Ovidiu Nicușor Burcă (born 16 March 1980) is a Romanian professional

football manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

and former player.

Club career

Early career

Burcă was born on 16 March 1980 in Slatina, Romania. His talent was noticed by coach

Nicolae Zamfir Nicolae Țică Zamfir (14 December 1944 – 14 September 2022) is a Romania, Romanian Association football, football manager. He coached CS Universitatea Craiova, Universitatea Craiova, FC Bdin, Bdin Vidin, FC Universitatea Craiova, FC U Craiova ...

who brought him to the Școala de Fotbal Gheorghe Popescu.

Emelec

He started his senior career at Ecuadorian side Emelec in 1998. He made his

Ecuadorian Serie A The Liga Pro Ecuador Serie A, simply known as the Liga Pro or the Serie A (or the Ecuadorian Serie A to distinguish it from the Italian Serie A and the Brazilian Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, Série A), or as Liga Pro Ecuabet for sponsorship re ...

debut in a Clásico del Astillero match against

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

in which he dislocated his shoulder, an injury which kept him off the field for two months and a half. He made a total of six league appearances in his single season spent with ''El Bombillo''.

JEF United Ichihara and Ventforet Kofu

Afterwards he went at JEF United Ichihara in Japan where he made his J.League debut on 25 March 2000 when coach

sent him on the field in the 65th minute to replace

Kazuhiro Suzuki is a former Japanese football player. Club career Suzuki was born in Tokyo on November 16, 1976. After graduating from high school, he joined JEF United Ichihara with Takayuki Chano in 1995. He played many matches from first season. However h ...

in a 6–1 home loss to

Vissel Kobe is a Japanese professional football club based in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. They are currently the J1 League champions. The club's home stadium is Noevir Stad ...

. He played only four league matches for JEF United. He stayed in Japan, signing with

J2 League The or simply J2 is the second division of the and the second level of the Japanese association football league system. The top tier is represented by the J1 League. It (along with the rest of the J.League) is currently sponsored by Meiji Yasud ...

team

Ventforet Kofu is a Japanese professional football club from Kōfu in Yamanashi Prefecture. The team currently competes in the J2 League, Japanese second tier of professional football, hosting their home matches in the JIT Recycle Ink Stadium, located in Kōf ...

where he played sixteen matches and scored one goal.

Universitatea Craiova

Burcă returned to Romania to play for Universitatea Craiova, making 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 5 May 2001 in a 3–1 home win over Oțelul Galați. During his spell with "U" Craiova he started playing in European competitions, appearing in both legs of the 5–4 loss to Synot from the second round of the 2001 Intertoto Cup, receiving a red card in the second leg. In 2002 when Craiova owner Gheorghe Nețoiu left the team to go at Dinamo, he took players Burcă, Cosmin Bărcăuan, Dan Alexa,

Flavius Stoican Flavius Vladimir Stoican (born 24 November 1976) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player, currently in charge of Liga II club CSM Reșița. Club career Stoican started his career at FC Drobeta, but soon he left them for ...

, Ciprian Danciu,

Ștefan Preda Ștefan Gabriel Preda (born 18 June 1970) is a former Romanian professional Association football, footballer who played as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. Club career Preda was born on 18 June 1970 in Ploiești, Romania, starti ...

Cornel Frăsineanu Cornel Dănuț Frăsineanu (born 20 August 1976, in Caracal) is a retired Romanian football player. He was also a manager at Atletic Bradu in the Romanian Liga IV. Honours Dinamo București *Cupa României The Cupa României () is a Associ ...

and Ștefan Grigorie with him.

Dinamo București

His first performance with Dinamo came when coach

Ioan Andone Ioan Andone (; born 15 March 1960) is a Romanian professional football coach and former player. Club career Corvinul Hunedoara Ioan Andone, nicknamed "Fălcosul" was born on 15 March 1960 in Șpălnaca , and when he was 14 years old, he playe ...

sent on the field in the 71st minute to replace

Gabriel Tamaș Gabriel Sebastian Tamaș (; born 9 November 1983) is a Romanian former association football, footballer who played as a Defender (association football)#Centre-back, centre-back, currently sporting director of Liga II club CS Concordia Chiajna, Co ...

in the 1–0 victory from the

2003 Cupa României final 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cultural significance in many societies ...

