Gheorghe Craioveanu

Gheorghe 'Gică' Craioveanu (born 14 February 1968 in Hunedoara, Transylvania) is a Romanian retired footballer who played as a striker.

He played most of his professional career in Spain – 11 years out of 18 – representing three teams and amassing totals of 330 games and 70 goals, both major levels combined.

A Romanian international in the 1990s, he represented the nation at the 1998 World Cup.

Club career

After playing for modest clubs, Craioveanu reached Liga I in January 1991 (one month shy of his 23rd birthday) after signing with FC Universitatea Craiova. On 3 March he made his competition debut in a 0–1 away loss against FC Steaua Bucureşti, but his team would eventually win the national championship, with three goals in 13 games from the player; during his spell in Craiova, the club never ranked lower than fourth and also won two domestic cups, while he was also crowned the league's top scorer in 1994 and 1995.

In the 1995 summer, after 49 goals in his last two seasons at Universitatea combined, Craioveanu signed with La Liga outfit Real Sociedad, netting 11 times in his first season as the Basque finished in seventh position. Two years later he joined Villarreal CF which was having its first top flight experience, scoring a career-best – in Spain – 13 goals as the Valencian Community club was immediately relegated back.

Craioveanu was again a very important offensive unit – 38 games, eight goals – as Villarreal promoted back in the year after and, already a veteran, helped to the club's top division consolidation. In 2002 the 34-year old moved to Getafe CF in the second level, scoring 16 goals in 120 appearances over the course of four seasons, and helping the Madrid outfit achieve a first-ever top flight promotion in his second year; he retired in June 2006 at the age of 38, having appeared in 459 league matches during his professional career, scoring a total of 131 goals.

International career

Craioveanu gained 25 caps for Romania, his debut coming on 8 September 1993 in a 4–0 win in the Faroe Islands for the 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign.

His only major tournament was the 1998 World Cup in France, where his output consisted of 34 minutes in the round-of-16 0–1 loss against Croatia.^[1]

Honours

Team

• Romanian League: 1990–91
• Romanian Cup: 1990–91, 1992–93; Runner-up 1993–94

Individual

• Romanian League: Top scorer 1993–94, 1994–95

Post-retirement

After retiring, Craioveanu settled in Getafe (the city of his last club) in Madrid's metropolitan area; during the local elections of 2007, he won a Sports Adviser seat on the local council, running as an independent with backing from the People's Party (PP).^[2][3][4] This was the first suffrage during which Romanian citizens were eligible in other European Union counties, following Romania's European integration.

On 16 June 2007, as a result of a local alliance between the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party and Izquierda Unida, which took away PP's control over the Sports Adviser seat, Craioveanu convened with the PP not to hold a political office, and resigned from the council.^[2][4]

Craioveanu also worked as a co-presenter in La Sexta's football programme Minuto y Resultado, and a radio commentator on Onda Cero. After his first marriage ended in divorce, he remarried with a Spanish woman named Gemma, and eventually fathered two children, one from each union.^[2]

References

External links

• RomanianSoccer profile and stats
• BDFutbol profile
• Gheorghe Craioveanu at National-Football-Teams.com
• Gheorghe Craioveanu – FIFA competition record

v t e Romania squad – 1998 FIFA World Cup 1 Stângaciu 2 Petrescu 3 Dulca 4 Doboș 5 Gâlcă 6 Gheorghe Popescu 7 Lăcătuș 8 Munteanu 9 Moldovan 10 Hagi (c) 11 Ilie 12 Stelea 13 Ciobotariu 14 Niculescu 15 Marinescu 16 Gabriel Popescu 17 Dumitrescu 18 Filipescu 19 Stîngă 20 Selymes 21 Craioveanu 22 Prunea Coach: Iordănescu