Constantin "Jean" Barbu (born 16 May 1971) is a Romanian retired 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 played mainly as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As #Cent ...

Club career

Born in Galaţi,

Galați County Galați () is a county ( județ) of Romania, in Moldavia region, with the capital city at Galați. History Historically Galați is part of Moldavia. In 1858, it was represented by Alexandru Ioan Cuza at the ''ad hoc Divan'' at Iași, in the wa ...

, Barbu started his professional career with

FC Argeş Piteşti FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Paki ...

, helping it achieve promotion from 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 ...

in 1994 while scoring 89 goals during his seven-season spell (safe for a short spell with South Korea's

Suwon Samsung Bluewings ''(The Blue, White and Reds)''Tricolor'' , short name = SSB , image = , caption = , founded = , ground = Suwon World Cup Stadium , capacity = 44,031 , owner = Cheil Worldwide(Samsung's subsidiary) , chairma ...

). Midway through 1998–99, Barbu signed with

FC Rapid București Fotbal Club Rapid 1923, commonly known as Rapid București () or simply as Rapid, is a Romanian professional football club based in Bucharest, which competes in the Liga I. It was founded in 1923 by employees of the Grivița workshops as ''Asoc ...

, helping the

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

club 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 ...

title with eight goals in only 11 matches. He was also crowned the competition's top scorer the previous campaign with 21 for Argeş Piteşti, despite missing several games due to his time in

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. For 1999–2000, Barbu moved to Spain and joined

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

strugglers

CD Numancia Club Deportivo Numancia de Soria, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club in Soria, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 9 April 1945, it plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 2, holding home games at ''Nuevo Estadio Los ...

. He netted six times during that season, helping the Soria side barely avoid relegation. During his second year – which he finished with Rapid – he was joined by compatriot Laurenţiu Roşu. Barbu retired in 2004 after spells with old team Argeş and CS Dacia Mioveni, the last in the second level. With Rapid, he appeared in two

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 ...

matches and scored once, adding six appearances in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

(four goals, for Piteşti).

International career

Barbu won three caps for

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

, his first being on 6 September 1997 in an 8–1

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

qualification away trouncing of

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constitutional monarchy ...

, in which he scored. He also netted in his last, against

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

International stats

International goals

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

Personal life

Constantin Barbu is the father of footballer Cătălin Barbu who also started his career at

FC Argeș Pitești Asociația Clubul Sportiv Campionii Fotbal Club Argeș, commonly known as FC Argeș or Argeș Pitești (), is a Romanian professional football club based in the city of Pitești, Argeș County, which competes in the Liga I. The team was origi ...

Honours

Dacia Pitești *

Divizia C The Liga 3, most often spelled as Liga III, is the third level of the Romanian football league system. Its name was changed from Divizia C to Liga III before the start of the 2006–07 season. It was the first in this format (six series of 18 t ...

: 1991–92 Argeș Pitești *

Divizia B 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 ...

: 1993–94 Rapid București *

Divizia A 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 ...

: 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 ...

runner-up: 1998–99 *

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 ...

Individual *

top scorer: 1997–98 (21 goals)

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barbu, Constantin 1971 births Living people Romanian men's footballers Romania men's international footballers Men's association football midfielders Liga I players Liga II players FC Dacia Pitești players FC Argeș Pitești players FC Rapid București players CS Mioveni players K League 1 players Suwon Samsung Bluewings players La Liga players Segunda División players CD Numancia players Romanian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in South Korea Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Romanian expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Footballers from Galați