against Național București. In the following season he helped the club win The Double, being used by Andone in 22 league games and again as a substitute in the Cupa României final, sending him this time on the field in the 90th minute to replace

Angelo Alistar Angelo Dumitru Alistar (born 2 August 1975) is a Romanian former professional footballer who played as a defender, currently team manager at Liga II club Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț. Honours Dinamo București *Divizia A: 2003–04 *Cupa Românie ...

in the 2–0 victory against Oțelul Galați. In the same season he made five appearances in the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

, helping his side get past Liepājas Metalurgs and

Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk () is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club that was based in the city of Donetsk until 2014 when, due to the War in Donbas (2014–2022), War in Donbas, the club was forced to move to Lvi ...

, being eliminated by Spartak Moscow. Afterwards, Burcă played in both legs of the 2–0 aggregate win against

Žilina Žilina (; ; ; ; Names of European cities in different languages: U-Z#Z, names in other languages) is a city in north-western Slovakia, around from the capital Bratislava, close to both the Czech and Polish borders. It is the List of cities ...

from the 2004–05 Champions League qualifying rounds. His last trophy won with ''The Red Dogs'' was the

2004–05 Cupa României The 2004–05 Cupa României was the 67th season of the annual Romanian football knockout tournament. The winners of the competition qualified for the second qualifying round of the 2005–06 UEFA Cup. First round proper , colspan=3 style="bac ...

as coach Andone used him as a starter until the 56th minute when he replaced him with Ianis Zicu in the 1–0 victory against Farul Constanța from the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

. During his years spent at Dinamo, he also made appearances for the club's satellite teams,

Poiana Câmpina Poiana Câmpina is a communes of Romania, commune in Prahova County, Muntenia, Romania. It is composed of four villages: Bobolia, Pietrișu, Poiana Câmpina, and Răgman. The commune is located in the western part of the county, northwest of the ...

and Dinamo II in

Divizia B 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 football season. It is currently sponsored by Casa Pariu ...

. He had the opportunity to learn a lot about football while he was teammate with Gheorghe Popescu who had a short spell at the club.

Național București

After spending three years with Dinamo, Burcă signed with Național București in 2005. There, he played in a relaxed environment, without pressure, being the team's

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

at one point. At Național he also netted his first Divizia A goal on 1 April 2006 in a 2–0 home victory against Gloria Bistrița. His biggest performance with ''The Bankers'' was reaching the

2006 Cupa României final 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics A six-sided polygon is a hexagon, one of the three regular polygons capable of tiling the plane. A hexagon a ...

where coach

Cristiano Bergodi Cristiano Bergodi (born 14 October 1964) is an Italian professional football manager and former player. Club career Born in Bracciano, Lazio, Bergodi started to play at Pescara Calcio in the country's first division (Serie A) in 1987, for Pesca ...

used him all the minutes in the 1–0 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 ...

Energie Cottbus and Beijing Guoan

In June 2007,

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

side

Energie Cottbus FC Energie Cottbus (Lower Sorbian: ''Energija Chóśebuz'') is a Football in Germany, German football club based in Cottbus, Brandenburg. It was founded in 1963 as SC Cottbus in what was East Germany. After the German reunification, reunificatio ...

announced signing him on a three-year contract, also there he would be colleague with compatriots Sergiu Radu and Emil Jula. However, in his first season at the club he did not make any appearances due to a serious injury, which resulted in a year break in the 2007–08 season. He was loaned out in 2008 to Chinese club

Beijing Guoan Beijing Guoan Football Club (), known in AFC competitions as Beijing FC, is a Chinese professional football club based in Beijing, that competes in . Beijing Guoan plays its home matches at the Workers' Stadium, located within Chaoyang Distr ...

where he netted one goal in 15 games. Afterwards he came back Energie, making his Bundesliga debut on 21 February 2009 under coach Bojan Prašnikar in a 2–1 home victory against

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen, Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, Werder are best known for their professional association foo ...

. At the end of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

, the club reached a relegation play-off where they were defeated by

Nürnberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the largest city in Franconia, the second-largest city in the German state of Bavaria, and its 544,414 (2023) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest city in Germany. ...

. He stayed with the club for the 2009–10 2. Bundesliga season, playing regularly for Energie, being the team's

at one point.

