Athlete of the Week on RRI – Footballer George Puscas
Puscas scored a hattrick for Reading
Florin Orban, 03.12.2019, 13:45
Romanian footballer George Puscas
had a stellar performance in the match pitting his team Reading against Wigan
in the second English league. Puscas scored a hattrick in the game his club won
3-1. Joe Garner scored the first goal for the home side on minute 34. Puscas
made it 1-all on minute 79, scoring from penalty kick. A minute later he scored
again, and on minute 84 he scored to make it 3-1 for Reading. For his remarkable
performance, we have designated George Puscas Athlete of the Week on RRI.
George Puscas this Monday was also designated Footballer of the Year 2019 at
the Romanian Football Gala.
George Puscas was born on April 8,
1996 in Marghita, Bihor County, northwestern Romania, close to the Hungarian
Border. He started to play football for a local club, Liberty Oradea. It was
there that he was scouted by Internazionale Milano, who bought Puscas for 600
thousand euros. Puscas completed a training with the club’s under-18 team, and
then the club board moved him to the A team, although he spent a lot of time as
a substitute. He was on loan to Bari for a season, and was close to securing
promotion to Serie A. Inter then loaned Puscas to Benevento, a team which this
time secured promotion to the first Italian league. He then played for Novara
in Serie B. Inter then transferred Puscas to Palermo in Serie B, for a
3-million-euro fee. After the team was relegated to the fourth-tier league,
Inter bought back Puscas and transferred him to Reading in Premier League for
an overall 10-million-euro fee, marking the most expensive transfer ever made
by the English club. And Puscas was worth every penny. This season he scored 6
goals.
George Puscas has 14 caps for the
Romanian national team, scoring 6 goals. He made his debut in May 2018, in a
friendly against Chile. On November 17, 2018 he scored his first goal for
Romania in Ploiesti, in the 3-nil win against Lithuania in Nations League.
(Translated by V. Palcu)
