Bogdan Stelea

International career Early years and 1990 World Cup Stelea played 91 games for Romania in which he conceded 72 goals, making his debut on 23 November 1988 when coach Emerich Jenei sent him to replace Silviu Lung for the last 20 minutes of a 3–0 friendly victory against Israel. His second game was a 1–0 victory against Bulgaria in the successful 1990 World Cup qualifiers. Florin Prunea was chosen to play in the other three games of the campaign.

1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 Stelea played eight games in the successful 1998 World Cup qualifiers. He went on to play seven matches during the successful Euro 2000 qualifiers.

Final years Stelea played seven games during the 2002 World Cup qualifiers, including the lost play-off to Slovenia. He made his final appearance for the national team on 9 February 2005 in a 2–2 friendly draw against Slovakia.

For representing his country during 1990–2000 at the World and European Cups final tournaments, Stelea was decorated by President of Romania Traian Băsescu on 25 March 2008 with the Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" – (The Medal "The Sportive Merit") class III.

Controversies On 3 June 1998, during a friendly against Paraguay, played at the Ghencea stadium, Stelea was booed by the fans after conceding a goal by Roberto Acuña and in response he made some obscene gestures towards them. He later stated that he had a moment of weakness because his child was very sick in the hospital at that time.

Managerial career Stelea started his coaching career in 2009, when he worked as an assistant for Romania's national team under Răzvan Lucescu, who had been his coach at his last club, FC Brașov. On 6 June 2012, Stelea became head coach of Astra Ploiești, but two months later, following a home draw against CS Turnu Severin, he was sacked and replaced with Gheorghe Mulțescu. Afterwards he went to coach for a year Romania's under-21 national team from 2013 until 2014. In June 2014, Stelea accepted an offer from his former national team colleague Gheorghe Hagi to coach his club Viitorul Constanța, but resigned after not obtaining any victory in the first four rounds of the season.

Personal life His son, Bogdan Stelea Jr., was also a footballer who played as a defender and spent his career in the lower leagues of Romania, playing for teams such as FC Snagov and Chindia Târgoviște.

In 1994, Stelea was named Honorary Citizen of Bucharest.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours Dinamo București Divizia A: 1989–90, 1991–92 Cupa României: 1989–90, 2004–05 Standard Liège Belgian Super Cup runner-up: 1993 Steaua București Divizia A: 1995–96, 1996–97 Cupa României: 1995–96, 1996–97 Supercupa României: 1995 Rapid București Cupa României: 2001–02 Unirea Urziceni Cupa României runner-up: 2007–08 Individual Romanian Footballer of the Year (fourth place): 1998