Gheorghe Craioveanu
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Gheorghe Craioveanu | ||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 14 February 1968 | ||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Hunedoara, Romania | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.82 m (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in) | ||||||||||||||
| Playing position | Striker | ||||||||||||||
| Youth career | |||||||||||||||
| Constructorul Slatina | |||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||
| 1988 | Constructorul Slatina | ||||||||||||||
| 1989–1990 | Metalurgistul Slatina | ||||||||||||||
| 1990 | Drobeta-Turnu Severin | ||||||||||||||
| 1991–1995 | Universitatea Craiova | 129 | (61) | ||||||||||||
| 1995–1998 | Real Sociedad | 90 | (26) | ||||||||||||
| 1998–2002 | Villarreal | 120 | (28) | ||||||||||||
| 2002–2006 | Getafe | 120 | (16) | ||||||||||||
| National team | |||||||||||||||
| 1993–1999 | Romania | 25 | (4) | ||||||||||||
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Honours
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| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Gheorghe 'Gică' Craioveanu (born 14 February 1968) 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, Craioveanu represented the nation at the 1998 World Cup.
Craioveanu was born in Hunedoara, Transylvania. After playing for modest clubs he 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 side Real Sociedad, netting 11 times in his first season to help the Basque finish 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.
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