Bogdan Ionuț Lobonț (; born 18 January 1978) is a Romanian professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach and former player who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. He amassed 86 appearances for the

Romania national team Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

between 1998 and 2018, representing the country in two

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

. He was popularly nicknamed ''Motanul'' ("The Tomcat") in Romania, due to his quick reflexes and relative small body frame for a goalkeeper.

Club career

Early career

Lobonț began his career with hometown club

Corvinul Hunedoara Clubul Sportiv Corvinul 1921 Hunedoara, commonly known as Corvinul Hunedoara or simply as Corvinul, is a Romanian football club based in Hunedoara, Hunedoara County, currently playing in the Liga III. Founded in 1921 under the name of ''Fero Spo ...

in the 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 ...

. He remained with the team until 1997, when he moved to

Liga I The Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1, is a Romanian professional league for men's association football clubs. Currently sponsored by betting company Superbet, it is officially known as the SuperLiga. It is the country's top ...

club

Rapid București Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a '' cascade' ...

. Lobonț enjoyed success there, winning the 1998–99 league title.

Ajax

In the summer of 2000, Lobonț was transferred by Dutch club

AFC Ajax Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or simply Ajax, is a Dutch professional football club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. Historically, Ajax (named after the l ...

, for a fee of €3 million. Injury and inexperience, however, kept him out of the starting team, and he was loaned to

Dinamo București A dynamo is a magnetic device originally used as an electric generator. Dynamo or Dinamo may also refer to: Places * Dinamo (Moscow Metro), a station of the Moscow Metro, Moscow, Russia * Dinamo (Yekaterinburg Metro), a station of the Yekaterin ...

for the 2001–02 season. Upon his return to Ajax, he became the team's primary goalkeeper. Although Lobonț struggled with occasional injuries, he played well when healthy in both the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

and the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

Fiorentina

In January 2006, Lobonț was sold from Ajax to Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

club

ACF Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fo ...

, which needed a goalkeeper after the injury of starting goalkeeper

Sébastien Frey Sébastien Jacques André Frey (born 18 March 1980) is a French former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. His club career began in France with Cannes in 1997, but later went on to spend most of his career in the Italian Serie A, ...

. Although he played particularly well, Frey's return meant that he would spend most of the time as a substitute. Because he had also lost his place on the

, Lobonț made a surprise move back to Dinamo București in January 2007 and helped the club win the

Roma

On 31 August 2009, Italian

team

A.S. Roma ' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its existence, except for ...

signed Lobonț in a co-ownership deal from Dinamo, with an option for the club to buy him outright at the end of the season, for a fee of €1.5 million. He made his first appearance for the ''Giallorossi'' on 4 October, coming off the bench after 23 minutes in a game against

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. On 4 March 2012, he came on against

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

because of Stekelenburg's red card. Because of starter

Maarten Stekelenburg Maarten Stekelenburg (; born 22 September 1982) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Eredivisie club Ajax. Stekelenburg began his career at Ajax, playing 282 matches over nine seasons in his first spell there and win ...

's injury, he was the temporary first goalkeeper in seven matches in the 2011–12 season. On 1 July 2013, Lobonț signed a new three-year contract with Roma which would keep him at the club until 2016. Even though he had not featured in an Roma match for about four years, in 2016 he extended his contract with the team yet again, making Roma the last team of his playing career.

International career

Lobonț was part of

UEFA Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

and

Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of European ...

squads. He turned in a particularly strong performance in Romania's group stage game in Euro 2008 against

world champions A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, saving numerous well-placed shots and keeping his team's tournament hopes alive with a draw of 1–1. Lobonț played an important part for the national team, earning over 80

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

, starting from 1998. In May 2014, after fifteen years of service, he announced his retirement from the Romania national team, citing his age as an important factor. In September 2017, after coach

Christoph Daum Christoph Paul Daum (born 24 October 1953) is a German professional football manager and former player. Daum played as a midfielder and was a junior for several clubs from the region of Duisburg. He began his senior career with Hamborn 07 and E ...

's sacking, he was called to be part of the national squad in the final two matches of the World Cup 2018 qualification stage. He retired from professional football on 5 June 2018, earning his final cap for Romania in a 2–0 friendly win against

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

at the

Ilie Oană Stadium Ilie Oană Stadium ( Romanian: ''Stadionul Ilie Oană'') is a football stadium in Ploiești, Romania. It has been the home ground of Petrolul Ploiești since its inauguration in September 2011, and has a capacity of 15,073 spectators. The stadi ...

Ploiești Ploiești ( , , ), formerly spelled Ploești, is a city and county seat in Prahova County, Romania. Part of the historical region of Muntenia, it is located north of Bucharest. The area of Ploiești is around , and it borders the Blejoi commu ...

Managerial statistics

Honours

Rapid București *

: 1998–99 *

Cupa României The Cupa României ( en, Romanian Cup) is a Association football, football cup competition for List of football clubs in Romania, Romanian teams which has been held annually since 1933–34 Cupa României, 1933–34, except during World War II. I ...

: 1997–98 *

Supercupa României The Supercupa României ( en, Romanian Supercup) is a Romanian 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, ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

Ajax *

: 2003–04 Dinamo București *

: 2001–02, 2006–07

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lobont, Bogdan 1978 births Living people Sportspeople from Hunedoara Romanian footballers Association football goalkeepers CS Corvinul Hunedoara players FC Rapid București players AFC Ajax players FC Dinamo București players ACF Fiorentina players A.S. Roma players Liga I players Eredivisie players Serie A players Romania under-21 international footballers Romania international footballers UEFA Euro 2000 players UEFA Euro 2008 players Romanian expatriate footballers Romanian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in Italy Romanian football managers FC Universitatea Cluj managers