Titus Ozon (13 May 1927 – 24 November 1996) was a

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 ...

n international football striker and manager. He was considered one of the greatest talents of the postwar in the Romanian football, famous for his extraordinary ability to

dribble In sports, dribbling is maneuvering a ball by one player while moving in a given direction, avoiding defenders' attempts to intercept the ball. A successful dribble will bring the ball past defenders legally and create opportunities to score. A ...

Career

He 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 ...

, in the

Obor Obor is the name of a square and the surrounding district of Bucharest, the capital of Romania. There is also a Bucharest Metro station (on the M1 line) named Obor, which lies in this area. The district is near the Colentina and Moșilor ...

neighborhood. He started football at

Unirea Tricolor București Unirea Tricolor București was a Romanian football club from Bucharest, south-east Romania, founded in 1914 as Tricolor București. It was one of the most famous inter-war clubs in Romania. History Tricolor București Tricolor, first named Teiu ...

at the age of 10, under the guidance of coach

Ștefan Cârjan Ștefan Cârjan (10 May 1909 – 18 November 1978) was a Romanian football left winger and manager. Life and career He was born in Bucharest, in the Dracului neighborhood. Cârjan played over 20 years for Unirea Tricolor București, winning the ...

. In 1948 he came to Dinamo, from which he was loaned disciplinary to Dinamo Braşov in 1951. After returning he was the top-goalsocorer of the

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 ...

for two years in a row, in

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

with 17 goals and in

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito i ...

with 12 goals. His other performances include securing the second place three times and the four finals of the

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 ...

he played in

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

(for Dinamo),

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

( Progresul),

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...

and

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wors ...

(

Rapid 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''. ...

). In 1952, Titus Ozon was part of the

team that played two matches in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, with CSKA and

Dynamo Moscow MGO VFSO "Dynamo" (russian: МГО ВФСО «Динамо»), commonly known as Dynamo Moscow (russian: Динамо Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. Founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky on 18 April 1923, Dynamo Moscow was the first ...

. Following the tournament, the members of this team received poor quality Pobeda watches, which they threw away, this being the first incident that aroused dissatisfaction with the

communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...

. In 1953, during a match with

Dinamo Tbilisi Dinamo Tbilisi is a sports club from Tbilisi, Georgia. It was founded in 1925. Among its highest honors, is the European trophy earned by its football team which won the Cup Winners' Cup in 1981, beating FC Carl Zeiss Jena of East Germany 2–1 ...

played in

, Titus Ozon manages to pass the ball between the legs of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

n star

Avtandil Gogoberidze Avtandil Nikolozis dze Gogoberidze ( ka, ავთანდილ ნიკოლოზის ძე ღოღობერიძე, russian: Автандил Николаевич Гогоберидзе; 3 August 1922, Sukhumi – 20 November 19 ...

. After this game he was named "enemy of the people" by the communist regime, which accused him of making fun of the Soviet people, being sanctioned with ten percent of his salary and arrested at the garrison for one day. In 1955 he wants to leave Dinamo, because of the "soldierly atmosphere there", and secretly signs with Progresul București, but he was caught by the

Securitate The Securitate (, Romanian for ''security'') was the popular term for the Departamentul Securității Statului (Department of State Security), the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania. Previously, before the communist regime ...

, who wanted to prevent him from submitting a report by accusing him that he had

legionnaire The French Foreign Legion (french: Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army which comprises several specialties: infantry, Armoured Cavalry Arm, cavalry, Military engineering, engineers, Airborne forces, airborne troops. It was created ...

sympathies, because he played at Unirea Tricolor. According to an interview given by Ozon in 1995, he was deported to the

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D ( NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also ...

to cut reeds, where he was seized in a cabin, guarded by a security guard. He manages to escape the arrest and arrives at the federation headquarters, hidden in a car, in time to submit his memory. The coach from Progresul,

Cornel Drăgușin Cornel Drăgușin (26 March 1926 – 10 October 2021) was a Romanian Association football, football manager who coached the national teams of Iraq, Syria and Romania. He was director of the Romanian Football Federation, Romanian FA coaching schoo ...

, considered him a "conflicting, independent and brilliant player on the field". In 1958, after returning to the country from a Progresul tournament in

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

, he was caught in the customs with about 3,000 ivory buttons for which he was charged with smuggling and suspended from sports. After six months, according to the writer George Mihalache, Titus Ozon met with

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (; 8 November 1901 – 19 March 1965) was a Romanian communist politician and electrician. He was the first Communist leader of Romania from 1947 to 1965, serving as first secretary of the Romanian Communist Party ( ...

Calea Victoriei CALEA may refer to: *Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, an act by the US Congress to facilitate wiretapping of U.S. domestic telephone and Internet traffic *Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, a private accredit ...

and asked for his suspension to be lifted, Gheorghiu-Dej agreed with the condition that Ozon would play for the team that he liked,

. In 1955 he plays in the comedy film ''Și Ilie face sport'' (''Ilie also does sport''), directed by Andrei Călărașu, in which the lives and morals of the athletes and fans were related. Ozon also played theater, being the star of the satire show "Bujor 12", which was played at the "Constantin Tănase" theater from

in 1957. He retired from football activity in 1964 and became the head coach of several teams in

, managing to train once outside the country at the national side of

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

, due to the good relations between presidents

Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( , ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian communist politician and dictator. He was the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and the second and last Communist leader of Romania. He was ...

and

Muammar Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...

. A park in

Sector 2 Sector 2 ( ro, Sectorul 2) is an administrative unit of Bucharest. Demographics Sector 2 is the city's most multicultural sector. In particular, it contains Romania's largest community of Chinese people, who mainly live in the districts of C ...

bears his name.

International career

Titus Ozon played 22 games and scored 7 goals for

. He scored in his debut when coach

Emerich Vogl Emerich (Imre) Vogl (born 12 August 1905 in Temesvár, Austria-Hungary (now Romania) – died 29 October 1971 in Bucharest, Romania) was a Romanian football player and coach of Banat Swabian ethnicity who was a member of Romanian team which pa ...

sent him on the field in order to replace

Gheorghe Bodo Gheorghe Bodo (also known as Bodó György; 1923 – 2004) was a Romanian professional footballer who played his entire career for CA Oradea, as a midfielder. He played at international level in 8 matches for Romania and scored 2 goals, also be ...

in the 73rd minute of a friendly against

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

which ended with a 3–1 victory. He also played matches at the 1964 European Nations' Cup qualifiers and at the

and 1958 World Cup qualifiers. He was also part of Romania's

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

squad in which he played in the 2–1 loss against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

International goals

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

Honours

Player

Unirea Tricolor București *

Divizia B 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 ...

: 1946–47 Dinamo București *

runner-up:

Progresul București *

runner-up: 1957–58 Rapid București *

runner-up: 1960–61, 1961–62

Individual

top scorer:

Manager

Argeş Pitești *

: 1971–72

Notes

References

External links

* *
Titus Ozon player profile
at Labtof.ro
Titus Ozon manager profile
at Labtof.ro {{DEFAULTSORT:Ozon, Titus 1927 births 1996 deaths Footballers from Bucharest Romanian footballers Romania international footballers Olympic footballers of Romania Footballers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Romanian football managers Liga I players Liga II players Unirea Tricolor București players FC Progresul București players FC Dinamo București players FC Rapid București players FC Argeș Pitești managers AFC Dacia Unirea Brăila managers CS Pandurii Târgu Jiu managers CSM Jiul Petroșani managers FC Progresul București managers Romanian expatriate football managers Libya national football team managers Association football forwards