Marius Popa

Marius Cornel Popa ( born July 31, 1978 in Oradea, Bihor County ) is a former Romanian football goalkeeper. He played a total of 210 games in the Romanian League 1

Career

Association

Popa's career began in his native FC Bihor Oradea. Since the 1997/98 season he was there for the senior squad. Three years later, he decided on a change to FC Naţional Bucharest in the Divizia A. He first belonged to the squad of the reserve team or was only a reserve player in the first team. In 2003 he made ​​his breakthrough and he became a regular Keeper of the bankers. During the winter break of 2004/ 05 was a switch to FCU Politehnica Timişoara. He was followed at the same time his coach in Bucharest, Cosmin Olăroiu, and his teammate Gabriel Cânu, Gabriel Caramarin and Gigel Coman.

In Timişoara, he was initially the undisputed number 1 in the final of the Romanian Cup against Rapid Bucharest he could not accumulate due to an injury and the form of weakness. At that time he was represented by Costel Pantilimon. But even this was not a constant power so that Popa returned quickly to the gate of the police again.

After Popa was replaced at the beginning of the season 2008/ 09 by Pantilimon as a goalkeeper, he no longer was used and changed at the end of the season to newly promoted Curtea de Arges iNTernational. As his new club a year later the license was revoked, he moved to the beginning of the 2010/11 season for Premier League rivals Pandurii Târgu Jiu. After half a year he moved to Universitatea Cluj on. There he ended his active career in 2012.

National

Although Popa early showed good performances in Liga 1, he had a long wait for his cue for the Romanian national football team. In early 2008 he was allowed to stand between the posts for the first time for his country. In the match against Russia, he made ​​his debut. For the 2008 European Football Championship in Switzerland and Austria, he was nominated by coach Victor Piţurcă, but came after no more bets.