Cosmin Gabriel Matei (; born 30 September 1991) is a Romanian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as an

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

or a winger for

Liga I Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

club Sepsi OSK. Matei started out his senior career at Farul Constanța in 2008, and has since represented Steaua București,

Astra Ploiești Asociația Fotbal Club Astra Giurgiu (), commonly known as Astra Giurgiu or simply Astra, was a Romanian Association football, football Club (organization), club last based in the city of Giurgiu, Giurgiu County. Founded in 1921 in Ploiești as ' ...

Dinamo București A dynamo is a magnetic device originally used as an electric generator. Dynamo or Dinamo may also refer to: Places * Dinamo (Moscow Metro), a station of the Moscow Metro, Moscow, Russia * Dinamo (Yekaterinburg Metro), a station of the Yekaterin ...

Viitorul Constanța ''Viitorul'' ("The Future") was a daily newspaper published in the Kingdom of Romania, out of Bucharest, as a central organ of the National Liberal Party (PNL). It was formed just months after peasants' revolt of March 1907, being originally li ...

and Sepsi OSK in his country. Abroad, he competed for teams in Greece, Turkey and Croatia, respectively. Internationally, Matei earned

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for Romania at under-17, under-19 and under-21 levels, before making his full debut in May 2014.

Club career

Farul Constanța

Matei made his

debut for Farul Constanța on 18 October 2008, in a match against Politehnica Timișoara.

Steaua București

Matei was transferred to Steaua București in July 2010. On 22 August, he recorded his league debut by coming on as a 85th-minute substitute for Romeo Surdu in a 3–0 win over

Vaslui Vaslui (), a city in eastern Romania, is the seat of Vaslui County, in the historical region of Western Moldavia. The city administers five villages: Bahnari, Brodoc, Moara Grecilor, Rediu, and Viișoara. History Archaeological surveys indicate t ...

. On 4 September 2010, Matei made his debut for Steaua's reserves in a

Liga II The Liga 2, most commonly spelled as Liga II, is the second level of the Romanian football league system. The league changed its name from Divizia B just before the start of the 2006–07 Liga II, 2006–07 football season. It is currently Sponso ...

game against Juventus București, entering in the 17th minute as they won 1–0.

Astra Ploiești

In June 2011, Matei was transferred to

. He did not impress during his stint in

Prahova County Prahova County () is a county (județ) of Romania, in the Historical regions of Romania, historical region Muntenia, with the capital city at Ploiești. Demographics In 2011, it had a population of 762,886 and the population density was 161/k ...

, appearing in only five matches without scoring.

Dinamo București

In August 2012, Matei penned down a five-year contract with

, the cross-town rival of his former club Steaua. He scored his first goal in a game against Universitatea Cluj, on 2 May that year.

Atromitos

In January 2016, Matei moved abroad for the first time after joining Greek club

Atromitos Atromitos (Greek: Ατρόμητος, "fearless") may refer to: * Atromitos F.C., a football team based in Peristeri, Greece * Atromitos Piraeus, a football team based in Piraeus, Greece * Atromitos Yeroskipou Atromitos Yeroskipou () was a Cy ...

for an undisclosed transfer fee.

Gençlerbirliği

On 10 August 2016,

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...

side Gençlerbirliği announced the signing of Matei on a three-year deal.

Viitorul Constanța

On 26 August 2019, Matei returned to Romania by agreeing to a two-year contract with

Return to Dinamo București

In September 2021, Matei returned to Dinamo București as one of the experienced players in a youth-oriented squad. After several unconvincing performances, he was excluded from the first team in December 2021 by manager

Mircea Rednic Mircea Rednic (born 9 April 1962) is a Romanian professional football coach and former player who played as a defender, who is currently the head coach of Belgian Pro League club Standard Liège. Playing career Corvinul Hunedoara Rednic, ni ...

. He resumed trainings the following month after Rednic's dismissal, but Dinamo continued its poor results which led to the first relegation in the club history. Matei became the first player to depart Dinamo after the relegation, only three days after featuring 73 minutes in the decisive promotion/relegation play-off match against Universitatea Cluj.

Sepsi OSK

On 2 June 2022, shortly after Dinamo București's relegation, Matei remained in the Liga I by signing a two-year contract with Sepsi OSK. He made his debut on 9 July, in a 2–1 victory over

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ) or simply CFR, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I. Founded as ''Kolozsvári Vasut ...

in the

Supercupa României The Supercupa României () is a Romanian football (soccer), football championship contested by the winners of the Liga I and the Cupa României. It is usually played at the Arena Națională in Bucharest. The competition started off in 1994 Supe ...

International career

Matei made his debut for the Romania national team in a friendly against

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

played in Switzerland, in May 2014.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Steaua București *

Cupa României The Cupa României () is a Association football, football cup competition for List of football clubs in Romania, Romanian teams which has been held annually since 1933–34 Cupa României, 1933–34, except during World War II. It is the Romania ...

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

Dinamo București *Cupa României: 2011–12 *

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

Sepsi OSK *Cupa României:

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

*Supercupa României:

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Individual *

Player of the Month: April 2014Jucătorul lunii aprilie
; Digisport.ro, 28 April 2014

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Matei, Cosmin 1991 births Living people Footballers from Târgoviște Romanian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Liga I players FCV Farul Constanța players FCSB players FC Astra Giurgiu players FC Dinamo București players Super League Greece players Atromitos F.C. players Süper Lig players TFF 1. Lig players Gençlerbirliği S.K. footballers Croatian Football League players NK Istra 1961 players FC Viitorul Constanța players Sepsi OSK Sfântu Gheorghe players Romania men's youth international footballers Romania men's under-21 international footballers Romania men's international footballers Romanian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Croatia Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Croatia 21st-century Romanian sportsmen