Florentin Petre-Cedar Herald Index

Florentin Petre (born 15 January 1976) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player.

Club career

Born in Bucharest, Petre started playing football at the youth center of Dinamo București, playing his first Divizia A match for the senior squad on 15 October 1994 in a 2–0 victory over Universitatea Cluj in which he opened the score in the 3rd minute. He was loaned to UTA Arad in the second half of that season, playing 8 Divizia A matches in which he scored one goal. He helped Dinamo win The Double in the 1999–2000 season, being used by coach Cornel Dinu in 22 league matches in which he scored 7 goals, including one in a 3–2 victory in a derby against Steaua București which helped them mathematically win the title. In 2000 Petre contracted hepatitis C and had an accident while fishing in the Danube Delta when he touched an electricity wire with his fishing rod and almost lost his life, these events put him on the sideline for almost two seasons, but he still managed to bring his contribution to the winning of the 2001–02 title by scoring one goal in 10 appearances. He helped Dinamo win The Double again, playing 24 games and scoring 4 goals under the guidance of coach Ioan Andone in the 2003–04 Divizia A season. He also represented The Red Dogs in European competitions, playing 32 games in which he scored 6 goals (including 3 appearances in the Intertoto Cup), being part of the team that with coach Andone eliminated Everton with a historical 5–2 on aggregate in which he scored a goal, reaching the 2005–06 UEFA Cup group stage. Petre spent a total of 12 seasons at Dinamo in which he scored 43 goals in 259 Divizia A appearances, winning three titles, five cups and one supercup.

Florentin Petre

Petre left Dinamo in July 2006 and signed a three-year contract with Bulgarian club CSKA Sofia. In his first season spent in Bulgaria, Petre played alongside fellow Romanians Eugen Trică and Alexandru Pițurcă, managing to win the 2006 Bulgarian Supercup and finish runner-up in the championship. In the following season he played 24 games and scored 11 goals, helping CSKA win the 31st title in the club's history. In 2008, Petre went to play alongside compatriots Daniel Pancu and Andrei Mărgăritescu in the Russian Premier League at Terek Grozny. In January 2010, Petre returned to CSKA Sofia for a half of year, alongside Romanians Daniel Pancu and coach Ioan Andone. In both periods spent at CSKA, Petre scored a total of 22 goals in 58 Bulgarian league matches, also appearing in 8 matches in which he scored one goal in European competitions.

Florentin Petre

Petre ended his career in 2011 at Victoria Brănești, his last game being a 2–0 victory against Gloria Bistrița in Divizia A, a competition in which he has a total of 278 matches played and 46 goals scored.

Florentin Petre

International career

Petre played 54 games and scored 6 goals for Romania, making his debut under coach Victor Pițurcă on 19 August 1998 in a friendly which ended 0–0 against Norway. He played 8 games and scored one goal in a 2–1 victory against Greece at the successful Euro 2000 qualifiers. He was used by coach Emerich Jenei in two games at the Euro 2000 final tournament, in the first one he came as a substitute and replaced Dan Petrescu in the 64th minute of the 1–0 loss against Portugal in the group stage and in the second one he played the whole game in the quarterfinal lost with 2–0 against Italy. Petre played one game at the 2002 World Cup qualifiers and nine games in which he scored one goal in a 2–1 victory against Finland at the 2006 World Cup qualifiers. He played 7 games and scored one goal in a 2–0 victory against Luxembourg at the successful Euro 2008 qualifiers. He was used by coach Victor Pițurcă in two games in the group stage at the Euro 2008 final tournament, in the first one which was a 1–1 against Italy he played as a starter until the 59th minute when he was replaced by Bănel Nicoliță and in the second one he came as a substitute and replaced Nicoliță in the 2–0 loss against Netherlands. Petre played one game and scored one goal in a 2–2 against France at the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, making his last appearance for the national team in a friendly which ended with a 2–1 loss against Croatia.

On 25 March 2008, he was decorated by the president of Romania, Traian Băsescu, for his performance in the Euro 2008 qualifiers, where Romania managed to obtain the qualification to the final tournament. He received Medalia "Meritul Sportiv" – ("The Sportive Merit" Medal) class III.