Contra, Cosmin

Club

He began his career in the club " Polytechnic " from his native Timisoara. In 1996 he moved to the Dynamo Bucharest.

In 1999 he moved to Alaves for $ 800,000 ^[2] , where he became a key player and joined the UEFA Team of the Year ^[3] .

These successes attracted the attention of “ Milan ” to the player, but for the Italian club he spent only one season and moved to Madrid “ Atletico ” ^[4] . During his stay in Italy, Contra managed to fight with Juventus midfielder Edgar Davids ^[5] (this was one of the reasons for leaving Milan ). In Madrid, he spent two seasons, in one of which he almost did not appear on the field due to an ankle injury ^[6] .

In August 2004 he moved to West Bromwich on a leasehold for six months ^[7] . Then, also on loan for six months, he moved to his native Polytechnic . In 2005, Getafe was leased for one season ^[8] . At the end of the season, the Spanish club bought the player’s transfer.

In 2008, Contra scored in both matches of the epic confrontation with Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup ^[9] , but this did not help his team go further.

In January 2010, after a conflict with the coach, Contra left Getafe and returned to his home club for the third time, by which time it had already been renamed Timisoara. On August 30, the contract with him was broken, but two weeks later it was signed again ^[10] . A week later, he was introduced as a club's playing coach ^[11] . In December 2010, he left the club due to a conflict with the leadership. I didn’t find a new club in the winter transfer window , although I was interested in some clubs, in particular, Kuban ^[12] .

He finished his career at the Romanian club Timisoara in 2011, acting as a club's playing coach ^[13] .

Team

In the Romanian national team since 1996, he played 73 matches and scored 7 goals (4 of which were against the Luxembourg national team ) ^[2] . Member of the European Championships 2000 and 2008 . In 2009, announced the completion of an international career, but September 3, 2010 entered the field in the match of the qualifying tournament of the European Championship 2012 against the national team of Albania ^[2] .

Coaching

In 2012, he returned to Romania from the Spanish club Fuenlabrada , where he worked as a coach, he headed Petrolul , signing a contract for 1.5 years ^[14] .

In 2014, he returned to the Getafe club as a head coach ^[15] , however, in the winter of 2014, he left Getafe and became the head of the Chinese club Guangzhou Fuli . The Chinese club paid the Spanish team 500 thousand euros in compensation for terminating the contract with a specialist ^[16] . Contra himself said that he was offered a salary at Guangzhou Fuli that was 5 times his salary at Getafe, and also noted that the Spanish club was counting on his return in two years ^[16] . Contra was unable to complete the entire contract due to poor club results (the team won only one victory in 13 rounds), and the contract was terminated by the leadership of the Chinese club ^[17] .

On September 22, 2017, he was appointed head coach of the Romania national team . The contract was signed before the end of the Euro 2020 qualifying campaign ^[18] .

As a player

  Alaves

• UEFA Cup Finalist : 2000/01

  Getafe

• Spain Cup Finalist : 2006/07, 2007/08

Personal

• UEFA Team of the Year: 2001
• Soccer Player of the Year in Romania : 2001

As a trainer

  Petrolul

• Romanian Cup Winner : 2012/13

• Statistics on fussballdaten.de (German)
• Statistics on romaniansoccer.ro (rum.)
• Player profile on soccerbase.com