIFA World Cup that Apolzan, Ion Voinescu and Titus Ozon are at the same level as his own Hungarian players and that he would be proud to be able to coach them.
He also won 22 caps for Romania. It was however an era when Romania used to play less than five games per year.
