Sergiu Radu

Sergiu Radu
Sergiu Marian Radu (born 10 August 1977) is a former Romanian professional footballer who played as forward in Romania, France, and Germany at top tier level (i.e. Liga I, Ligue 1, and Bundesliga respectively). He had also earned one cap for Romania's national team in 2007 in a match against Belarus. During the late part of his career, he also played in 2. Bundesliga.
He was champion with Rapid Bucharest at the end of the 1990s, having won a Liga I (then known as Divizia A) title by the end of the 1998–99 season and a Supercupa României with the same Romanian side.
Club career
Sergiu Radu was born on 10 August 1977 in Râmnicu Vâlcea and started playing junior level football in his native Romania at Petrolul Drăgășani, afterwards moving to FC Vâlcea, ending his junior period at Viitorul Oradea. He started his senior career at Jiul Petroșani where he made his Divizia A debut on 25 August 1996 in a 1–0 victory against Dinamo București. In the following season Radu played for Olimpia Satu Mare in Divizia B, scoring 12 goals that helped the team finish the championship on the first place and gain promotion to Divizia A. He was transferred by coach Mircea Lucescu at Rapid București where in his first season he scored two goals in 15 appearances which helped the club win the 1998–99 Divizia A title and helped the club reach the Cupa României final in which he was not used by Lucescu as the team lost with 3–2 in front of Steaua București, also assistant coach Nicolae Manea gave him the nickname "Schijă" (The Shrapnel) after he described Radu's style of play as "quick and penetrating like a shrapnel bouncing off a bomb". In the following season he scored a hat-trick against Steaua in the 5–0 victory from the Supercupa României and 11 league goals as the team finished on the second place, while in the middle of the 2000–01 season he went to play for Național București, the highlights of this period being a runner-up position with Cosmin Olăroiu coach in the 2001–02 season and in the following one when the team was coached by Walter Zenga he scored 12 goals in the league, played from halftime when he replaced Stelian Carabaș in the 1–0 loss in front of Dinamo from the Cupa României final and appeared in all six matches from the UEFA Cup campaign as the team eliminated Tirana against whom he scored two goals, Heerenveen, being defeated with 3–0 on aggregate by Ronaldinho's Paris Saint-Germain.
In 2003 Radu made his first move to a foreign club, Le Mans in France, however this was not a successful period and after 13 Ligue 1 goalless matches he returned to Național where he made his last Divizia A appearance on 11 June 2005 in a 2–1 victory in which he scored a goal against FCM Bacău, having a total of 151 matches played with 45 goals scored in the competition, also during his spells with Rapid and Național he played the only 14 games in European competitions of his career in which he scored two goals. He moved to Germany in 2005 to join Energie Cottbus in 2. Bundesliga, the club won promotion in 2006, with Radu's contribution being 12 goals in 33 games. In the following season he made a couple in the team's offence with fellow Romanian Vlad Munteanu, they were nicknamed by the German press "The Twins of the Goal" as through the season Radu was the team's top-goalscorer by scoring a personal record of 14 goals while Munteanu netted the goal 11 times which together are over half of the total 38 goals scored by the team that helped it avoid relegation. In the summer of 2007 he and Vlad Munteanu were transferred by VfL Wolfsburg who paid 4.5 million€ for them of which 3 were for Radu. After in the first half of the 2007–08 Bundesliga season he was used by coach Felix Magath in 11 matches in which he scored two goals, Radu was sent for the second half on loan at fellow Bundesliga side VfB Stuttgart where he hoped that if he would be seen playing alongside Romanian international Ciprian Marica he would have more chances of being called-up at the national team by coach Victor Pițurcă but the spell ended being unsuccessful as he made only two league appearances, coach Armin Veh preferring to use Cacau or Mario Gómez instead of him. After not being part of Magath's plans for The Wolves in the 2008–09 season he was loaned again this time at 1. FC Köln where coach Christoph Daum gave him his last 16 Bundesliga appearances in which he scored two goals, one of them being in a 1–1 against Wolfsburg, earning a total of 63 games with 18 goals scored in the competition.
He returned to Energie Cottbus in 2. Bundesliga when on 17 July 2009 he signed a three-year contract but ended up spending only one and a half years, having fellow Romanians Emil Jula and Ovidiu Burcă as teammates. In the middle of the 2010–11 2. Bundesliga season Radu signed with Alemannia Aachen and scored on his debut in the 4–2 win against Karlsruher but decided to end his career at the end of the following season as the team relegated to 3. Liga, having a career total of 104 2. Bundesliga appearances with 19 goals scored.
International career
In 2007, during his prolific season spent at Energie Cottbus together with Vlad Munteanu, the Romanian press insisted that they should be called-up for the national team but coach Victor Pițurcă did not accept saying about the Bundesliga championship:"It's not what it once was! The clubs are at a low level and the players are of average value." However later that year, in September after he was transferred at VfL Wolfsburg, Radu was called-up by Pițurcă to play for Romania as a starter until he was replaced in the 57th minute with Florentin Petre in a 3–1 away victory against Belarus at the Euro 2008 qualifiers.
Honours
Olimpia Satu Mare
Divizia B: 1997–98
Rapid București
Divizia A: 1998–99
Supercupa României: 1999
References
External links
1977 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Râmnicu Vâlcea
Romanian men's footballers
Romania men's international footballers
Men's association football forwards
Liga I players
CSM Jiul Petroșani players
FC Olimpia Satu Mare players
FC Rapid București players
FC Progresul București players
Ligue 1 players
Le Mans FC players
Bundesliga players
2. Bundesliga players
FC Energie Cottbus players
VfL Wolfsburg players
VfB Stuttgart players
1. FC Köln players
Alemannia Aachen players
Romanian expatriate men's footballers
Expatriate men's footballers in France
Expatriate men's footballers in Germany
Romanian expatriate sportspeople in France
Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Germany