Footballer of the Year 2013: Alexandru Bourceanu

Alexandru Bourceanu was named footballer of the year 2013. He is team captain at Steaua and is also the player with the most consistent performance on the pitch.

Florin Orban, 07.01.2014, 13:04

In 2013, Steaua Bucharest has been beyond a reasonable doubt the best-performing football team. It managed to get all the way to the Europa League round of 16, after battling powerful sides such as Chelsea London. At home it had a great season, winning the Romanian First League title.

Finally, this autumn it qualified to the Champions League group stage. It therefore came as no surprise to see a Steaua footballer designated as footballer of the year 2013 at the recent Romanian Football Gala held in Bucharest by the Journalists Sports Club and the Romanian Footballers’ Association. Alexandru Bourceanu was named footballer of the year 2013. Bourceanu is team captain at Steaua. He is also the player with the most consistent performance on the pitch. Bourceanu bested Alexandru Maxim of VfB Stuttgart of Germany and goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon of Manchester City in scooping the award.

Alexandru Bourceanu was born on April 24, 1985 in Galati. He played for the under-21 team at the local side Dunarea, where he also made his debut in the senior team. In 2008, after Dunarea was relegated to the third tier, Bourceanu was spotted by one of the scouts from Otelul Galati, which immediately signed him up. He played for Otelul up until 2009, when he got transferred to Timisoara.

He spent two whole seasons here, helping the team secure a second place in the league tables in the 2010-2011 season. Unfortunately, FC Politehnica Timisoara failed to secure a license to play in the next season due to outstanding debts, and the team was relegated. At that point, Bourceanu was signed by Steaua.

Alexandru Bourceanu made his debut in European competitions with Timisoara. In July 2009, he has part of the lineup that held Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine to a 2-all draw in the Champions League preliminaries. That year, Timisoara failed to qualify to the main group stage, but managed to secure their presence in the Europa League.

Bourceanu was drafted into Romania’s team in 2009, when he was sent onto the pitch in a friendly match against Croatia, which Romania lost 2-1 at home. For the next two years, Bourceanu was left out of the main squad, but was eventually recalled in 2011, a year when he gathered a total of 20 caps.