Bogdan Lobonț

Bogdan Ionuț Lobonț (; born 18 January 1978) is a Romanian professional football coach and former player who played as a goalkeeper, currently technical director at Liga III club CSM Olimpia Satu Mare.

He amassed 86 appearances for the Romania national team between 1998 and 2018, representing the country in two European Championships. He was popularly nicknamed ''Pisica'' ("The Cat") in Romania, due to his quick reflexes and relative small body frame for a goalkeeper.

Club career

Corvinul Hunedoara

Bogdan Lobonț was born on 18 January 1978 in Hunedoara, Romania, starting to play junior level football at age 12 at local club, Corvinul under the guidance of coach Marian Ioniță. He started to play at senior level during the 1995–96 Divizia B when coach Gabriel Stan used him in a 1–1 against Suceava, having an appreciated evolution. In the following season, he appeared more often, helping the team finish in seventh place.

Rapid București

In 1997, Rică Răducanu noticed his talent after watching a training session of Corvinul, then recommended him to Rapid București's manager, Mircea Lucescu. Lobonț made his Divizia A debut on 2 August 1997, keeping a clean sheet in a 0–0 against Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț. At the end of his first season at Rapid, he won the first trophy of his career, the 1997–98 Cupa României, being used all the minutes by Lucescu in the final where he kept a clean sheet in the 1–0 win over Universitatea Craiova. In the following season he made 31 appearances in the league as the club won the title. During the middle of the 1999–2000 season, he was sold by Rapid to Ajax for $3 million.

Ajax Amsterdam and Dinamo București

He made his Ajax debut on 26 November 2000 when coach Co Adriaanse sent him on the field in the 18th minute of an away Eredivisie match with Utrecht in order to replace Shota Arveladze because the starting goalkeeper, Fred Grim received a red card, eventually conceding two goals as the match ended with a 2–1 loss.

He was loaned by Ajax to Dinamo București for the 2001–02 season, where he was used by coaches Cornel Dinu and Marin Ion in 22 league games, including a clean sheet in a 2–0 win from the derby with Steaua București, helping the squad win the title, being the team's first choice goalkeeper in front of Florin Prunea. He also played in the 2–1 loss to his former team, Rapid from the 2002 Cupa României final.

Upon his return to Ajax, he became the team's primary goalkeeper, playing four games in the 2002–03 Champions League second group stage against Arsenal, Valencia and Roma which were all draws, conceding only three goals, helping them qualify to the quarter-finals. There they met AC Milan and after managing to keep a clean sheet in the draw from the first leg, in the second one the team was close to the semi-finals qualification but in stoppage time Filippo Inzaghi burst clear to reach a flick-on and lifted the ball over Lobonț and Jon Dahl Tomasson touched the ball over the line for a 3–2 victory against Ajax for the eventual winners of the competition. In the following season, he was used by coach Ronald Koeman in 24 league games as Ajax won the title. In the same season, he played six games in the Champions League group stage, keeping two clean sheets in victories against Club Brugge and Celta Vigo but they lost the other games, finishing the group on the last place. In the following year and a half, he played rarely but still made two appearances in the 2004–05 Champions League group stage, a 3–0 home win over Maccabi Tel Aviv and a 4–0 away loss to Bayern Munich.

Lobonț's performances at Ajax were also limited by injuries and competition with Maarten Stekelenburg. During his spell with the ''Sons of the Gods'', he was colleague with fellow Romanians Cristian Chivu and Nicolae Mitea, also developing a good friendship with Zlatan Ibrahimović.

Fiorentina

In January 2006, Lobonț was transferred from Ajax to Italian Serie A club Fiorentina for 1.5 million € as ''The Violets'' needed a goalkeeper after the injury of Sébastien Frey. He made his Serie A debut on 29 January when coach Cesare Prandelli sent him on the field in 59th minute in order to replace Gianluca Berti, managing to not concede a goal in the 0–0 draw against Udinese. He played regularly along compatriot Adrian Mutu until the end of the season, then in the first half of the following season he did not play anymore as Frey recovered from his injury.

Return to Dinamo București

Because he had also lost his place on the Romania national team, Lobonț made a surprise move back to Dinamo București in January 2007, who paid €750,000 for his transfer, also he accepted a much lower salary, earning with €545,000 less than the contract with the Italians. He was used in 14 league games by coach Mircea Rednic in the second half of the 2006–07 season as the team won the title. He also appeared in both legs from the 3–1 loss on aggregate to Benfica from the sixteenths-finals of the 2006–07 UEFA Cup. In the following season, Dinamo had the objective of reaching the Champions League group stage, in the 1–1 draw from the first leg of the third qualifying round against Lazio Roma, Lobonț saved a penalty kick executed by Tommaso Rocchi. However the qualification was lost after the 3–1 defeat from the second leg. For his performances achieved in 2007, Lobonț was placed second in the ranking for the Romanian Footballer of the Year award, behind Adrian Mutu.

Roma

On 31 August 2009, Italian Serie A team Roma signed Lobonț in a co-ownership deal from Dinamo, with an option for the club to buy him outright at the end of the season, for a fee of €1.5 million. He made his first appearance for the ''Giallorossi'' on 4 October, coming off the bench after 23 minutes in order to replace injured Júlio Sérgio in a 2–1 win over Napoli, conceding a goal from Ezequiel Lavezzi shortly after entering the field. His second appearance was in a 3–0 victory against CSKA Sofia from the 2009–10 Europa League group stage for which he was praised by the Italian press. Lobonț started the following season by playing under the guidance of coach Claudio Ranieri in the 3–1 loss to Inter Milan from Supercoppa Italiana, afterwards making three appearances in the 2010–11 Champions League group stage, consisting of a victory and a draw with CFR Cluj but also a loss to Basel.

