Florin Lucian Cernat (born 10 March 1980) is a Romanian former 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 ...

who played as a

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 ...

and playmaker. He made 14 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 ...

scoring two goals.

Club career

Oțelul Galați & Dinamo București

Florin Cernat started his professional career at Oțelul Galați. In 2000, he was noticed by

Dinamo Bucharest 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 ...

. Dinamo ended up buying him. The rising star was played most of the entire 2000–01 season, appearing for 25 out of 30 league matches. He helped the team finish second in the league and qualify for 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 solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

. Cernat also participated in the team's UEFA Champions League 2000-01 campaign, which ended prematurely in the second round.

Dynamo Kyiv

During that period, Dynamo Kyiv's coach, Valeriy Lobanovskiy was looking for players to replace the stars that he had recently sold. This included Andriy Shevchenko and

Kakha Kaladze Kakhaber "Kakha" Kaladze ( ka, კახაბერ (კახა) კალაძე, ; born 27 February 1978) is a Georgian politician and former footballer who serves as the Mayor of Tbilisi since November 2017. A versatile player, he was ...

AC Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seaso ...

Serhii Rebrov Serhiy Stanislavovych Rebrov ( uk, Сергій Станіславович Ребров; born 3 June 1974) is a Ukrainian professional football manager and former player who played as a striker. He is in charge of UAE Pro League side Al-Ain. R ...

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

, and

Oleh Luzhnyi Oleh Romanovych Luzhnyi ( uk, Олег Романович Лужний; born 5 August 1968) is a Ukrainian former professional footballer who played as a right-back. Club career Luzhnyi is a product of the Karpaty sports school (coached by Yur ...

to Arsenal. In July 2001 Cernat transferred to Dynamo Kyiv, where he contributed to the team and won many titles. Returning from loan to Dynamo, Cernat was rarely able to prove himself under new coach Yuri Semin. On 24 December 2008, Cernat announced that he would leave Kyiv in the summer after 8 years. One of his most notable games for Dynamo occurred in the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League, Group Stage game 2 (28 September 2004) against

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, t ...

. Cernat came off as a substitute and scored the third and fourth goal for Dynamo in a 4–2 victory at Olympiskiy stadium.

Hajduk Split

With new coach Anatoliy Demyanenko in 2005, Florin Cernat came out of favour with the coach and rarely saw the field. For the 2007–08 season, Demyanenko loaned him off to the Croatian Premier League club Hajduk Split for a transfer fee of 312,000 £. There, his team earned second place in the Croatian Cup, losing in the final 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 ...

. After the completion of the Ukrainian Premier League 2008-09 season Cernat signed new deal with his former club Hajduk Split.Чернат возвращается в "Хайдук" (Cernat returns to "Hajduk")
- 26 June 2009

Kardemir Karabükspor

In August 2010 he signed a five-year deal with Turkish

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

club

Kardemir Karabükspor Kardemir Demir Çelik Karabükspor or simply known as Kardemir Karabükspor or Karabükspor is a Turkish sports club based in Karabük. The team was founded in 1969 after a merger between "Karabük Gençlikspor" and "Demir Çelik Spor". The club ...

Çaykur Rizespor

In March 2013, he signed for newcomers

Çaykur Rizespor Çaykur Rizespor Kulübü is a Turkish professional football club based in Rize. The club play in the TFF First League. The club was founded on May 19, 1953, with green-yellow as club colours, but later changed to blue-green. Since 1990, the team ...

. He immediately was given the number 10 and was awarded the captainship. Cernat helped his side to get promoted to the

Return to Oțelul

In September 2014, Cernat accepted the offer to return to Oțelul Galați, the first club of his career. He signed a contract for a season, with an option to extend the deal for an extra season.

Style of play

Cernat was known for his excellent passing play, great vision on field, and highly precise free-kicks and exceptional dribbling ability.

Career statistics

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

Honours

Dinamo București * Divizia A: 1999–2000 * Cupa României: 1999–2000 Dynamo Kyiv *

Ukrainian Premier League The Ukrainian Premier League ( uk, "Українська Прем'єр-ліга", ''Ukrayinska Premier Liha'') or UPL is the highest division of Ukrainian annual football championship. As the Vyshcha Liha ( uk, Вища ліга, ''Top League' ...

: 2000–01, 2002–03, 2003–04, 2006–07, 2008–09 *

Ukrainian Cup The Ukrainian Cup ( uk, Кубок України) is an association football national knockout cup competition run by the Ukrainian Association of Football. The competition is conducted almost exclusively among professional clubs. Since the 2003� ...

: 2002–03, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07 *

Ukrainian Super Cup The Ukrainian Super Cup ( uk , Суперкубок України) is an association football game of the Ukrainian Premier League in traditional super cup format that acts as the grand-opening for every new football competition season in Ukra ...

: 2004, 2006 * Independent States Cup: 2002 Hajduk Split * Croatian Cup: 2009–10 FC Voluntari * Cupa României: 2016–17 * Supercupa României:

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

References

External links

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Florin Cernat
at Nogometni Magazin {{DEFAULTSORT:Cernat, Florin 1980 births Living people Sportspeople from Galați Romanian footballers Association football midfielders ASC Oțelul Galați players FC Dinamo București players FC Dynamo Kyiv players HNK Hajduk Split players Kardemir Karabükspor footballers Çaykur Rizespor footballers FC Viitorul Constanța players FC Voluntari players Liga I players Ukrainian Premier League players Croatian Football League players Süper Lig players TFF First League players Romanian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Ukraine Expatriate footballers in Croatia Expatriate footballers in Turkey Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Croatia Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Romania under-21 international footballers Romania international footballers