Alexandru Pițurcă

Alexandru Victorio Pițurcă (born 28 October 1983) is a retired Romanian footballer.

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Alexandru Pițurcă
Personal information
Full name	Alexandru Victorio Pițurcă
Date of birth	(1983-10-28) 28 October 1983 (age 41)
Place of birth	Bucharest, Romania
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Position(s)	Centre forward
Youth career
1993–2000	Steaua București
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2000–2004	Steaua București	19	(1)
2003	→ Jahn Regensburg (loan)	0	(0)
2003	→ Jahn Regensburg II (loan)	6	(2)
2004–2005	FC Caracal	27	(8)
2005–2006	Universitatea Craiova	11	(0)
2006–2007	CSKA Sofia	4	(2)
2007–2009	Pandurii Târgu Jiu	51	(8)
2009–2010	FC Brașov	5	(0)
2010–2011	Universitatea Craiova	25	(6)
2011	Khazar Lankaran	4	(0)
Total		279	(27)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals as of 14 March 2011

Pițurcă was born on 28 October 1983 in Bucharest, Romania and began playing junior-level football in 1993 at Steaua București.^[1] He made his Divizia A debut on 13 June 2001, playing under the guidance of his father Victor in a 3–3 draw against Argeș Pitești in which he scored one goal.^[1]^[2]^[3] That was his only appearance, as the team won the title at the end of the season.^[1]^[2] He won another trophy when his father sent him in extra time to replace Adrian Neaga in the 2–1 win over rivals Dinamo București in the 2001 Supercupa României.^[1]^[4] Afterwards, Pițurcă made two appearances in the 2001–02 Champions League qualifying rounds, helping them get past Sloga Jugomagnat, but got eliminated in the following round by Dynamo Kyiv.^[1]^[5] He was loaned in 2003 to 2. Bundesliga team Jahn Regensburg, but played there only for the club's satellite team.^[1]^[6]

From 2004 until 2006 he spent two seasons in Divizia B at FC Caracal and Universitatea Craiova, helping the latter win promotion to Divizia A.^[1] In 2006 Pițurcă signed with CSKA Sofia, where he played alongside fellow Romanians Florentin Petre and Eugen Trică.^[1]^[7] He made his debut in the Bulgarian league on 1 October 2006 when coach Plamen Markov sent him in the 68th minute to replace Robert Petrov in a 1–0 away loss to Botev Plovdiv.^[8]^[9] On 28 October he scored a brace in a 6–0 win over Chernomorets Burgas.^[8] Those were his only goals in the four league appearances he made for CSKA.^[1]^[8] In the following years he went to play in the Romanian first league for Pandurii Târgu Jiu, FC Brașov and Universitatea Craiova.^[1] At the latter, on 14 November 2010, he netted a double in a 2–2 draw against Dinamo.^[10] On 3 December 2010, he made his last Divizia A appearance in "U" Craiova's 2–1 away loss to CFR Cluj, having a total of 100 matches with 15 goals in the competition.^[1] Pițurcă retired in 2011 at age 27, after playing in the Azerbaijan Premier League for Khazar Lankaran under coach Mircea Rednic.^[1]^[11]

Career