Gabriel Cânu (born 18 January 1981) is a

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 ...

n former

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 ...

. He was best known for his impressive height, powerful header and aerial game effective both defensively and in attack. He was also regarded for his leadership qualities, becoming captain for

Timișoara Timișoara (, , ; , also or ; ; ; see #Etymology, other names) is the capital city of Timiș County, Banat, and the main economic, social and cultural center in Western Romania. Located on the Bega (Tisza), Bega River, Timișoara is consider ...

, Vaslui and Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț. He is now football analyst for

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

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 ...

Show covering the top English football league matches, alongside Lucian Sânmărtean and Emanuel Terzian and assistant manager of Metaloglobus București.

Career

Born in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, Cânu came through the youth ranks of local Național București, going on to finish his sporting formation with the Divizia B teams Cimentul Fieni and FC Baia Mare.

Național

Aged 18, he made his debut in Național's first team on 2 June 1999, coming as a substitute in a 2–0 win against Petrolul Ploiești. It was his only appearance that season. After one season, with no matches, he was loaned two consecutive seasons to Divizia B sides Cimentul Fieni and FC Baia Mare, to build up his first team experience. After he returned, he failed to establish himself in the first team squad. Cânu made one appearance in the Romanian first league in 1997/1998, while at FC Național. In the 2000/2001 and 2001/2002 seasons he played in the Romanian second league, for Cimentul Fieni and FC Baia Mare respectively. He then returned to FC Național, playing 16 times in the

Divizia A 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 ...

during the 2003/2004 season. Cânu joined Poli in the winter break of the 2004/2005 season, together with Național coach Cosmin Olăroiu and teammates Gabriel Caramarin, Gigel Coman and

Marius Popa Marius Cornel Popa (born 31 July 1978) is a Romanian former professional footballer who serves as a goalkeeping coach for Liga I club FCSB. Club career He started his career at the local team, Bihor Oradea in 1997 and three years later moved t ...

Honours

FC Vaslui *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

ACS Poli Timișoara *

Liga II The Liga 2, most commonly 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 football season. It is currently Sponso ...

: 2014–15

External links

* * 1981 births Living people Footballers from Bucharest Romanian men's footballers Men's association football defenders Liga I players Liga II players FC Politehnica Timișoara players FC Progresul București players CS Minaur Baia Mare (football) players FC Vaslui players CSM Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț players ACS Poli Timișoara players 21st-century Romanian sportsmen {{Romania-footy-defender-1980s-stub