Gabriel Popescu

Gabriel Popescu (born 25 December 1973) is a Romanian former footballer.

Gabi Popescu
Personal information
Full name Gabriel Popescu
Date of birth (1973-12-25) 25 December 1973
Place of birth Craiova, Dolj County, Romania
Height 1.77 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in)
Position(s) Midfielder
Club information
Current team
 Voluntari (sporting adviser)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1992–1994 Electroputere Craiova 65 (0)
1994–1997 Universitatea Craiova 93 (15)
1997–1998 Salamanca 15 (5)
1998–1999 Valencia 25 (1)
1999–2000 Numancia 7 (1)
2000 Dinamo București 9 (0)
2000–2002 National București 47 (5)
2000–2001 → Universitatea Craiova (loan) 8 (1)
2002–2004 Suwon Samsung Bluewings 59 (12)
2004–2005 National București 11 (1)
2005 JEF United Chiba 7 (1)
Total 346 (41)
National team‡
1996–1998 Romania 14 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 23 December 2009
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 23 December 2009

Career

Popescu went on to represent the Romanian national team 21 times and scored four goals, he was also capped 37 times for the U-21 side. The undoubted highlight of his international career was his appearances at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, where he played in all four Romanian matches, including their dramatic 2–1 victory over England.

Popescu began his career with Romanian side Universitatea Craiova, before moving to Spain where he played with three different La Liga clubs – UD Salamanca, Valencia CF and CD Numancia. After his Spanish spell he returned to Romania firstly with Dinamo București before joining city rivals National București. Popescu then joined Suwon Samsung Bluewings in June 2002, in a double deal that also saw Bosnian-born forward Slaviša Mitrović join the K-League club.

'Gabi', as he was known to Korean fans, made a great impression in the Suwon Samsung Bluewings midfield during his first season, scoring six times in his 24 appearances. He weighed in with another six strikes in the 2003 season to further endear himself to the Suwon Samsung Bluewings fans, but struggled with injury during the close season and was limited to a peripheral role during the first half of 2004.

Popescu was allowed to return to National București on a 6-month loan deal in the summer of 2004, where he linked up again with Slaviša Mitrović. At the end of the year, Popescu completed a switch to Japanese side JEF United Chiba.

Club statistics

[1]

Club performance League Cup League Cup Total
Season Club League AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals
Romania League Cupa României Cupa Ligii Total
1992/93Electroputere CraiovaDivizia A160160
1993/94330330
1994/95160160
1994/95Universitatea CraiovaDivizia A151151
1995/963020302
1996/97297297
1997/98195195
Spain League Copa del Rey Copa de la Liga Total
1997/98SalamancaLa Liga15500155
1998/99ValenciaLa Liga25160311
1999/00NumanciaLa Liga7171
Romania League Cupa României Cupa Ligii Total
1999/00Dinamo BucureștiDivizia A9090
2000/01Naţional BucureștiDivizia A181181
2001/022940294
Korea Republic League FA Cup K-League Cup Total
2002Suwon Samsung BluewingsK-League2460246
20033160316
200440040
Romania League Cupa României Cupa Ligii Total
2004/05Naţional BucureștiDivizia A111111
Japan League Emperor's Cup J.League Cup Total
2005JEF United ChibaJ1 League710075146
CountryRomania 2252122521
Spain 47660536
Korea Republic 59125912
Japan 710075146
Total 33846007535145

Honours

Club
Valencia
Dinamo Bucharest
Suwon Samsung Bluewings
JEF United Chiba

References
  1. Gabriel Popescu at National-Football-Teams.com
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