George Ogăraru

George Ogăraru
Personal information
Full name Gheorghe Cristian Ogăraru
Date of birth 3 February 1980 (1980-02-03) (age 32)
Place of birth Bucharest, Romania
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Playing position Right back
Club information
Current club FC Sion
Number 6
Youth career
1993–1998 Steaua Bucureşti
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1998–2006 Steaua Bucureşti 93 (3)
2000–2001 Reşiţa (loan) 25 (1)
2001–2002 Oţelul Galaţi (loan) 20 (1)
2006–2010 Ajax 44 (0)
2008–2009 Steaua Bucureşti (loan) 20 (0)
2010– Sion 31 (2)
National team
2005– Romania 11 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 9 August 2011.

† Appearances (Goals).

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 10 October 2009

Gheorghe Ogăraru, (born 3 February 1980 in Bucharest), is a Romanian footballer currently playing for FC Sion. His position on the pitch is right defender.

Contents

Club career

Steaua Bucureşti

Ogăraru is one of the players that were promoted by Steaua Bucureşti’s youth club. He started his professional football career playing for Steaua Bucureşti at 18 years old. He debuted in Divizia A on the 28 November 1998 in a victory against Olimpia Satu Mare with 3–0. In his first and second seasons at Steaua he was a substitute player and played only 7 games but did not score any goals.

In the 2000–2001 season he was signed by CSM Reşiţa in Liga 2 where played in 25 games and scored once. He came back in the next season 2001–2002 in Liga 1 not playing for Steaua or Resita but for Oţelul Galaţi. There he played 20 games and scored a goal.

In 2002 when Mihai Stoica, the president of Otelul Galati became the general manager of Steaua, he took Ogăraru with him at his first team. Ogăraru became a basic player in Steaua's first eleven and in a few years his value grew very much. On 7 June 2006 Ogararu won the Divizia A Championship and also played his last game for Steaua Bucureşti in the win against FC Vaslui with 4–0.

He played for Steaua Bucureşti in UEFA Cup in 30 games but did not score any goal. The best seasons in UEFA Cup were in 2004–2005 when they qualified from the groups and succeeded to eliminate in the next tour Valencia, the ex-winner of UEFA Cup and especially in the season 2005–2006 when they played in the semifinals but they were defeated by Middlesbrough after the away-match in England ended 4–2 for Boro.

He played in Romania's Divizia A for Romanian giants Steaua Bucureşti between 1998 and 2000 and again between 2002 and 2006, winning the Cupa României in 1999 and the Divizia A championship in 2005.

After his move to Ajax he declared that he will one day return to Steaua Bucureşti.

Ajax

In the summer break of 2006 Ajax sign Ogăraru. He debuted for Ajax in an official game on the 20th of August 2006 against RKC Waalwijk and his team won with 5–0. On 13 August 2006 Ajax, with Ogăraru on the field from the first minute, won the Johan Cruijff-schaal against PSV Eindhoven with 3–1. The goals for Ajax were scored by Mauro Rosales, Kenneth Perez and Wesley Sneijder, for PSV Eindhoven scored Philip Cocu. Ogăraru played only 45 minutes.

The second trophy won by Ogararu with Ajax was the Dutch Cup (KNVB Cup) after eliminating AZ in the final after a penalty shoot-out (he scored there).

On 15 November 2006 he visited his old teammates from Steaua Bucureşti wishing them good luck against Dynamo Kyiv in the UEFA Champions League match and hoping that they will not be facing each other in the UEFA Cup, if Steaua Bucureşti does not get pass the group stage. The Johan Cruijff-schaal was successfully defended in 2007 with the win against PSV Eindhoven with 1–0. Ogăraru only played 25 minutes being injured and was immediately substituted.

Steaua comeback

On 30 August 2008 he was loaned out to Steaua Bucureşti. On June 2009 he returned to Ajax.

Sion

On 30 June 2010 Sion signed the Romanian right-back from Ajax on a free transfer between 30 June 2012.

International career

Ogăraru earned his first cap for Romania on 26 March 2005, in a 2–0 loss against Netherlands. After that match, Victor Piturca repeatedly dropped Ogăraru from the squad saying that he had an average performance at Ajax Amsterdam.

He was called up by Victor Piturca after 2 years and 6 months, on 9 October 2007 against Netherlands, the same team against which he played his last game for Romania. Ogăraru said that he knows the Dutch very well because he plays for Ajax in Eredivisie and most of his club teammates are also called for the Netherlands national football team. Before the match his teammates from Ajax, Hedwiges Maduro and Urby Emanuelson, teased him and told him not to play good against them. The match was won by Romania with 1–0 and the Romanian national football team had enough points to qualify in the next round of Euro 2008, together with Netherlands and leaving Bulgaria out of the next phase of the competition.

Statistics

Season Club Competition Apps Goals
1998/99 Steaua Bucureşti Divizia A 4[1] 0[1]
1999/00 Steaua Bucureşti Divizia A 3[1] 0[1]
2000/01 CSM Reşiţa Divizia B 25 1
2001/02 Oţelul Galaţi Divizia A 20 1
2002/03 Steaua Bucureşti Divizia A 17[1] 0[1]
2003/04 Steaua Bucureşti Divizia A 14[1] 0[1]
2004/05 Steaua Bucureşti Divizia A 27[1] 2[1]
2005/06 Steaua Bucureşti Divizia A 28[1] 1[1]
2006/07 Ajax Eredivisie 28 0
2007/08 Ajax Eredivisie 16 0
2008/09 Steaua Bucureşti Liga I 20 0
2009/10 Ajax Eredivisie 0 0
2010/11 Sion Swiss Super League 28 2
Total 230 7

Honours

Season Club Title
1998–1999 Steaua Bucureşti Romanian Cup
2004–2005 Steaua Bucureşti Romanian League
2005–2006 Steaua Bucureşti Romanian League
2006–2007 AFC Ajax Dutch Supercup
2006–2007 AFC Ajax Dutch Cup
2007–2008 AFC Ajax Dutch Supercup
2010–2011 FC Sion Swiss Cup

Personal life

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cătălin Oprişan, STEAUA, LEGENDA UNEI ECHIPE DE FOTBAL, pagina 381

External links