Constantin Varga

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Constantin Varga
Personal information
Date of birth (1964-09-18) 18 September 1964 (age 61) [1]
Place of birth Timișoara, Romania [1]
Position Left back [1]
Youth career
1972–1978 Politehnica Timișoara
1978–1982 Luceafărul București
1984–1985 ASA Târgu Mureș
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
1982–1983 Unirea Sânnicolau Mare
1983–1984 Unirea Tomnatic
1985 Bihorul Beiuș
1986–1994 Politehnica Timișoara 271 (71)
1994 → Győri ETO (loan) 4 (1)
1995–1996 Dinamo București 47 (3)
1996–1997 UTA Arad 25 (4)
1997–1998 UM Timișoara 30 (13)
1998–1999 Politehnica Timișoara 3 (0)
1999–2007 Minerul Moldova Nouă
2013 ASU Politehnica Timișoara 10 (2)
Total390(94)
International career
1992 Romania 1 (1)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals as of 17 January 2020

Constantin Varga (born 18 September 1964) is a Romanian former footballer who played as a defender. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Club career

Early career

Varga, nicknamed "Piticul" (The Dwarf), was born on 18 September 1964 in Timișoara, Romania and began playing junior-level football at local club Politehnica under the guidance of coach Bodo Carol. [1] [3] [4] At age 14, he went to Luceafărul București where he was teammates with Gheorghe Hagi and Miodrag Belodedici. [3] [4] He stayed at Luceafărul until he turned 18 and started his senior career at Divizia C club Unirea Sânnicolau Mare. [3] [4] After one year he went to Unirea Tomnatic in the same league. [3] Another year later, Varga went to play for the youth of ASA Târgu Mureș. [3] After about half a year spent at ASA, he joined fourth league team Bihorul Beiuș which he helped earn promotion to Divizia C. [3]

Politehnica Timișoara

In 1986, Varga returned to Politehnica where coach Robert Cosmoc wanted him, making his Divizia A debut on 30 March in a 5–0 away loss to Universitatea Craiova. [1] [2] [3] At the end of his first season, the team was relegated to Divizia B, but Varga stayed with the club, helping it get promoted back after one year. [1] In the following season, Politehnica was relegated once again, but helped it once more to gain promotion back to the first league by scoring 14 goals in the 1988–89 Divizia B season. [1] In the 1990–91 UEFA Cup, coach Constantin Rădulescu used him in three matches, as in the first round they got past Atlético Madrid with 2–1 on aggregate, being eliminated in the next round by Sporting Lisbon against whom he scored once. [1] [3] [4] [5] He helped the club reach the 1992 Cupa României final, coach Ion Ionescu using him the entire match in the loss at the penalty shoot-out to Steaua București, Varga netting Politehnica's first spot kick. [1] [6] He then participated with the club in the 1992–93 UEFA Cup edition where in the first round they faced Real Madrid, obtaining a 1–1 draw at Timișoara and losing with 4–0 at Santiago Bernabéu. [1] [3] [4] [7] During his years spent with The White-Purples, Varga was known for his ability of scoring from free kicks, most notably scoring with a long-distance shot in a historical victory in 1987 against Dinamo București. [3] [4] He also scored three goals in three West derby victories against UTA Arad. [8]

Győri ETO and return to Politehnica

In 1994, Varga had his only experience outside Romania at Hungarian team Győri ETO where he played alongside compatriot and former Politehnica teammate Lucian Popescu. [1] [3] He made his Nemzeti Bajnokság I on 7 May, as coach József Verebes used him in the first half of a 3–1 home win over Ferencvárosi, replacing him for the second half with Miklós Herczeg. [1] [9] [10] Varga scored his only goal for Győri in a 1–1 draw against Debrecen, making his fourth and last Nemzeti Bajnokság I appearance on 28 May in a 3–0 away loss to BVSC. [9] [11] He then returned to Politehnica for the first half of the 1994–95 Divizia B season, leaving for the second half to join Dinamo, but Politehnica managed to gain first-league promotion without him. [1] [2] [3]

