Cristian Sapunaru

Cristian Ionuț Sapunaru (born 5 April 1984) is a Romanian professional footballer who plays mainly as a central defender for Liga I club Rapid București. He can also be deployed as a right back or a defensive midfielder.

Sapunaru began his senior career in 2002 with Național București, and went on to make a name for himself at Rapid București. In 2008, he signed with Porto in Portugal where he won ten major honours over the course of four years, including the 2011 Europa League. After two additional seasons in Spain playing for Zaragoza and Elche, Sapunaru spent his late years with stints in his native country and Turkey.

A full international for Romania between 2008 and 2019, he represented the nation in two European Championships.

Club Career

Early years / Porto

Sapunaru was born in Bucharest. A product of FC Național București, joining its youth system at the age of only 6, Sapunaru signed with FC Rapid București in July 2006. In the summer of 2008, he was sold for €2.5 million to FC Porto as a replacement for Chelsea-bound Jose Bosingwa and signed a five-year contract with the Primeira Liga club owning 50% of the player's rights – Romanian sources indicated the price was actually €6 million plus two players.

During his debut campaign, Sapunaru was first-choice right-back as the northerners achieved a double, and scored his first goal in a 1–2 away loss against C.D. Nacional for the League Cup. In early February 2010, he was suspended in Portugal – as his teammate Hulk – following incidents during a 0–1 league defeat at S.L. Benfica, so he returned to his country for a five-month loan and moved to former side Rapid; he did not manage to be played regularly at Porto during that time but, following his return for 2010–11, became a very important first-team unit as they won three major titles, appearing in 40 official games in the process.

On 17 February 2014, Sapunaru was condemned to pay a €90,000 fine for his participation in the as

This page also has a version in other languages :  Кристиан Сэпунару (russian)