Dumitru Mitu (born 13 February 1975) is a

Romania 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 ...

n former

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 ...

who played as a

left winger A midfielder is an 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 central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

or striker.

Early life

Mitu was born in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

, but spent his childhood years in the nearby village of Dobroieşti. His father worked at the village bar, while his mother was a kiosk saleswoman. At age six and a half he started to play as a junior for Metalul (Faur) București, then a

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 ...

club, eventually reaching the first team. In 1992, aged 17, he signed for Steaua's junior squad.

Senior career

In 1992 Mitu started his senior football career in his hometown team of Faur București, a little later playing for lesser-known clubs like Farul Constanţa, FC Braşov and

UTA Arad Uta or UTA may refer to: Universities *University of Texas at Arlington, in the United States * University of Tarapacá, in Chile *University of Tampere, in Finland Sports * FC UTA Arad, a Romanian football club based in the town of Arad * A ...

, before moving to

NK Osijek Nogometni klub Osijek ( en, Osijek Football Club), commonly referred to as NK Osijek or simply Osijek (), is a Croatian professional football club from Osijek. Founded in 1947, it was the club from Slavonia with the most seasons in the Yugoslav ...

during season 1996–1997. He was a big star at

. After 159 appearances and 26 goals for

and seven years spent at club, he transferred to Dinamo, where he won four national championships.Croatia – Championship Winning Squads
/ref> Then he was sold to Greek Panathinaikos and he played there 6 games mainly in

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 competi ...

. Shortly after

champaign at

Panathinaikos FC Panathinaikos Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Παναθηναϊκός Α.Ο. ), known as Panathinaikos, or by its full name, and the name of its parent sports club, Panathinaikos A.O. or PAO (; ''Panathinaïkós Athlitikós Ómilos'', "All-Athenian ...

he returned to Croatia with

HNK Rijeka Hrvatski nogometni klub Rijeka ( en, Croatian Football Club Rijeka), commonly referred to as NK Rijeka or simply Rijeka, is a Croatian professional football club from the city of Rijeka. HNK Rijeka compete in Croatia's top division, HT Prva lig ...

. After one season he returns to

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb ( en, Dinamo Zagreb Citizens' Football Club, link=yes, italics=yes), commonly referred to as GNK Dinamo Zagreb or simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo ...

where he won First League title. Then he returns to homeland at

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ), is a Romanian professional football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, which competes in the Liga I. It was founded in 1907 as ''Kolozsvári Vasutas Sport Club'', whe ...

where he played 12 games with one goal but in second season leadership of

decided to cancel the Mitu's contract. The player came at

from

and had a contract of 70,000 dollars per season. He scored just one goal for

in second part of last season. In this season, Mitu did not play any minute at

, he being sent to train and to play at second team, Unirea Dej, after the leadership heard that he spent more night in a night club. "It was the decision of the leadership, because I was decided to give him another chance. But he disappointed me with his declarations after the match with Dinamo, when he told to the press that I prefer to send on the field the foreign players of

", said coach Cristiano Bergodi. Because

cancelled the contract of Dumitru Mitu, the player has become free player. The officials of Jiul said that are interested of him, to bring Mitu at Petroşani, from winter. The player said that nobody told him that, but we would come from winter at Jiul. The striker who cancelled his contract with CFR is training together with the team from Arad. "Mitu asked me if he can train with us. I let him because I know what it means to be player and to have no team where to train", said Lacatus, who did not change his mind about the transfer of Mitu at

. "I prefer to bring younger players, till 25–26 years old, but with some experience in Liga 1", said the coach of

. Since the 2006–2007 season he was played for Chinese Super League with the Chinese football club Qingdao Zhongneng. Since then he was

Free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

. Mitu is still playing football in a lower third division league in Romania. Mitu is a

dual citizen Dual or Duals may refer to: Paired/two things * Dual (mathematics), a notion of paired concepts that mirror one another ** Dual (category theory), a formalization of mathematical duality *** see more cases in :Duality theories * Dual (grammatical ...

of Romania and Croatia. He gained Croatian citizenship in 2003.

Honours

Club

;NK Osijek * Croatian Cup: 1998–99 ;Dinamo Zagreb * Croatian League: 2002–03, 2005–06 * Croatian Cup: 2003–04 *

Croatian Supercup The Croatian Football Super Cup is a football match between the winners of the Croatian national top league and football cup. The Super Cup is always held at the beginning of a new football season, and is only held when different clubs win the tw ...

: 2002, 2003 ;HNK Rijeka * Croatian Cup: 2004–05

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mitu, Dumitru 1975 births Living people Footballers from Bucharest Romanian men's footballers NK Osijek players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players HNK Rijeka players FC Brașov (1936) players FCV Farul Constanța players CFR Cluj players FC Unirea Dej players FC UTA Arad players Panathinaikos F.C. players CS Podgoria Pâncota players Romanian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Croatia Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Croatia Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in China Romanian expatriate sportspeople in China Qingdao Hainiu F.C. (1990) players Changchun Yatai F.C. players Chinese Super League players Super League Greece players Croatian Football League players Liga I players Liga II players Men's association football forwards Croatian people of Romanian descent