Constantin Gâlcă

Constantin Gâlcă
Personal information
Date of birth (1972-03-08) 8 March 1972
Place of birth Bucharest, Romania
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Playing position Midfielder
Club information
Current team
 Al-Taawoun (manager)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1988–1989 Progresul București
1989–1991 Argeș Pitești 35 (2)
1991–1996 Steaua București 148 (24)
1996–1997 Mallorca 34 (13)
1997–2001 Espanyol 123 (16)
2001–2003 Villarreal 38 (1)
2003 → Zaragoza (loan) 24 (0)
2003–2006 Almería 98 (4)
Total 500 (60)
National team
1993–2005 Romania 68 (4)
Teams managed
2009–2010 Almería B
2013–2014 Romania U17
2014–2015 Steaua București
2015–2016 Espanyol
2016– Al-Taawoun

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.


Constantin Gâlcă (born 8 March 1972) is a Romanian retired footballer, and a current manager of Saudi club Al-Taawoun.

Equally at ease as defensive or central midfielder with an accurate long-range shot, he first made a name for himself at Steaua București, then proceeded to spend one full decade in Spain, playing in 318 matches in both major levels combined and representing five clubs.

Additionally, Gâlcă appeared for Romania in two World Cups and as many European Championships, gaining 68 caps.[1] In 2009, he started working as a manager.

Playing career

Club

Born in Bucharest, Gâlcă's senior career began at age 16 in the third division, with FC Progresul București. Only one year after he switched to the Liga I with lowly FC Argeș Pitești, for whom he played four times towards the end of the season, soon breaking into the Romanian national under-21 team.

After one more season with solid displays (31 games, two goals), Gâlcă signed with country giants FC Steaua București, immediately beginning to produce: in his debut campaign he scored five times in 26 matches, including twice from long-range.

Gâlcă stayed at Steaua two more seasons, netting 13 goals combined. After winning the cup and having appeared in nearly 200 official matches, he left for Spain where he would remain the next 11 years. First stop was RCD Mallorca in the Balearic Islands,[2] for which he scored 13 times to help to a promotion to La Liga (that total was tied for squad best). He then experienced a steady period with Barcelona's RCD Espanyol, scoring five goals in his third season, which also ended with conquest of the Copa del Rey.

In the 2001 summer Gâlcă signed with Villarreal CF, but was deemed surplus to requirements midway through his second year, which he finished in the second division on loan to Real Zaragoza, being instrumental as it returned to the top flight after one year of absence by starting in all his appearances.

Gâlcă still had three more solid seasons in the country, with second division's UD Almería, playing 40 contests in his last season, one year before the Andalusians first reached the top division. He eventually returned to the national team with this team in 2005 – after a three-year absence – and retired in June 2006 at the age of 34.

International

Galca made his full debut for Romania on 22 September 1993, against Israel in a friendly. Called up for the 1994 FIFA World Cup he played three times during the tournament, against the United States in the group stage, in the famous 3–2 round-of-16 success against Argentina and in the penalty shootout defeat to Sweden in the last-eight.[1]

From 1996 to 2000 Gâlcă featured in over forty more international games for Romania, often pairing with Dorinel Munteanu in central midfield. During the qualifying phase for the 1998 World Cup the national side was undefeated in its ten group matches, drawing only once and netting 37 goals, with him scoring two. In those finals and UEFA Euro 2000 the country was beaten, respectively, in the last-16 and last-eight, as he started in every contest.

International goals

Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first. "Score" column indicates the score after the player's goal.
Goal Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1. 24 April 1996 Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania  Georgia 5–0 5–0 Friendly
2. 31 August 1996 Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania  Lithuania 3–0 3–0 1998 World Cup qualification
3. 20 August 1997 Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania  Macedonia 2–0 4–2 1998 World Cup qualification
4. 10 September 1997 Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania  Iceland 3–0 4–0 1998 World Cup qualification

Managerial career

Established in Almería after his playing days, Gâlcă took up coaching in 2009–10, starting with Almería's B-team in the fourth tier. He was sacked on 19 January 2010, after a string of poor results.[3]

On 20 August 2013, Gâlcă was named head coach of Romania under-17s. He ended his contract in June 2014 and, also in that month, was appointed at league champions Steaua Bucharest on a two-year deal, replacing outgoing Laurențiu Reghecampf[4] and leading the team to the double in his first and only season.[5]

On 14 December 2015, Gâlcă replaced former club teammate Sergio at the helm of Espanyol.[6] His first game in charge took place the following day, a 2–1 home win against Levante UD for the Copa del Rey (3–2 on aggregate).[7]

Honours

Player

Steaua București
Espanyol

Individual

Manager

Steaua București

Statistics

Manager

As of 2 May 2016
Team From To Record
G W D L GF GA GD Win %
Romania Romania U-17 20 August 2013 1 June 2014 13 5 5 3 17 10 +7 38.46
Romania Steaua București 1 June 2014 1 June 2015 58 37 9 12 102 42 +60 63.79
Spain Espanyol 14 December 2015 1 June 2016 24 7 5 12 24 48 −24 29.17
Total 94 48 19 27 142 100 +42 51.06

References

  1. 1 2 "Constantin Galca – International Appearances". RSSSF. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  2. ↑ "Alud de presentaciones" [Presentations galore] (PDF) (in Spanish). Mundo Deportivo. 20 July 1996. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
  3. ↑ "Galca, destituido como técnico del Almería B" [Galca, fired as Almería B manager] (in Spanish). Marca. 19 January 2010. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
  4. ↑ "Gâlcă returning to Steaua as coach". UEFA.com. 2 June 2014. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
  5. ↑ "Classy Steaua win Romanian Cup to complete treble". Daily Mail. 31 May 2015. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
  6. ↑ "Constantin Galca, new coach of RCD Espanyol". RCD Espanyol. 14 December 2015. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
  7. ↑ "Caicedo resuelve la eliminatoria" [Caicedo decides tie] (in Spanish). Marca. 15 December 2015. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
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