Bogdan Ilie Vătăjelu (born 24 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 le ...

who plays as a left-back or a winger.

Club career

Early career

Vătăjelu is a product of the Steaua București youth academy and made his professional debut with the reserves in 2010. Making 25 appearances for the reserves, he joined

CSM Râmnicu Vâlcea 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 * C ...

in 2011 playing there until 2013 in

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 ...

. In 2013, he signed for Metalul Reșița where he had a brief spell playing in 14 outings. He was named the captain after playing just two matches. During his time in the club, it was reported that

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

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, Championship club

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

and even Spanish club

RCD Mallorca Real Club Deportivo Mallorca, S.A.D. (, ca, Reial Club Deportiu Mallorca , ''Royal Sporting Club Mallorca''), commonly known as Real Mallorca or just Mallorca is a Spanish professional football club based in Palma on the island of Majorca in ...

showed their interest in signing him.

Universitatea Craiova

In January 2014, Vătăjelu penned a three-year deal with

CS Universitatea Craiova U Craiova 1948 Club Sportiv, commonly known as Universitatea Craiova (), CS U Craiova, or simply U Craiova, is a Romanian professional football team based in Craiova, Dolj County, which competes in the Liga I, the top tier of the Romanian leagu ...

, who were playing in the second league at that time. He made 14 appearances in the remainder of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

and helped his team achieve promotion to the

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 ...

. Vătăjelu was Universitatea's most featured player in the 2014–15 season and in 2016 he eventually gained team captaincy. On 2 October 2016, he scored from action in a 1–2 loss against his former club Steaua București.

Sparta Prague

On 27 December 2016, Vătăjelu signed a -year contract with Czech club Sparta Prague for an undisclosed transfer fee, rumoured to be around

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1.4 million.

Return to Universitatea Craiova

On 26 June 2019, Vătăjelu rejoined Universitatea Craiova by signing a four-year contract.

International career

Between 2011 and 2012, he played for Romania under-19 team on four occasions. On 25 May 2014, while still in the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

, he was called to the senior national team for the

friendlies An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

against

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and

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

Honours

Universitatea Craiova *

: 2013–14 *

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vataleju, Bogdan 1993 births Living people Sportspeople from Râmnicu Vâlcea Romanian men's footballers Men's association football defenders Liga I players Liga II players FCSB II players SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea players CS Sportul Snagov players CS Universitatea Craiova players Czech First League players AC Sparta Prague players FK Jablonec players Romanian expatriate men's footballers Romanian expatriate sportspeople in the Czech Republic Expatriate men's footballers in the Czech Republic