Cristinel Vasile Pojar (born 19 August 1967) is a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...

n former

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 ...

who spent his entire career at

Universitatea Cluj Fotbal Club Universitatea Cluj (), commonly known as Universitatea Cluj or simply as U Cluj, is a Romanian professional football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I, the first tier of the Romanian ...

. After he ended his playing career he worked as an assistant coach.

Playing career

Cristinel Pojar was born on 19 August 1967 in

Jucu Jucu ( hu, Zsuk; german: Schucken) is a commune in Cluj County, Transylvania, Romania. It is composed of five villages: Gădălin (''Kötelend''), Juc-Herghelie (''Zsukiménes''), Jucu de Mijloc (''Nemeszsuk''), commune centre Jucu de Sus (''Fels ...

Cluj County Cluj County (; german: Kreis Klausenburg, hu, Kolozs megye) is a county (județ) of Romania, in Transylvania. Its seat ( ro, Oraș reședință de județ) is Cluj-Napoca (german: Klausenburg). Name In Hungarian, it is known as ''Kolozs megye' ...

, and started playing junior level football at

, a team where he would spend all of his senior career that started in the

1984–85 Divizia B The 1984–85 Divizia B was the 45th season of the second tier of the Romanian football league system. The format has been maintained to three series, each of them having 18 teams. At the end of the season the winners of the series promoted to ...

season as the team finished it on the first position, thus earning promotion to

Divizia A The Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1, is a Romanian professional league for men's association football clubs. Currently sponsored by betting company Superbet, it is officially known as the SuperLiga. It is the country's top ...

where he made his debut under coach

Remus Vlad Remus Vlad (born 19 January 1946) is a Romanian former professional footballer and manager. Vlad played as a defender. Club career Corvinul Hunedoara Born in Cinciș, Hunedoara County (now, a village under water), Remus Vlad started his caree ...

on 14 September 1985 in a 1–0 away loss in front of Universitatea Craiova. At the end of the 1990–91 season, the team relegated back to

Divizia B The Liga 2, most often 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. It is currently sponsored by Casa Pariurilor, a betting ...

but Pojar stayed with the club, helping it obtain promotion back to the first league after only one year. 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 7 operations at his knees, eventually retiring because of these problems by the end of the 1997–98 season, having a total of 174

matches with four goals scored and 20 appearances with four goals in

, receiving a single red card in his whole career. Pojar also played one game for Romania's under-21 football team when he was sent at halftime by coach

Mircea Rădulescu Mircea Rădulescu (born 31 August 1941, in Bucharest) is a Romanian former football player and manager. Life and career Rădulescu was born in Bucharest and has appeared in nearly 300 football matches. He was a member of Rapid București at ju ...

in order to replace Marcel Sabou in a 3–0 loss in front of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. In October 2011 in order to inaugurate the new

Cluj Arena Cluj Arena () is a multi-purpose stadium in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. It serves as the home of Universitatea Cluj of the Liga II and was completed on 1 October 2011. It is also the home of the Untold Festival. The facility, owned by the county council ...

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 in front of the Russians.

Coaching career

Cristinel Pojar started working as an assistant coach for Tiberiu Poraczky at

in the

1998–99 Divizia A The 1998–99 Divizia A was the eighty-first season of Divizia A, the top-level football league of Romania. Teams League table Positions by round Results Top goalscorers Champion squad References {{DEFAULTSORT:1998-99 Divizi ...

season, afterwards working again for the same team, this time with

Ioan Sabău Ioan Ovidiu Sabău (born 12 February 1968) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player. Club career Ioan Sabău, nicknamed ''Moțul'' after the people from Țara Moților because of his ambition, was born on 12 February 1968 ...

in the 2000–01

Divizia C The Liga 3, most often spelled as Liga III, is the third level of the Romanian football league system. Its name was changed from Divizia C to Liga III before the start of the 2006–07 season. It was the first in this format (six series of 18 t ...

season, helping the team earn promotion to

. In 2004 he started to work as an assistant of

Dan Petrescu Daniel Vasile Petrescu (; born 22 December 1967) is a Romanian football manager and former player, who is currently in charge of Liga I club CFR Cluj. As a player, Petrescu was deployed as a full-back or a winger and represented Premier Le ...

at Sportul Studențesc, following him in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

Wisła Kraków Towarzystwo Sportowe Wisła Kraków Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Wisła Kraków (), is a Polish professional football club based in Kraków. It currently competes in the I liga, the second level of Polish football league system. ...

, returned back to Romania at

Unirea Urziceni Asociația Sportivă Fotbal Club Urziceni, commonly known as FC Urziceni (), is a Romanian professional football club based in Urziceni, Ialomița County which currently plays in fourth division, Ialomița County. Unirea became national champio ...

where they won the

2008–09 Liga I The 2008–09 Liga I was the ninety-first season of Liga I, the top-level football league of Romania. Season began on 26 July 2008 and ended on 10 June 2009. CFR Cluj were the defending champions. Teams Promoted Teams promoted from Liga II at ...

title, afterwards working in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

at Kuban Krasnodar and

Dynamo Moscow MGO VFSO "Dynamo" (russian: МГО ВФСО «Динамо»), commonly known as Dynamo Moscow (russian: Динамо Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. Founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky on 18 April 1923, Dynamo Moscow was the first ...

Honours

Universitatea Cluj *

: 1984–85, 1991–92

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pojar, Cristinel 1967 births Footballers from Cluj County Romanian men's footballers Romania men's under-21 international footballers Men's association football defenders Liga I players Liga II players FC Universitatea Cluj players Living people 20th-century Romanian sportsmen

Playing career

Coaching career

Honours

See also

References