Mihăiță Pleșan

Mihăiță Păunel Pleșan (born 19 February 1983) is a Romanian former professional footballer who played as a central midfielder.

Club career Pleșan was born on 19 February 1983 in Moldova Nouă, Romania and began playing junior-level football at age nine for local club Minerul. He started his senior career at FC Universitatea Craiova, making his Divizia A debut on 14 April 2001 under coach Ilie Balaci in a 2–0 away loss to Astra Ploiești. In the 2004–05 season, Pleșan had the most prolific season of his career by scoring eight goals, including two doubles against CFR Cluj and Gloria Bistrița. However, "U" Craiova was relegated at the end of the season, so Pleșan, along with several other teammates, went to play for Dinamo București.

At Dinamo, Pleșan netted his first goal in September 2005 in a 5–2 win over rivals Rapid București, then he scored another one in November when he opened the score in a 2–1 away victory against FC Vaslui. He played four games under coach Ioan Andone in the 2005–06 UEFA Cup campaign, in which they eliminated Everton with a historical 5–2 on aggregate, reaching the group stage. After only half a season spent at the club, The Red Dogs sold him to Politehnica Timișoara, where he was wanted by coach Gheorghe Hagi, for a fee estimated by the Romanian press between €750,000–800,000. Pleșan helped the team reach the 2007 Cupa României final where coach Valentin Velcea used him in the first 58 minutes of the 2–0 loss to Rapid. He started the 2007–08 season strong by scoring in the first two rounds a goal against Politehnica Iași and a brace against CFR Cluj. Thus, he earned a transfer to Steaua București who paid a fee of €1.5 million, reuniting with coach Hagi. In June 2009, at the end of a game against Unirea Urziceni, Pleșan and teammate Sorin Ghionea got into a fight in the locker room. He made one appearance in the 2008–09 Champions League group stage, a 1–0 home loss to Fiorentina. However, his spell with The Military Men was marked by injuries. After three years at Steaua, including a period playing for the team's satellite, he was transferred by Russian second-tier side, Volga Nizhny Novgorod, for €100,000. He helped them gain promotion to the first league by the end of the season. He made his Russian Premier League debut on 14 March 2011 when coach Omari Tetradze used him the entire match in a 2–0 victory against Tom Tomsk. Pleșan scored his first league goal for Volga on 2 April in a 2–0 win over Dynamo Moscow, then on 11 September he opened the score with a spectacular 25-meter shot in an eventual 2–1 loss to Anzhi Makhachkala. During his time with Volga, he was teammates with fellow Romanians János Székely and Adrian Ropotan.

In September 2013, Pleșan returned to Craiova, signing with second league side CS Universitatea. In the same month, he and other teammates got into a brawl with opponents from ASA Târgu Mureș, receiving a two match ban for his acts. In November, while he was warming up before a derby against his former club, FC Universitatea, he got attacked by the opponents' goalkeeper Andrei Preda. Subsequently, Preda ended up being banned for 16 matches by the Romanian Football Federation's Disciplinary Commission. With him as captain, the team finished the 2013–14 season in first place, earning promotion to Liga I. There, after being used rarely in the first half of the season, 31-year-old Pleșan ended his contract with the club, thus retiring. In his following game, also a friendly, he opened the score when he took the ball 30 meters from the opponents goalpost, managed a slalom between three defenders and finished with a spectacular shot into Oliver Kahn's goal, as Romania earned a 5–1 win over Germany. Afterwards he was compared with Gheorghe Hagi by the Romanian press, and attracted the interest of coach Arsène Wenger, who considered signing him for Arsenal, but the transfer was never fulfilled. In the following years, Pleșan played two games during the 2006 World Cup qualifiers, making his last appearance for The Tricolours in a 2–0 home victory against Slovenia in the Euro 2008 qualifiers.

+ List of international goals scored by Mihăiță PleșanNo.DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition1 28 April 2004 Stadionul Giulești-Valentin Stănescu, Bucharest, Romania 1–0 5–1 Friendly

Honours Politehnica Timișoara Cupa României runner-up: 2006–07

CS Universitatea Craiova Liga II: 2013–14