Dan Alexa (born 28 October 1979) is a Romanian professional

football manager ''Football Manager'' (also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008) is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game bega ...

and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

. As a

defensive midfielder 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 ...

, he spent 16 years as a professional player. After he ended his playing career, Alexa became a manager. His first job was at ACS Poli Timișoara, in March 2014. Since 23 August 2017 he was manager of

Dunărea Călărași Dunărea may refer to: * Dunărea, the Romanian name for the river Danube in Central Europe * Dunărea (river), a tributary of the Danube in Constanța County, Romania * Dunărea, a village in the commune Seimeni, Constanța County, Romania See ...

until summer of 2019. Then he was named manager of

Astra Giurgiu Asociația Fotbal Club Astra Giurgiu (), commonly known as Astra Giurgiu or simply Astra, was a Romanian football club based in the city of Giurgiu, Giurgiu County. Founded in 1921 in Ploiești as ''Clubul Sportiv Astra-Română'', it spent th ...

Club career

Early career

Although born in

Banat Banat (, ; hu, Bánság; sr, Банат, Banat) is a geographical and historical region that straddles Central and Eastern Europe and which is currently divided among three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania (the counties of T ...

, Alexa was considered disposable while at UM Timișoara in 1998, and he moved to

Rocar București Rocar (also T.V. or Autobuzul) was a van, light truck, bus and trolleybus manufacturer based in Bucharest, Romania. The firm also produced light offroad vehicles and later heavy road vehicles. During its existence, the company produced over 350,00 ...

where he helped his side reach the 2000–01 Romanian Cup final.

Dinamo București

After several years with short spells at

FC Timișoara 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 ...

and Universitatea Craiova, Alexa got his big chance as

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 ...

decided to transfer him. His performances were of a high caliber throughout the two seasons he spent there, but he also got a reputation for being an extremely aggressive player. In two years, he scored 1 goal in 47 appearances.

Beijing Hyundai

His consequent move to Beijing Hyundai saw him leave Romania for two years. In a friendly match against

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

he was selected man of the match.

Dinamo București

He returned to Dinamo in 2006 just for a few months playing 13 matches, scoring one goal.

Politehnica Timișoara

In the summer of the same year, Politehnica boss

Marian Iancu Marian Alexandru Iancu (born 11 July 1965 in Bucharest) is a Romanian businessman, president of oil company Balkan Petroleum (UK) Limited, and was the president of Romanian football club FC Politehnica Timișoara. After living abroad until the a ...

decided to bring Alexa – by then, a real "persona non-grata" in Timișoara, due to his pledge of loyalty to Dinamo – back to the city where he started his career, together with teammate Ştefan Grigorie. The fans protested at Alexa's arrival in Timișoara through several banners and chants, but the club's management remained unimpressed. Alexa himself stated that he had made those statements out of necessity and that he will do all he can to prove to the fans that he is a real professional. A few months after his arrival, Alexa became the captain of Poli. He is nicknamed "the surgeon" because he inflicted many injuries requiring surgery to opposing players. On 19 April 2010, he scored the equaliser goal in the 98th minute against

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

and kept

Poli __NOTOC__ Poli can refer to: Food * ''Puran Poli'', a poli made up of wheat flour and puran (sweet cooked gram paste) * A Marathi name for ''chapati'', a bread made up of wheat flour Organisations * FC Timişoara Romanian first league football c ...

in the battle for the title, however Poli finished 5th, losing their last three matches.

Rapid București

On 4 June 2011, the former captain of Politehnica Timișoara signed a two-year contract with

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' ...

following the relegation of Poli.

Anorthosis Famagusta

On 24 June 2012, Dan Alexa signed with the Cyprus First Division football club, Anorthosis Famagusta, on a free transfer. He signed a reported €250,000/yr contract with the club.

International career

Alexa was first called up by the

national National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

team in 2004. Later in 2010, he was called up for a friendly match against

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 ...

after a six-year absence. Alexa scored his first goals 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 ...

in a 2–2 draw against

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

at Cyprus International Cup 2011. However, Romania were eliminated from the tournament, after losing on penalty kicks 4–2.

International stats

International goals

Honours

Player

UM Timișoara *

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 ...

: 1998–99 Dinamo 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 ...

: 2003–04 *

Romanian Cup Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

: 2002–03, 2003–04

Coach

ACS Poli Timișoara *

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 ...

: 2014–15 Rapid București *

: 2015–16 Dunărea Călărași *

: 2017–18 CSM Reșița *

Liga III 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 ...

: 2021–22

Managerial statistics

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alexa, Dan 1979 births People from Caransebeș Living people Romanian footballers Romania international footballers Romania under-21 international footballers Association football midfielders AFC Rocar București players FC Politehnica Timișoara players FC U Craiova 1948 players FC Dinamo București players Beijing Guoan F.C. players FC Rapid București players Anorthosis Famagusta F.C. players Liga I players Cypriot First Division players Chinese Super League players Romanian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in China Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Romanian expatriate sportspeople in China Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Romanian football managers ACS Poli Timișoara managers ASA 2013 Târgu Mureș managers CS Concordia Chiajna managers FC Dunărea Călărași managers FC Astra Giurgiu managers FC Rapid București managers SSU Politehnica Timișoara managers CSM Reșița managers FC Brașov (2021) managers