Ștefan Preda

Ștefan Gabriel Preda (born 18 June 1970) is a former Romanian professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, currently goalkeeping coach at Liga I club Farul Constanța and the Romania national team.

Club career Preda was born on 18 June 1970 in Ploiești, Romania and began playing football in 1992 at Minerul Filipești in Divizia C. Shortly afterwards he joined Petrolul Ploiești where he made his Divizia A debut on 13 June 1993 under coach Marin Ion in a 3–1 home win over Farul Constanța. He helped the club win the 1994–95 Cupa României, playing the entire match under coach Ion in the penalty shoot-out victory against Rapid București in the final. He started the next season by playing in the 2–0 loss to Steaua București in the 1995 Supercupa României. Subsequently, he made four appearances in the 1995–96 Cup Winners' Cup campaign as The Yellow Wolves got past Wrexham in the qualifying round, being eliminated by Rapid Wien in the following one.

In the middle of the 1997–98 season, Preda left Petrolul to join Dinamo București. He then played in both legs of the 7–4 aggregate loss to Polonia Warsaw in the 2000–01 Champions League second qualifying round. In the same season he won another Cupa României, but coach Dinu used Florin Prunea in the 4–2 victory in the final against Rocar București.

For the second half of the 2000–01 season, Preda went to play for Astra Ploiești. In the 2002–03 season he played in the first half for Dinamo and in the second for Argeș Pitești. He also helped the club get past Shakhtar Donetsk in the 2003–04 UEFA Cup, being eliminated in the following round by Spartak Moscow. In the same season he made three appearances in the second league for Dinamo's satellite team Poiana Câmpina.

Afterwards, he returned to Argeș Pitești, where on 1 October 2005 he made his last Divizia A appearance in a 2–0 away loss to Farul Constanța, totalling 290 matches in the competition and 11 games in European competitions. His following two games took place in February 1995, the results being a 1–0 loss to Greece and a 1–1 draw against Turkey.

International stats

Managerial career Preda started his managerial career in 2006, as head coach at Liga II team Chimia Brazi, a position he held until 2007. He returned to Chimia in 2008, remaining there until 2009.

Since 2014, Preda has worked as a goalkeeper coach at teams such as Steaua București, Viitorul Constanța and Farul Constanța.

Personal life In 1994, Preda was named Honorary Citizen of Bucharest.

Honours Petrolul Ploiești Cupa României: 1994–95 Supercupa României runner-up: 1995 Dinamo București Divizia A: 1999–2000, 2003–04 Cupa României: 1999–00, 2000–01, 2003–04