15 Facts About Sorin Ghionea

Sorin Ghionea was born on 11 May 1979 and is a former Romanian professional footballer who played as a centre-back.

At the age of 12, Ghionea was sent to Otelul Galati football club by his teacher, Tica Ploiesteanu.

Sorin Ghionea debuted in Divizia A on 7 August 1998 in the win against FC National.

Sorin Ghionea played for Otelul between 1998 and 2003 62 matches and scoring two goals.

In 2002, Sorin Ghionea moved to Steaua Bucuresti for free transfer, but he did not convince Victor Piturca, Steaua's manager at that time, playing only in 6 matches and then being loaned back to Otelul Galati.

Sorin Ghionea played as a captain for Otelul on his loaned season in most of the matches and he had excellent performances.

In September 2004, Sorin Ghionea went through an operation on his nose after the match against FK Vozdovac.

Sorin Ghionea became close to Dorin Goian a basic player for Steaua Bucuresti especially after he took Mirel Radoi's place in the central defense after he was injured for a couple of time.

When Radoi returned to the first team he was put to play in the midfield and Sorin Ghionea kept his place.

Sorin Ghionea scored his first goal for Steaua against Dynamo Kyiv, in the UEFA Champions League group stage.

Sorin Ghionea's situation got worse and he was forced to have surgery on his left knee in April 2007.

Sorin Ghionea played in almost all of the season's remaining matches.

On 20 January 2010, Steaua announced that Sorin Ghionea was sold to FC Rostov.

On 9 February 2011, Sorin Ghionea signed an initial six-month contract with Poli, with the option to extend it for another two years.

Since then Sorin Ghionea has won nine further caps for Romania.