Dinamo București

In his first season at Dinamo, Varga worked with coach Remus Vlad, finishing third in the league. [1] [2] [3] [4] [12] Afterwards he played in both legs of the 2–1 aggregate loss to Levski Sofia in the preliminary round of the 1995–96 UEFA Cup. [1] [13] He made his last Divizia A appearance on 20 April 1996 in Dinamo's 1–1 home draw against Rapid București, having a total of 238 matches with 50 goals in the competition. [1] [2] [3]

Late career

In the following three seasons, Varga played in Divizia B for UTA Arad, UM Timișoara and once again Politehnica Timișoara. [1] [4] He continued to play in the Romanian lower leagues until his 50s, featuring for teams such as Minerul Moldova Nouă or ASU Politehnica Timișoara. [1] [2] [3]

International career

Varga played one friendly game for Romania on 26 August 1992 under coach Cornel Dinu in which he opened the score with a free kick in a 2–0 victory against Mexico. [3] [14] [15]

International goals

Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first. "Score" column indicates the score after the player's goal. [14] [15]
#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.26 August 1992 Stadionul Național, Bucharest, RomaniaFlag of Mexico.svg  Mexico 1–02–0 Friendly

Honours

Politehnica Timișoara

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Constantin Varga at RomanianSoccer.ro (in Romanian)
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Unul dintre jucătorii legendari ai Politehnicii Timişoara va juca din nou în alb-violet" [One of the legendary players from Politehnica Timişoara will play again in white-purple] (in Romanian). Adevarul.ro. 29 January 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 "Povestea fundașului de legendă al lui Poli Timișoara" [The story of the legendary defender of Poli Timisoara] (in Romanian). Ziarultimisoara.ro. 11 September 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Constantin "Titi" Varga – fotbaliști de legendă" [Constantin "Titi" Varga – legendary footballers] (in Romanian). Tikitaka.ro. Retrieved 11 March 2025.
  5. ↑ "Trei decenii de la o mare victorie: Poli - Atletico Madrid 2-0" [Three decades since a great victory: Poli - Atletico Madrid 2-0] (in Romanian). Welovesport.ro. 21 September 2020. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
    "Constantin Varga. UEFA Cup 1990/1991". WorldFootball. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
  6. 1 2 "Romanian Cup - Season 1991 - 1992". RomanianSoccer. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
  7. ↑ "Constantin Varga. UEFA Cup 1992/1993". WorldFootball. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
  8. ↑ "Șapte decenii în cifre! Statistica derby-urilor Poli – UTA, disputate la Timișoara" [Seven decades in numbers! Poli - UTA derby statistics, played in Timișoara] (in Romanian). Druckeria.ro. 13 October 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2025.
    "De 70 de ani avem UTA – Poli! Rezultatele, marcatorii și statistica derby-urilor găzduite de arădeni" [For 70 years we have had UTA - Poli! The results, scorers and statistics of the derbies hosted by the people of Arad] (in Romanian). Druckeria.ro. 22 April 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2025.
  9. 1 2 "Constantin Varga profile" (in Hungarian). Nela.hu. Archived from the original on 2 March 2016. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
  10. ↑ "ETO FC Győr - Ferencvárosi TC 3 : 1" (in Hungarian). Magyarfutball.hu. Archived from the original on 16 October 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
  11. ↑ "Budapesti VSC-Dreher - ETO FC Győr 3 : 0" (in Hungarian). Magyarfutball.hu. Archived from the original on 27 May 2024. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
  12. ↑ "Dinamo Bucuresti in 1994–95". RomanianSoccer. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
  13. ↑ "Constantin Varga. UEFA Cup qualifiers 1995/1996". WorldFootball. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
  14. 1 2 "Constantin Varga". European Football. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
  15. 1 2 "Romania - Mexico 2:0". European Football. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
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