Andrei Andonie Burcă (; born 15 April 1993) is a Romanian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays for

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Super League (), commonly known as the Chinese Super League or the CSL (), also known as the China Resources Beverage Chinese Football Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Ch ...

club Yunnan Yukun and the Romania national team. Mainly a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

, he can also be deployed as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

. Burcă began his career in the lower divisions with his hometown clubs

Aerostar Bacău Aerostar or Aero Star may refer to: Transportation * Aerostar (Romanian company), an aeronautical manufacturing company * Aerostar Airlines, a Ukrainian business jet charter company * Aerostar Airport Holdings, a Puerto Rican airport authority ...

and SC Bacău, before signing for top flight team

Botoșani Botoșani () is the capital city of Botoșani County, in the northern part of Moldavia, Romania. Today, it is best known as the birthplace of many celebrated Romanians, including Mihai Eminescu, Nicolae Iorga and Grigore Antipa. Origin of the ...

in 2016. Three years later, his good display earned him a transfer to defending champions

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ) or simply CFR, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I. Founded as ''Kolozsvári Vasut ...

. He aided to four domestic trophies during his spell in

Cluj-Napoca Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...

, and in 2023 moved abroad to Saudi club Al-Okhdood. Burcă made his full international debut for

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

in September 2019, starting in a 3–2

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is an international European football competition played by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The competition was devised to minimise friendlies a ...

victory over

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. He represented the country in the

Euro 2024 The 2024 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2024 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2024) or simply Euro 2024, was the 17th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international football championship organised by U ...

Club career

Early career / Botoșani

Burcă started his senior career with hometown club

, and then moved to neighbouring SC Bacău in 2013. He made his debut in the second tier of the Romanian league system on 14 September that year, in a 0–2 loss to

CSM Studențesc Iași CSM may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Cantigas de Santa Maria'', a collection of medieval Galician-Portuguese vernacular songs and poems in praise of the Virgin Mary * Chaos Space Marines, in the ''Warhammer 40,000'' fictional universe * ...

. Following the conclusion of the 2015–16 season, his team withdrew from the championship because of financial issues; Burcă hence contemplated about retiring from football and starting

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

. He however received contract proposals from Foresta Suceava and

, and after signing with the latter he went on to amass over one hundred matches in the

Liga I Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

between 2016 and 2019.

CFR Cluj

On 10 June 2019, Burcă joined reigning champions

for an undisclosed transfer fee. With "the Railwaymen", he was a starter in all eight matches in the 2019–20 edition of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

qualifiers, as his team was eliminated in the play-off round by

Slavia Prague Sportovní klub Slavia Praha – fotbal (Sports Club Slavia Prague – Football, ), commonly known as Slavia Praha or Slavia Prague, is a Czech professional football club in Prague. Founded in 1892, they are the second most successful club in t ...

. He also played in all eight

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

games, scoring once in a 2–0 home victory over Scottish club

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

on 12 December. On 3 August 2020, Burcă won his first career trophy after a 3–1 success against Universitatea Craiova in the final Liga I fixture. On 15 April 2021, he started in the 4–1

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

defeat of

FCSB Fotbal Club FCSB (), formerly named and still sometimes referred to as FC Steaua București, is a Romanian professional football club based in Bucharest. It has spent its entire history in the Liga I, the top flight of the Romanian football le ...

in the

Supercupa României The Supercupa României () is a Romanian football (soccer), football championship contested by the winners of the Liga I and the Cupa României. It is usually played at the Arena Națională in Bucharest. The competition started off in 1994 Supe ...

Late career

On 17 July 2023, Burcă signed a one-year contract with

Al-Okhdood Al-Okhdood (Arabic: الأخدود) or Al-Okhdood Archaeological Site, is an ancient South Arabian town located in Najran Province in Saudi Arabia, southeast of the present-day city of Najran. Currently in ruins, the town dates back to at least 5 ...

, newly promoted to the

Saudi Pro League The Saudi Pro League (SPL), also known as the Roshn Saudi League (RSL) for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Saudi Arabia and the highest level of the Saudi football league system. The SPL is regarded as th ...

. Media reported the transfer fee as being worth €1 million. On 10 July 2024, Burcă joined

UAE Pro League The UAE Pro League (), also known as the ADNOC Pro League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the highest level of the Emirati football league system. The first team to w ...

club

Baniyas Baniyas ( ') is a Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coastal city in Tartous Governorate, western Syria, located south of Latakia and north of Tartous. It is known for its citrus fruit orchards and its export of wood. North of the city is an B ...

. On 4 July 2025, Burcă signed with newly promoted

club Yunnan Yukun.

International career

On 7 September 2020, Burcă recorded his debut for the Romania national team by playing the full 90 minutes as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

in a 3–2

away win over

. Burcă scored his first international goal on 28 March 2023, in a 2–1 home victory over

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

in the

Euro 2024 qualifiers The UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2023 to March 2024 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams that would join the automatically qualified host team Germany in the UEFA Eur ...

. He started in all ten matches of the competition, as Romania qualified to the final tournament from the first place in Group I. On 7 June 2024, Burcă was named in Romania's squad for the

. He started in all four matches of the tournament, forming a defensive partnership with Radu Drăgușin, as the nation won its group but was eliminated by the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

in the

round of 16 A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Burcă goal''.

Honours

CFR Cluj *

: 2019–20,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, 2021–22 *

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

; runner-up:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Individual *Liga I Team of the Season: 2019–20,

, 2021–22

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Burca, Andrei 1993 births Living people Footballers from Bacău Romanian men's footballers Romanian expatriate men's footballers Men's association football defenders Men's association football fullbacks Liga I players Liga II players Saudi Pro League players UAE Pro League players Chinese Super League players CS Aerostar Bacău players FC Botoșani players CFR Cluj players Al-Okhdood Club players Baniyas Club players Yunnan Yukun F.C. players Romania men's international footballers Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Expatriate men's footballers in Saudi Arabia Romanian expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Expatriate men's footballers in the United Arab Emirates Expatriate men's footballers in China Romanian expatriate sportspeople in China UEFA Euro 2024 players 21st-century Romanian sportsmen