Do You Remember Them #13- Bodgan Lobont

Biodata

Full Name: Bogdan Ionut Lobont

Nationality: Romanian

Date of Birth: 18 January 1978

Position: Goalkeeper

Former Clubs:

1995- 1997 Corvinul Hunedoara

1997- 2000 Rapid Bucuresti

2000- 2006 Ajax

2001- 2002 Dinamo Bucuresti (loan)

2006- 2007 Fiorentina

2007- 2009 Dinamo Bucuresti

2009- 2018 Roma

International Career:

1998- 2018 Romania

Achievement:

Rapid Bucuresti

1997- 1998 Cupa Romaniei

1998- 1999 Liga I

1999 Supercupa Romaniei

Dinamo Bucuresti

2001- 2002 Liga I

2006- 2007 Liga I

Ajax

2003- 2004 Eredivisie

Career

The goalkeeper is often the most underrated position in the football pitch. Football fans are more likely to remember the outfield player than the goalkeeper. Even the most prestigious award like Ballon D’Or takes more attention to the attacking player as Fabio Cannavaro is the last defender to win it and Lev Yashin is still the only goalkeeper to win it. In this article, we are here to introduce a top quality Romanian goalkeeper who spent most of his career in Italy. So who is he?

Bogdan Lobont spent the early stage of his footballing career in his hometown club, Cornivul Hunedoara in the Romanian second league. He remained at the club until 1997 when he transferred to the Romanian giant, Rapid Bucuresti. In Bucharest, Lobont won his first silverware as he is one of the squad members to win the 1998-1999 Romanian League title despite not playing a major role in the team. Lobont also gets his first cap in 1998 in a match against Liechtenstein. This is a sign that this Romanian goalkeeper is ready to face the challenge in a bigger stage of European football.

In the summer of 2000, Lobont was transferred to the Dutch club, Ajax. However, he was not selected as the starting goalkeeper in the team due to the injury problems and the lack of experience. Lobont was even loaned back to Romania in order to get more playing time to improve, this time to Dinamo Bucuresti. Upon his return to Amsterdam in 2002, Lobont became the team’s primary goalkeeper as his playing time is increasing. Lobont’s performance was crucial for the Ajax team to win 2003-2004 Eredivisie too. However, the emergence of Maarten Stekelenburg and Hans Vonk had limited Lobont playing time in Ajax once again. Therefore in January 2006, he was sold to ACF Fiorentina for 1.5mil.

Lobont’s main objective in Florence is to replace their starting goalkeeper, Sebastien Frey while he was injured. Although he played particularly well, in which he only conceded 19 goals in 17 games played, Lobont lost his place to Frey once he came back from injuries. The lack of playing time in Italy had cost his place on the Romanian national team, Lobont once again transferred back to Romania to rejoin Dinamo Bucuresti in 2007 to regain his spot in the national team. In his first season, Lobont helped Dinamo Bucuresti to win the Romanian Division One title by registering 5 clean sheets in 14 games played. In his three seasons stay in Bucharest, Dinamo Bucuresti had finished above 4th place in each of the seasons. With his impressive form, he had received attention from several European clubs.

On the deadline day of the summer transfer of 2009, AS Roma signed Lobont in a co-ownership from Dinamo Bucuresti. He was signed as the understudy for Doni. Despite his good performance when he was given the opportunity to perform on the pitch, Lobont was mostly served as the second shot-stopper in the team despite his almost 10 years stay in the Italian capital. In his almost a decade in Rome, Lobont had served the second shot-stopper for Doni, Maarten Stekelenburg, