Rodion Gorun Cămătaru (; born 22 June 1958) 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 le ...

who played as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

Club career

Rodion Cămătaru was born on 22 June 1958 in

Strehaia Strehaia () is a town in Mehedinți County, Oltenia, Romania. It is situated on the Motru River valley, in the eastern part of the county. Forests in the vicinity are home to the largest Hermann's tortoise colonies in Oltenia. Nine villages ar ...

and debuted in

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 ...

with Universitatea Craiova on 10 November 1974 in a 1–1 against CFR Cluj. He spent twelve seasons with Universitatea, scoring 122 goals in 288

matches, being part of the "Craiova Maxima" generation that won two consecutive league titles in 1980 and 1981, in the first he contributed with 26 appearances in which he scored 17 goals and in the second he scored 23 goals in 33 matches, also winning four cups in the years

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

in which he scored a goal in the 3–1 victory from the final against Olimpia Satu Mare,

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

and

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

in which he scored a double in the 2–1 final against Politehnica Timișoara and managed to reach the

1982–83 UEFA Cup The 1982–83 UEFA Cup was the 12th edition of the UEFA Cup. It was won by Belgian club Anderlecht on 2–1 aggregate over Portuguese club Benfica. Association team allocation A total of 64 teams from 31 UEFA member associations participate in ...

semi-finals, making 9 appearances in the campaign. In 1986, he was transferred to

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 Yekaterinbu ...

, where he became the

top goalscorer and European Golden Boot winner in the first season spent at the club with 44 goals scored in 33 games, but as he scored 26 goals in the last 9 matches of the season, his European Golden Boot was retired because

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

's investigations claimed the goals were scored unfairly and the trophy was awarded to

Anton Polster Anton "Toni" Polster (born 10 March 1964) is an Austrian professional football coach and former player. He is the all-time leading goalscorer for the Austria national team with 44 goals. Polster's top flight coaching debut at Admira Wacker l ...

, however Cămătaru was allowed to keep his copy of the trophy. In 1987 he was nominated for the

Ballon d'Or The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual football award presented by French news magazine ''France Football'' since 1956. Between 2010 and 2015, in an agreement with FIFA, the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year (fo ...

. In 1989 he went to play in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Charleroi Charleroi ( , , ; wa, Tchålerwè ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. By 1 January 2008, the total population of Charleroi was 201,593.

, after two seasons he moved in

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

at Heerenveen where he spent three seasons, scoring his last goal as a professional in the

1992–93 KNVB Cup The 75th edition of the KNVB Cup started on August 29, 1992. The final was played on May 20, 1993: AFC Ajax, Ajax beat sc Heerenveen 6–2 and won the cup for the twelfth time. Teams * All 18 participants of the Eredivisie 1992-93, eleven of whic ...

final, which was lost with 6–2 in front of

Ajax Amsterdam Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or simply Ajax, is a Dutch professional football club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. Historically, Ajax (named after the l ...

. He has a total of 378

appearances in which he scored 198 goals and 47 matches played with 7 goals scored in European competitions. In 2020 with the occasion of Heerenveen's 100th anniversary, Cămătaru was selected the best striker in the club's history in front of

Ruud van Nistelrooy Rutgerus Johannes Martinus van Nistelrooij (anglicised to Van Nistelrooy; born 1 July 1976) is a Dutch professional football coach and former player. He is currently the coach of PSV Eindhoven. A former footballer, Van Nistelrooy is often consi ...

and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.

International career

Rodion Cămătaru played 73 matches and scored 21 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 ...

, making his debut on 13 December 1978 under coach Ștefan Kovács in a friendly which ended with a 2–1 loss 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 ...

. He played two games at the Euro 1980 qualifiers and scored one goal in the 4–1 victory against

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

in the second leg of the

1977–80 Balkan Cup The 1977–80 Balkan Cup, was the 12th Balkan Cup football tournament. It was the first to have a group stage involving the five teams split into two groups, one of three teams and the other of two, with the winner of each one meeting in the fin ...

final. He played six games and scored two goals at the successful Euro 1984 qualifiers, also being used by coach Mircea Lucescu in all three group matches from the

final tournament Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

as Romania did not advance to the next stage. In the following years, Cămătaru played six games and scored three goals at the 1986 World Cup qualifiers, four games at the Euro 1988 qualifiers, five games and two goals scored at the successful 1990 World Cup qualifiers, being also part of the squad that participated at the

where coach Emeric Jenei did not use him in any games. Cămătaru's last appearance for the national team was in a 2–1 loss against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

in which he scored

's goal at the Euro 1992 qualifiers. For representing his country at the

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 ...

, Cămătaru was decorated by President of Romania

Traian Băsescu Traian Băsescu (; born 4 November 1951) is a conservatism, conservative Romanian politician who served as President of Romania from 2004 to 2014. Prior to his presidency, Băsescu served as Romanian Minister of Transport on multiple occasions ...

on 25 March 2008 with the Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" – (The Medal "The Sportive Merit") class III.

International goals

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

Honours

Universitatea Craiova *

: 1979–80, 1980–81 *

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 ...

: 1976–77, 1977–78, 1980–81, 1982–83 Romania *

Balkan Cup The Balkan Cup was an international association football competition contested on and off from 1929 to 1980 by countries from the Balkans region. The most successful team was Romania with four titles. Overview The first edition featured Romania, ...

: 1977–80

Individual

top scorer: 1986–87 *

European Golden Shoe The European Golden Shoe, also known as European Golden Boot, is an award that is presented each season to the leading goalscorer in league matches from the top division of a European national league. The trophy is a sculpture of a football boot. ...

: 1986–87 *

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

(21st place)

References

External links

*
Dutch league stats
– Voetbal International {{DEFAULTSORT:Camataru, Rodion 1958 births Living people People from Strehaia Romanian footballers Romania international footballers Romanian expatriate footballers CS Universitatea Craiova players FC Dinamo București players R. Charleroi S.C. players SC Heerenveen players Liga I players Belgian Pro League players Eredivisie players Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate footballers in Belgium Romanian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands UEFA Euro 1984 players 1990 FIFA World Cup players Association football forwards Universiade medalists in football Universiade bronze medalists for Romania