Sorin Ghionea
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| Sorin Ghionea | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Sorin Ghionea | |
| Date of birth | May 11, 1979 | |
| Place of birth | Galaţi, Romania | |
| Height | 1.87 m (6 ft 11⁄2 in) | |
| Playing position | Center Back | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | Steaua Bucureşti | |
| Number | 24 | |
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1997-1998 1998-2003 2003- 2004-2005 |
Dunărea Galaţi Oţelul Galaţi Steaua Bucureşti → Oţelul Galaţi (loan) |
15 (0) 62 (2) 88 (2) 26 (0) |
| National team2 | ||
| 2002- | Romania | 10 (1) |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
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Sorin Ghionea (born May 11, 1979 in Galaţi) is a Romanian football player, who plays for Steaua Bucureşti as center back, making together with Dorin Goian one of the strongest central defensive couples in Europe.
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[edit] Club career
[edit] Galaţi years (1997-03)
At the age of 12, Ghionea was sent to Oţelul Galaţi football club by his teacher, Tică Ploieşteanu. The second day he was hand-picked by the coach and played there for 2 years. After that he studied hard at school and left football until the 10th grade when he went back to the youth team of Oţelul Galaţi. At first he played as a full left back, but then he moved into the center of defense.
Ghionea made his debut as a player for Dunărea Galaţi during the 1997-98 season and helped his team avoid relegation in Liga III. Just one year later, he joined Oţelul Galaţi. He debuted in Divizia A on 7 August 1998 in the win against FC Naţional.
He played for Oţelul between 1998-2003 62 matches and scoring 2 goals. He also was loaned by Steaua to Oţelul Galaţi in the 2004-05 season in Liga I.
[edit] Steaua Bucureşti (2004-present)
In 2002 Ghionea moved to Steaua, but he didn't convince Victor Piturca, Steaua's manager at that time, playing only in 6 matches and then being loaned back to Oţelul Galaţi. He played as a captain for Oţelul on his loaned season in most of the matches and he had excellent performances. In 2004, the ex-president of Oţelul Galaţi, now manager of Steaua Bucureşti, Mihai Stoica, took him back to the team from Bucharest. When he returned to Steaua, Victor Piţurcă left to coach the Romanian national football team and Walter Zenga became Steaua's new manager.
In September 2004 Ghionea went through an operation on his nose after the match against FK Voždovac. To protect his nose, he played wearing a mask and he was nickanamed "Zorro".
Sorin Ghionea became near Dorin Goian a basic player for Steaua Bucureşti especially after he took Mirel Rădoi's place in the central defense after he was injured for a couple of time. When Mirel Radoi came back in the first team he was put to play in the midfield and Ghionea kept his place.
With Steaua Bucuresti he played two seasons in 53 games and succeeded to win two consecutive champion titles in 2005 and 2006.
In the European Cups he debuted with Steaua in UEFA Cup in the season 2004-2005 which was very good for them because they succeeded to qualify in the European Spring after more than 10 years. Steaua passed from a group with Standard Liege, Sampdoria, Besiktas Istanbul and Athletic Bilbao and also eliminated after this the ex-winner of UEFA Cup, Valencia.
The next season in UEFA Cup was even better because Steaua played in the semi-finals after defeated teams like Lens, Heerenveen, Betis Sevilla and in the quarter-finals Rapid Bucuresti, one of their traditional Romanian rivals. In the semi-final was eliminated by Middlesbrough after two fantastic games.
He scored his first goal for Steaua against Dinamo Kiev, in the Uefa Champions League group stage. After a corner kick served by Vasilică Cristocea, Ghionea placed a header on the right post and in the back of the net.
On 25 February 2007 Ghionea suffered an injury in Steaua - UTA Arad, match ended with a draw. His situation got worse and was forced to withstand a surgery on his left knee in April 2007. After 4 months from the injury, Ghionea started his training on the pitch, closely supervised by medic Radu Paligora. Even though it was said that Ghionea will not miss the start of Liga I 2007-08 season on 28 July, his knee wasn't fully recovered and he didn't played in any match for Steaua. In October 2007 there were rumors that Ghionea will no longer play football, but coach Massimo Pedrazzini said that the information isn’t true and Ghionea is still recovering. On 13 October 2007 the center back withstanded another surgery to check the natural causes of his injury and to estimate the period that he will be unavailable.
On 18 January 2008 he played his first game since his injury, after 11 months, a friendly match against Wisla Krakow that ended 0-0. Since then he has played in almost all of the matches of the remaining season.
[edit] International career
He made his international debut for Romania on 27 March 2002 in the friendly against Ukraine, match won by Romania with 4-1.
Since then Ghionea won ten caps for Romania.
| # | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | May 31, 2008 | Bucharest, Romania |  Montenegro |
4-0 | Win | Friendly |
[edit] Career honours/achievements
Liga I (2005/2006, Steaua)- Romanian Supercup (2006/2007 , Steaua)
[edit] External links
- Sorin Ghionea's career @ Romaniansoccer.ro (English)
- Sorin Ghionea's profile @ UEFA.com (English)
- Sorin Ghionea statistics and biography at FootballDatabase.com
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