Artur Crăciun (born 29 June 1998) is a Moldovan 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 le ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for Polish Ekstraklasa club

Puszcza Niepołomice Puszcza Niepołomice is a professional Polish football club located in Niepołomice Niepołomice (pronounced ; ) is a town in southern Poland, within the Lesser Poland Voivodeship (since 1999). It is situated on the Vistula River, on the ...

and the Moldova national team.

Club career

Crăciun made his professional debut for Zimbru in the

Divizia Națională The Moldovan Super Liga is an association football league that is currently the top division of Moldovan football league system. The competition was established in 1992, when the country became independent from the Soviet Union. It was formed in ...

on 20 May 2016 against Academia Chișinău, coming on as a 92nd-minute substitute. On 23 July 2019 he signed a contract with Romanian

Liga II The Liga 2, most often spelled as Liga II, is the second level of the Romanian football league system. The league changed its name from Divizia B just before the start of the 2006–07 Liga II, 2006–07. It is currently Sponsor (commercial), sp ...

side

Universitatea Cluj Fotbal Club Universitatea Cluj (), commonly known as Universitatea Cluj or simply as U Cluj, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I, the first ...

. On 10 March 2021, he was loaned out to Sfântul Gheorghe from Budapest Honvéd. In June 2022, he moved to

Hapoel Kfar Saba Hapoel Kfar Saba F.C. ( he, מועדון כדורגל הפועל כפר סבא, ''Moadon Kaduregel Hapoel Kfar Saba'') is an Israeli football club based in Kfar Saba. The club competes in the Liga Leumit and plays home matches at Levita Stadiu ...

. On 10 July 2023, Crăciun signed a one-year contract, with an option to extend, with Polish Ekstraklasa newcomers

. On 23 July, he made his debut in Puszcza's first-ever top-tier outing, a 3–2 away loss to

Widzew Łódź RTS Widzew Łódź () is a Polish football club based in Łódź. The club was founded in 1910. Its official colours are red and white, hence their nicknames ''Czerwona Armia'' (Red Army) and ''Czerwono-biało-czerwoni'' (Red-white-reds). History ...

. He regularly appeared in the line-ups thereafter, contributing to Puszcza's bid for top-flight survival by scoring game-winning goals in home games against Widzew on 11 December, and

Lech Poznań Kolejowy Klub Sportowy Lech Poznań S.A., commonly referred to as KKS Lech Poznań or simply Lech Poznań (), is a Polish professional association football, football club based in Poznań and currently competing in the Ekstraklasa, the nation' ...

on 13 April 2024; he also became the designated penalty taker. On 10 May, Puszcza exercised their option to prolong Crăciun's contract for another twelve months.

International career

He made his debut for Moldova national team on 14 November 2019 in a Euro 2020 qualifier against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. He started the game and played the whole match.

Honours

Milsami Orhei * Moldovan Cup: 2017–18 *

Moldovan Super Cup Moldovan Super Cup ( ro, Supercupa Moldovei) is the national football (soccer), football super cup competition in Moldova, officially having the winners of the previous season's Moldovan National Division and Moldovan Cup face-off against each oth ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Sfîntul Gheorghe * Moldovan Cup:

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 b ...

Notes

References

External links

* * *https://www.farulconstanta.com/echipa/fc-viitorul/jucatori/kevin-luckassen *https://www.uefa.com/uefanationsleague/teams/players/250105892--artur-craciun/?_preview_token_uefacom=covid_guidance_token%2Ccovid_guidance_token%2Ccovid_guidance_token *https://www.whoscored.com/Players/387953/Fixtures/Artur-Craciun 1998 births Living people Footballers from Chișinău Moldovan men's footballers Moldova men's youth international footballers Moldova men's under-21 international footballers Moldova men's international footballers Men's association football defenders Moldovan Super Liga players FC Zimbru Chișinău players FC Sheriff Tiraspol players FC Milsami Orhei players FC Universitatea Cluj players Budapest Honvéd FC players FC Viitorul Constanța players FC Sfîntul Gheorghe players PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv players FC Tsarsko Selo Sofia players Hapoel Kfar Saba F.C. players Puszcza Niepołomice players Liga II players Nemzeti Bajnokság I players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Liga Leumit players Ekstraklasa players Moldovan expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Hungary Expatriate men's footballers in Bulgaria Expatriate men's footballers in Israel Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Moldovan expatriate sportspeople in Romania Moldovan expatriate sportspeople in Hungary Moldovan expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Moldovan expatriate sportspeople in Israel Moldovan expatriate sportspeople in Poland {{Moldova-footy-bio-stub