Florin Gardoș (; born 29 October 1988) 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 lea ...

who played as a

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

Early life

Gardoș was born in the city of

Satu Mare Satu Mare (; ; ; or ) is a city with a population of 102,400 (2011). It is the capital of Satu Mare County, Romania, as well as the centre of the Satu Mare metropolitan area. It lies in the region of Maramureș, broadly part of Transylvania ...

in Romania.

Club career

Gardoș started his senior career with

Concordia Chiajna Clubul Sportiv Concordia Chiajna, commonly known as Concordia Chiajna, is a Romanian professional Association football, football football team, club based in Chiajna, Ilfov County, which competes in the Liga II. Founded in 1957, the team's best ...

in 2006. In his first season at the club, he helped them achieve promotion to the second division.

Steaua București

On 17 June 2010, Gardoș was transferred to Steaua București. He made his competitive debut for the ''Roș-albaștrii'' on 16 August, in a

Liga I Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

match against Victoria Brănești. In September 2011, Gardoș received a ten-match ban after seriously tackling

Pandurii Târgu Jiu The uprising of 1821 was a social and political rebellion in Wallachia, which was at the time a tributary state of the Ottoman Empire. It originated as a movement against the Phanariote administration, with backing from the more conservative b ...

midfielder

Cosmin Băcilă Cosmin Nicolae Băcilă (born 10 September 1983) is a Romanian former professional footballer. On 18 September 2011, Băcilă suffered a broken left tibia and fibula following a tackle by Florin Gardoș in a match between Pandurii and FC Steaua ...

, which resulted in a broken left

tibia The tibia (; : tibiae or tibias), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two Leg bones, bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outsi ...

and

fibula The fibula (: fibulae or fibulas) or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. ...

Southampton

On 14 August 2014, Gardoș signed a four-year deal with English club

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

for an undisclosed fee, believed to be around

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

7.5 million. On 13 September, he made his first appearance for "the Saints" as an 89th-minute substitute for

Jack Cork Jack Frank Porteous Cork (born 25 June 1989) is an English professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for and captained club Burnley, where he is also employed as the assistant manager of the clubs under-21 team. He played fo ...

in a 4–0

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

victory over

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

. His first start came on 23 September in a 2–1 away defeat of

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 ...

in the League Cup. On 23 July 2015, Southampton manager

Ronald Koeman Ronald Koeman (; born 21 March 1963) is a Dutch professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who is the manager of the Netherlands national football team, Netherlands national team. Koeman scor ...

announced that Gardoș would be sidelined for up to seven months after suffering a knee injury in a pre-season friendly with

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Netherlands, Dutch professional association football, football club based in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football league system, Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the ...

. He finally made his return to the first team in a 5–0

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

loss to Arsenal on 28 January 2017.

Universitatea Craiova

On 19 February 2018, the last day of the winter

transfer window In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club, club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a Transfer (association football), transfer is comp ...

in Romania, Gardoș joined Universitatea Craiova on loan for the remainder of the campaign. He made his debut on 31 March in a league fixture against

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ) or simply CFR, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I. Founded as ''Kolozsvári Vasut ...

, which finished 0–0. Gardoș played a further three matches in all competitions before suffering a strain on 28 April which effectively ended his season. As his contract with Southampton was not renewed, he chose to stay in

Oltenia Oltenia (), also called Lesser Wallachia in antiquated versions – with the alternative Latin names , , and between 1718 and 1739 – is a historical province and geographical region of Romania in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Da ...

, and signed a two-year contract with Universitatea Craiova.

International career

Gardoș made his senior debut for

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

in a

friendly game An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

against

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, on 8 February 2011.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Concordia Chiajna *

Liga III The Liga 3, most often spelled as Liga III, is the third level of the Romanian football league system. It was founded in 1936 and was called Divizia C until 2006. An exception was the seasons 1992–93 to 1996–97, in which the league was call ...

: 2006–07 Steaua București *

: 2012–13, 2013–14 *

Cupa României The Cupa României () 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. It is the Romania ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Supercupa României The Supercupa României () is a Romanian football (soccer), football championship contested by the winners of the Liga I and the Cupa României. It is usually played at the Arena Națională in Bucharest. The competition started off in 1994 Supe ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

Southampton *

EFL Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

runner-up: 2016–17 Universitatea Craiova *

: 2017–18 *

runner-up:

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gardos, Florin 1988 births Living people Footballers from Satu Mare Romanian sportspeople of Hungarian descent Romanian men's footballers Men's association football defenders Liga I players Liga II players Liga III players CS Concordia Chiajna players FCSB players Premier League players Southampton F.C. players CS Universitatea Craiova players FC Politehnica Iași (2010) players LPS HD Clinceni players Romania men's youth international footballers Romania men's under-21 international footballers Romania men's international footballers Romanian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Romanian expatriate sportspeople in England 21st-century Romanian sportsmen