On 4 March 2012, he came on against Lazio because of Stekelenburg's red card. Because of starter Maarten Stekelenburg's injury, he was the temporary first goalkeeper in seven matches in the 2011–12 season. In the 2012–13 Coppa Italia season, the team reached the final where coach Aurelio Andreazzoli used him in the 1–0 loss to Lazio.

On 1 July 2013, Lobonț signed a new three-year contract with Roma which would keep him at the club until 2016.
Even though he had not featured in a Roma match for about four years, in 2016 he extended his contract with the team yet again, making Roma the last team of his playing career.

International career

Bogdan Lobonț played 86 matches at international level for Romania, making his debut on 2 September 1998 when coach Victor Pițurcă sent him on the field in the 82nd minute to replace Bogdan Stelea in a 7–0 victory over Liechtenstein at the successful Euro 2000 qualifiers where he would make three further more appearances as a starter in three victories, two over Azerbaijan and one with Hungary, keeping a clean sheet in all of them. He was selected by coach Emerich Jenei to be part of the squad that participated at the Euro 2000 final tournament, but did not play in any games there.

In the following years, he appeared in three games at the 2002 World Cup qualifiers, including another win with a clean sheet kept over rivals Hungary, then playing in four games at the Euro 2004 qualifiers in which he conceded three goals of which two were from penalty kicks. Afterwards, Lobonț established himself as a key member for Romania, appearing in eleven games at the 2006 World Cup qualifiers and in ten matches from the successful Euro 2008 qualifiers where he conceded only six goals, keeping four clean sheets including in a historical 1–0 home win over Netherlands. At the final tournament, he was used by Pițurcă in all the minutes in the three group stage matches, a 0–0 against world cup finalists France, followed by a praised performance in the 1–1 against world champions Italy, then the 2–0 loss to Netherlands as the campaign ended.

After playing five games, in which he conceded ten goals at the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, he appeared in only one at the Euro 2012 qualifiers and four at the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, including a 3–1 loss to Greece from the qualification play-off, after which he retired from the national team. When former teammate, Cosmin Contra became coach, Lobonț came back for one final game on 5 June 2018, earning his final cap for Romania when he entered the field in order to replace Ciprian Tătărușanu for the final minutes of a 2–0 friendly win against Finland at the Ilie Oană Stadium in Ploiești.

On 25 March 2008, he was decorated by the president of Romania, Traian Băsescu, for his performances in the Euro 2008 qualifiers, receiving the Medalia "Meritul Sportiv" – ("The Sportive Merit" Medal) class III.

Managerial career

Bogdan Lobonț started coaching in January 2019 at Liga II side, Universitatea Cluj, finishing the season on the third place, then playing a promotion play-off with FC Hermannstadt which was lost with 3–0 on aggregate.

Afterwards, he worked as an assistant of Cosmin Contra at Romania's national team for a few months, then he was a scout for Roma. He left Roma to coach Romania's under-20 side for about a year in friendly matches, gaining three 2–1 victories over Poland, Czech Republic and Portugal, but also suffering some severe defeats, as 1–6 with England, 0–7 with Italy or 0–5 to Switzerland.

In August 2023, he got appointed as the goalkeeper coach of Rapid București. By the end of the 2023–24 season, after head coach Cristiano Bergodi was dismissed, Lobonț was selected to lead the team for the final rounds of the season but his spell was rather unsuccessful as the team lost four matches, made a draw and earned only one victory in the last round in a derby against FCSB. After Neil Lennon was appointed head coach of Rapid, he remained in his staff as an assistant, however after a poor start in the 2024–25 season, Lennon was replaced with Marius Șumudică and Lobonț left the club.

Career statistics

Club

International

Managerial statistics

Honours

Rapid București
*Divizia A: 1998–99
*Cupa României: 1997–98
*Supercupa României: 1999
Ajax
*Eredivisie: 2003–04
*Johan Cruyff Shield: 2002, 2005, 2006
Dinamo București
*Liga I: 2001–02, 2006–07
*Cupa României runner-up: 2001–02
*Supercupa României runner-up: 2007
Roma
*Coppa Italia runner-up: 2009–10, 2012–13
*Supercoppa Italiana runner-up: 2010
Individual
*''Gazeta Sporturilor'' Romanian Footballer of the Year runner-up: 2007

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lobont, Bogdan
1978 births
Living people
Footballers from Hunedoara
Romanian men's footballers
Men's association football goalkeepers
FC Corvinul Hunedoara players
FC Rapid București players
AFC Ajax players
FC Dinamo București players
ACF Fiorentina players
AS Roma players
Liga I players
Liga II players
Eredivisie players
Serie A players
Romania men's under-21 international footballers
Romania men's international footballers
UEFA Euro 2000 players
UEFA Euro 2008 players
Romanian expatriate men's footballers
Romanian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands
Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands
Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Italy
Expatriate men's footballers in Italy
Romanian football managers
Liga I managers
Liga II managers
FC Universitatea Cluj managers
FC Rapid București managers
FC Rapid București non-playing staff