sport.wikisort.org - Athlete

Alexandru Apolzan (6 February 1927 – 23 December 1982) was a Romanian footballer, who played as a defender, mainly for Steaua București and also for Romania. He has been credited with the invention of the sweeper role and is considered one of the best sweepers in the history of Romanian football, with only Miodrag Belodedici and Gheorghe Popescu, in recent years, being able to play at a similar level.

Alexandru Apolzan

Apolzan in 1955
Personal information
Date of birth	(1927-02-06)6 February 1927
Place of birth	Sibiu, Romania
Date of death	23 December 1982(1982-12-23) (aged 55)
Place of death	Bucharest, Romania
Position(s)	Centre-back, sweeper
Youth career
1941–1943	Şoimii Sibiu
1945–1946	23 August București
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1946–1949	CFR București	60	(1)
1949–1962	Steaua București	216	(2)
Total		276	(3)
National team
1949–1960	Romania	22	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Playing career

It was the Romanian Apolzan who first played as sweeper, while at Steaua București.[1][2] However, Apolzan played during the darkest period in the history of Romania, when the connections with the outside world were almost cut completely.

Apolzan signed his first contract with Şoimii, a local team from Sibiu, in 1941. After the war he joins the squad of CFR Bucharest and then between 1949 and 1962, he played for Steaua București until his retirement.

Hungarian coach Gusztáv Sebes, the builder of the Hungarian team from the first half of the 1950s – the Magical Magyars, said in 1954, after the 1954 FIFA World Cup that Apolzan, Ion Voinescu and Titus Ozon are at the same level as his own Hungarian players and that he would be proud to be able to coach them.[3]

He also won 22 caps for Romania. It was however an era when Romania used to play less than five games per year.

Honours

Steaua Bucharest

• Romanian League (6): 1951, 1952, 1953, 1956, 1960, 1961
• Romanian Cup: 1948–49, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1955

References

Further reading

• Dragoș Cojocaru (2014). Apolzan, un fotbalist de legendă (in Romanian). Editura Militară, Millennium Press. ISBN 978-973-32-0951-5.

External links

• Profile at SteauaFC.com (in Romanian)
• Alexandru Apolzan at RomanianSoccer.ro (in Romanian) and StatisticsFootball.com
• Alexandru Apolzan at National-Football-Teams.com
• Alexandru Apolzan at WorldFootball.net

Sporting positions
Preceded by Gheorghe Popescu I	Steaua captain 1949–Unknown	Succeeded by Ion Voinescu

На других языках

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- [en] Alexandru Apolzan

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[fr] Alexandru Apolzan

Alexandru Apolzan, né le 5 février 1927 à Sibiu en Roumanie et décédé le 23 décembre 1982 à Bucarest en Roumanie, était un footballeur international roumain, qui évoluait au poste de défenseur.

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