
Daniel Oprita (full name Daniel Ionel Oprita) was born on August 10, 1981 in Draganesti, Olt, Romania. He is a famous Romanian football player.
Biography and Career:
He began to play professional football at CSM Resita in B Division (second Romanian League) starting with the season 2000-2001.
In his first season he played in 13 games and scored three times. Between 2001-2002 he had a very good period and succeeded to be remarked so in the next season was transferred to the champion team Steaua Bucharest.
This caused a conflict between CSM Resita's ex-boss, Dinel Staicu, and the executive president from Steaua,
Gigi Becali. Both of them said that the player belongs to them and in the end the Romanian F
ootball Federation decided that Oprita is Steaua's.
He debuted in A Division (first Romanian League) on the 18th of August 2002 in a game against FC Brasov, which ended 0-0.
In the first two seasons for Steaua he played in 54 games and succeeded to score four goals. a lot of specialists in football said about him that he is a very strong player, a fighter, but as a striker he doesn't score too much.
In the next season, 2004-2005, Walter Zenga the new coach from Steaua didn't use him very much but he succeeded to score in 12 games 5 goals. In that season the team won the championship.
After Walter Zenga was demitted, Protasov, the new coach, used Oprita in more games, 24, but the striker had the same old problem and scored only once. Again the team won the championship title and at the end of the competition were some discussions about Oprita's transfer to FCU Poli Timisoara which weren't finished.
In the European Cups he debuted in 2003 in UEFA Cup with Steaua and he played in 6 games and scored once. The next season in UEFA Cup was the best of the Romanian teams in the last 10 years because Steaua qualified in the groups phase and more than this they eliminated in 1/16 finals Valencia, the ex-winner of UEFA Cup.
In 2005 after they lost the chance to play in UEFA Champions League groups because they were eliminated by Rosenborg, they played again in UEFA Cup and had fantastic results. They defeated teams like Lens, Heerenven, Betis Sevilla and their traditional Romanian rival Rapid Bucharest in the quarter finals, but unfortunately for them they were eliminated in the semi-final by Middlebrough.
In the next season they succeeded, after 10 years to play again in UEFA Champions League Groups after they eliminated Standard Liege. They played in a group with Real Madrid, Olympique Lyon and Dynamo Kiev.
He debuted on the 20th of August 2003 at the Romanian national team in a friendly game against Ukraine. He also played in another five games.
Daniel Oprita short info:
Height: 184 cm
Weight: 82 kg
Position: striker
Number: 7