Politehnica Timișoara

After his contract expired with the German side, Burcă signed a one-year contract with Politehnica Timișoara, returning to the Romanian first division after three years. He made his debut in a

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

play-off game against

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

which ended with a 2–0 loss. He helped ''The White-Purples'' finish runner-up at the end 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.

Rapid București

Burcă signed with

in June 2011. Under the guidance of coach

Răzvan Lucescu Răzvan Lucescu (; born 17 February 1969) is a Romanian professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player, who is currently managing Super League Greece, Greek Super League club PAOK FC, PAOK. ...

, he helped the team eliminate

Śląsk Wrocław Wrocławski Klub Sportowy Śląsk Wrocław Spółka Akcyjna, commonly known as WKS Śląsk Wrocław (), is a Polish professional Association football, football club based in Wrocław that plays in , the second level of the Polish football leagu ...

with 4–2 on aggregate in the play-offs of the 2010–11 Europa League, reaching the group stage of the competition. He reached the 2012 Cupa României final, however he was not used by Lucescu 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 ...

. He made his last appearance in the Romanian first league on 19 November 2012 in Rapid's 2–1 home win against

Gaz Metan Mediaș Gaz may refer to: Geography *Gaz, Kyrgyzstan Iran * Gaz, Darmian, village in South Khorasan province * Gaz, Golestan, a village in Bandar-e Gaz County * Gaz, Hormozgan, a village in Minab County * Gaz, Kerman, a village * Gaz, North Khorasan, a ...

in which he received a red card, gaining a total of 156 matches with three goals netted in the competition, also having a total of 17 games in European Cups (including two in the

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 discon ...

International career

In 2001, Burcă made several appearances for Romania's under-21 squad.

Managerial career

After he ended his playing career, Burcă worked as a sporting director for Oțelul Galați in the 2014–15 season. In 2015 he was appointed president at

, a position he occupied until 2020. He started the 2020–21 season as coach of Rapid's under-19 team, then in January 2021 he became the coach of the club's

satellite team In motorsport, a satellite team is a team related to a larger, better-funded team (which may be referred to as the factory team), which may involve ownership, technical support, and staff sharing, including drivers. Definition If the larger t ...

. He led his hometown team, CSM Slatina during the 2021–22 Liga III season, managing to promote the team to

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 ...

. In the 2022–23 Liga II season he led

to promotion to the first division after a 8–5 aggregate win over Argeș Pitești in a promotion play-off. In the following season, Burcă led Dinamo until November 2023, leaving after gaining only 10 points in 17 matches. One year later, in November 2024 he was appointed head coach of Liga II side,

Voluntari Voluntari () is a town in Ilfov County, Muntenia, Romania. It is located at a distance of 1 km from the northern border of Bucharest (on the DN2 road towards Urziceni) and is thus frequently viewed as a suburb of Bucharest. The population ...

but left one month later after only three games. On 1 January 2025 he came back to

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 ...

football, signing with Oțelul Galați, leaving about three months later after obtaining only two victories in 10 matches.

Honours

Player

Dinamo București *

: 2003–04 *

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 ...

: 2002–03, 2003–04, 2004–05 Național București *

runner-up: 2005–06 Rapid București *

runner-up: 2011–12

Manager

CSM Slatina *

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 ...

: 2021–22

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Burca, Ovidiu Living people 1980 births Footballers from Slatina, Romania Men's association football central defenders Romanian men's footballers Romania men's under-21 international footballers C.S. Emelec footballers J1 League players J2 League players JEF United Chiba players Ventforet Kofu players FC U Craiova 1948 players FC Dinamo București players FC Dinamo București II players FCM Câmpina players FC Progresul București players FC Energie Cottbus players Beijing Guoan F.C. players FC Politehnica Timișoara players FC Rapid București players FC Rapid București presidents Liga I players Liga II players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Chinese Super League players Romanian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Ecuador Expatriate men's footballers in Japan Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in China Romanian expatriate sportspeople in China Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Japan Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Ecuador Romanian sports executives and administrators Romanian football managers Liga I managers Liga II managers CSM Slatina (football) managers FC Dinamo București managers FC Voluntari managers ASC Oțelul Galați managers 21st-century Romanian sportsmen