Cristinel Pojar

Cristinel Vasile Pojar (born 19 August 1967) is a Romanian former footballer who spent his entire career at Universitatea Cluj.^[1][2][3][4] After he ended his playing career he worked as an assistant coach.^[2][3][4]

Cristinel Pojar

Personal information
Full name	Cristinel Vasile Pojar[1]
Date of birth	(1967-08-19) 19 August 1967 (age 58)[1]
Place of birth	Jucu, Romania[1]
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)[1]
Position(s)	Defender / Defensive midfielder[1]
Youth career
0000–1984	Universitatea Cluj
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1984–1998	Universitatea Cluj	194	(8)
Total		194	(8)
International career
1986	Romania U21	1	(0)
Managerial career
1998–1999	Universitatea Cluj (assistant)
2000–2001	Universitatea Cluj (assistant)
2002–2003	Politehnica Timișoara (assistant)
2003	Apulum Alba Iulia (assistant)
2003–2004	Universitatea Cluj (assistant)
2004–2005	Sportul Studențesc (assistant)
2005–2006	Wisła Kraków (assistant)
2006–2009	Unirea Urziceni (assistant)
2009–2012	Kuban Krasnodar (assistant)
2012–2014	Dynamo Moscow (assistant)
2021–2023	Universitatea Cluj (scouting director)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals as of 1 January 2020

Club career

"Pojar never backed down, he always fought on the field, with all his strength. He was and remains a hard man"

–Remus Câmpeanu, former "U" Cluj president^[3]

Pojar was born on 19 August 1967 in Jucu, Cluj County, and started playing junior level football at Universitatea Cluj, a team where he would spend all of his senior career that started in the 1984–85 Divizia B season as the team finished it on the first position.^[1][5][6] In the following season he made his Divizia A debut under coach Remus Vlad on 14 September 1985 in a 1–0 away loss to Universitatea Craiova.^[1][5][7] At the end of the 1990–91 season, the team relegated back to Divizia B but Pojar stayed with the club, helping it promote back to the first league after only one year.^[1] At age 27 he suffered an injury which kept him off the field for two years and after he started playing again he suffered a cruciate ligament injury, having a total of seven operations at his knees, eventually retiring because of these problems by the end of the 1997–98 season, having a total of 174 Divizia A matches with four goals scored and 20 appearances with four goals in Divizia B, receiving a single red card in his whole career.^[1][2][3][4] In October 2011 in order to inaugurate the new Cluj Arena stadium, "U" Cluj organized a friendly match with the team where Pojar was working as an assistant, Kuban Krasnodar and with this occasion the match was also used as the retirement match for Pojar as he played again a few minutes for "U" Cluj, the game ending with a 4–0 loss to the Russians.^{[2][3][8][9][10]}

International career

Pojar played one game for Romania's under-21 team when he was sent at halftime by coach Mircea Rădulescu in order to replace Marcel Sabou in a 3–0 loss against Norway.^[5][11][12]

Coaching career

Pojar started working as an assistant coach for Tiberiu Poraczky at Universitatea Cluj in the 1998–99 Divizia A season, afterwards working again for the same team, this time with Ioan Sabău in the 2000–01 Divizia C season, helping them earn promotion to Divizia B.^[3][13][14] In 2004 he started to work as an assistant of Dan Petrescu at Sportul Studențesc, following him in Poland at Wisła Kraków, then they came back to Romania at Unirea Urziceni where they won the 2008–09 Liga I title, afterwards working in Russia at Kuban Krasnodar and Dynamo Moscow.^{[2][3][4][8][9][15]}

Honours

Universitatea Cluj

• Divizia B: 1984–85, 1991–92^[1]

See also

• List of one-club men in association football