George Curcă (born 8 May 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 professional football player who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Club career

Curcă was born on 8 May 1981 in

Isaccea Isaccea () is a small town in Tulcea County, in Northern Dobruja, Romania, on the right bank of the Danube, 35 km north-west of Tulcea. According to the 2021 census, it has a population of 4,408. The town has been inhabited for thousands o ...

, Romania, starting to play football at local club, Progresul. He started his senior career at Farul Constanța, helping it promote to the first league at the end of the

2000–01 Divizia B The 2000–01 Divizia B was the 61st season of the second tier of the Romanian football league system. The format has been maintained to two series, each of them having 18 teams. At the end of the season, the winners of the series promoted to Div ...

season under the guidance of coach

Petre Grigoraș Petre Grigoraș (born 15 November 1964, in Poduri, Bacău County, Bacău) is a Romanian football (soccer), football manager and former player. He is known as "Petre Grigoraș, cel mai tare din oraș" ("Petre Grigoraș, best man of the city"), as ...

. He made his

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 ...

debut on 18 August 2001 in a 3–1 home loss to

Rapid București Rapid(s) or RAPID may refer to: Hydrological features * Rapids, sections of a river with turbulent water flow * Rapid Creek (Iowa River tributary), Iowa, United States * Rapid Creek (South Dakota), United States, namesake of Rapid City Sport ...

. Farul reached the

2005 Cupa României final The 2005 Cupa României Final was the 67th final of Romania's most prestigious cup competition. The final was played at the Cotroceni Stadium in Bucharest on 11 May 2005 and was contested between Divizia A sides Dinamo București and Farul Consta ...

where coach Grigoraș used him all the minutes in the 1–0 loss 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 Yekaterin ...

. Afterwards he made five appearances in the 2006 Intertoto Cup, helping the club eliminate Pobeda and

Lokomotiv Plovdiv PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv (), commonly known as Loko Plovdiv, is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Plovdiv. Lokomotiv's home ground is the Stadion Lokomotiv (Plovdiv), Lokomotiv Stadium which is situated in Lauta Park and ha ...

in the first two rounds, being eliminated in the third by

Auxerre Auxerre ( , , Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Auchoirre'') is the capital (Prefectures in France, prefecture) of the Yonne Departments of France, department and the fourth-largest city in the Burgundy historical region southeast of Par ...

. At the end of the 2008–09 season, Farul relegated but he continued to play in the first league, being loaned for the following season to Dinamo. Afterwards, Curcă was permanently transferred by Dinamo and played four games in the 2010–11 Europa League qualifying phase, managing to get past

Olimpia Bălți Olimpia may refer to: Sports teams *Club Atlético Olimpia, a sports club based in Montevideo, Uruguay *Club Deportivo Olimpia, a football team based in Tegucigalpa, Honduras *Club Olimpia, a sports club based in the city of Asunción, Paraguay * ...

, being eliminated in the following round by

Hajduk Split Hrvatski Nogometni klub Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Split, that competes in the Croatian First League, the top tier in Croatian football. Since 1979, the club's home ...

. He was loaned for the second half of the

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

season at

Unirea Urziceni Fotbal Club Unirea Urziceni, commonly known as Unirea Urziceni (), was a Romanian professional Association football, football Club (organization), club based in Urziceni, Ialomița County. Unirea became Divizia A Final Tables, national champions ...

with whom he relegated at the end of it. Also, at Urziceni, he made his last appearance in the Romanian first league on 21 May 2011 in a 5–1 away loss to Sportul Studențesc București, gaining a total of 221 matches in the competition. In January 2012, he made a comeback to Farul in the second league, being loaned there by Dinamo. Half of year later, Curcă became Farul's player, spending two more seasons with ''The Sailors''. In 2015 he moved to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

where played for a short period at an amateur club from

Corby Corby is a town and civil parish in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, northeast of Northampton. In 2021 it had a population of 68,164. From 1974 to 2021, it was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...

International career

Between 2001 and 2003, Curcă made several appearances for Romania's under-21 squad. He played two games in which he did not concede any goals for Romania B at the 2004

Cyprus International Football Tournament The Cyprus International Football Tournament was an annual winter association football friendly competition for national teams that takes place in Cyprus. It was traditionally held in February as a friendly tournament since at least 1997, and last ...

, as they got past Belarus in the semi-finals and defeated with 3–0

rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or Social group, groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each ...

Hungary in the final.

Personal life

His cousin, Cristian Munteanu was also a goalkeeper and they were colleagues in 2010 at

Honours

Farul Constanța *

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 ...

runner-up: 2004–05

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Curca, George 1981 births Living people People from Isaccea Romanian men's footballers Romania men's under-21 international footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Liga I players Liga II players FCV Farul Constanța players FC Dinamo București players FC Dinamo București II players FC Unirea Urziceni players Romanian expatriate men's footballers Romanian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England Footballers from Tulcea County 21st-century Romanian sportsmen