Gheorghe "Gică" Popescu (; born 9 October 1967) is a Romanian former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who played as a defender. He notably played in La Liga where he is a former

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of FC Barcelona. He played for a string of European clubs in that period, including a four-year stint at PSV Eindhoven and winning the UEFA Cup with Galatasaray. He also played in the Premier League with Tottenham Hotspur, in Serie A with

Lecce Lecce ( ); el, label=Griko, Luppìu, script=Latn; la, Lupiae; grc, Λουπίαι, translit=Loupíai), group=pron is a historic city of 95,766 inhabitants (2015) in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Lecce, the province ...

and in the Bundesliga with

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), Hannover, HSV or simply 96, is a German professional football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years betwe ...

. In his native country he played for Universitatea Craiova, Steaua București and Dinamo București. In addition to his defensive skills, he was also capable of starting attacks deep from his own half. His tactical knowledge as a defender made him a valuable team member in top European competitions until he reached his late-thirties. He was a key part of 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 t ...

in the 1990s and earned 115 caps, scoring 16 goals. He was present at

1990 World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second time (the first being M ...

1994 World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football, soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the countr ...

Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

1998 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 ...

and Euro 2000. He is the brother-in-law of fellow

Romanian international The Romanian International, also known as BanuInvest International Championships, is an international badminton open held in Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Eu ...

Gheorghe Hagi.

Club career

After playing six seasons for Universitatea Craiova, Popescu was loaned to Romanian giants Steaua Bucharest reaching the semi-finals of the

European Cup 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 ...

during their 1987–88 campaign. He moved abroad to the Netherlands in 1990, and signed for PSV Eindhoven at the request of

Sir Bobby Robson Sir Robert William Robson (18 February 1933 – 31 July 2009) was an English footballer and football manager. His career included periods playing for and later managing the England national team and being a UEFA Cup-winning manager at Ipswich ...

, helping them to keep among the top Dutch sides, until he was transferred to Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on 9 September 1994 for a fee of £2.9million. He played 23 times in the Premier League and scored three goals as Spurs (who changed manager from

Ossie Ardiles Osvaldo César Ardiles (born 3 August 1952), often referred to in Britain as Ossie Ardiles, is an Argentine football manager, pundit and former midfielder who won the 1978 FIFA World Cup as part of the Argentina national team. He now runs ...

Gerry Francis Gerald Charles James Francis (born 6 December 1951) is an English former footballer and manager. Playing career Francis made his first team debut for Queens Park Rangers against Liverpool in March 1969. He was captain and central midfield play ...

a few weeks after Popescu arrived) finished seventh in the league – their highest finish for five years. He also helped them to reach the FA Cup semi-finals, where they lost 4–1 to eventual cup winners Everton. However, after less than a year in England, he left Tottenham to sign for the Spanish club Barcelona for £3million, succeeding Ronald Koeman in the team. He was made captain of the Catalan club, contributing to their Copa del Rey (domestic cup) glory in his first season and their UEFA Cup Winners' Cup triumph in his second. After leaving Barcelona during the summer of 1997, he was transferred to Galatasaray of Turkey, where he spent four years and won several major trophies, including the UEFA Cup in May 2000 – where Galatasaray defeated

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

, key rivals of his old club Tottenham, on penalties after a goalless draw in open play and he scored the final penalty shot in the penalty shootout. He spent the 2001–2002 season in Italy with Serie A club

, before returning to his native Romania for a brief spell with Dinamo Bucharest, before winding up with a season in Germany with

. Popescu was never outside the top four in the

Romanian Footballer of the Year The Romanian Footballer of the Year ( ro, Fotbalistul român al anului), also known as the Nicolae Dobrin Trophy ( ro, Trofeul Nicolae Dobrin), is an annual association football award given by the ''Gazeta Sporturilor'' newspaper to the Romanian ...

awards for 13 years from 1989 until 2001. He was recently voted into Romanian footballs all-time World Cup team.

International career

At international level, Popescu is Romania's all-time third most capped players with 115, in which he scored 16 goals. He played for his country in the

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, and 1998 World Cups,

and Euro 2000. He also entered the symbolic but exclusive circle of players with a century of caps.

Personal life

He is the brother-in-law of fellow

Gheorghe Hagi.

Tax evasion and imprisonment

On 4 March 2014, Popescu and seven others, among them Mihai Stoica, were convicted by a Romanian appeals court of

money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...

and tax evasion in connection with the transfer of football players from Romania to other countries. Popescu was sentenced to a jail term of three years and one month. He was released for good conduct on 4 November 2015, after serving half of his sentence, the books he wrote and published during his imprisonment also helping towards his reduced sentence as customary for

Romanian law The law of Romania is civil law. History The Romanian judicial system experienced a major overhaul in the early 2010s, with the introduction of four new codes: the Civil Code (2011), the Civil Procedure Code (2013) and the Penal and Penal Proce ...

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Steaua 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 ...

: 1987–88 *

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 ...

: 1987–88 PSV * Eredivisie: 1990–91, 1991–92 * Johan Cruijff Shield:

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

Barcelona * Copa del Rey: 1996–97 *

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España or the ''Spanish Super Cup'' is a super cup tournament in Spanish football. Founded in 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2019–20 by four teams: the winners and runners-up of ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

* UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1996–97 Galatasaray * 1.Lig: 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–2000 * Turkish Cup: 1998–99, 1999–2000 * Turkish Super Cup: 1997 * UEFA Cup: 1999–2000 * UEFA Super Cup:

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

Individual *

: 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996

References

External links

Gica Popescu's International caps
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Popescu, Gheorghe 1967 births Living people Romanian men's footballers Romania men's international footballers 1990 FIFA World Cup players 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Romanian expatriate men's footballers Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Romanian expatriate sportspeople in England Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Bundesliga players Galatasaray S.K. footballers Süper Lig players Eredivisie players La Liga players Premier League players Serie A players Liga I players People from Calafat Men's association football sweepers Romanian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands CS Universitatea Craiova players FC Steaua București players FC Dinamo București players PSV Eindhoven players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players FC Barcelona players US Lecce players Hannover 96 players UEFA Euro 1996 players UEFA Euro 2000 players FIFA Men's Century Club Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Romanian white-collar criminals UEFA Cup winning players Romanian sports executives and administrators Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Footballers from Dolj County