Alexandru Apolzan

Alexandru Apolzan
Personal information
Full name Alexandru Apolzan
Date of birth (1927-02-06)6 February 1927
Place of birth Sibiu, Romania
Date of death 23 December 1982(1982-12-23) (aged 55)
Place of death Bucharest, Romania
Playing position Central Defender / Sweeper
Youth career
1941–1943 Şoimii Sibiu
1945–1946 23 August Bucureşti
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1946–1949 CFR Bucureşti 60 (1)
1949–1962 Steaua Bucureşti 216 (2)
Total 276 (3)
National team
1949–1960 Romania 22 (0)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.


Alexandru Apolzan (6 February 1927 in Sibiu – 23 December 1982) was a Romanian football player, who played mainly for Steaua Bucureşti and also for Romania. He is in fact the inventor of the sweeper role and is considered as one of the best sweepers in the history of Romanian football, only Miodrag Belodedici and Gheorghe Popescu, in the recent years, being able to play at a similar level.

An inventor of modern football

It was the Romanian Apolzan who first played in as sweeper, while at Steaua Bucureşti. However, Apolzan played during the darkest period in the history of Romania, when the connections with the outside world were almost cut completely.

Apolzan signed his first contract with Şoimii, a local team from Sibiu, in 1941. After the war he joins the squad of CFR Bucharest and then between 1949 and 1962, at the end of his career, played for Steaua Bucureşti.

The great Hungarian coach Gusztáv Sebes, the builder of the great Hungarian team from the first half of the 1950s - the Magical Magyars, said in 1954, after the 1954 FIFA World Cup that Apolzan, Ion Voinescu and Titus Ozon are at the same level as his own Hungarian players and that he would be proud to be able to coach them.

He also won 22 caps for Romania. It was however an era when Romania used to play less than five games per year.

Honours

Club

Steaua Bucharest

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by
Gheorghe Popescu I
Steaua captain
1949–Unknown
Succeeded by
Ion Voinescu
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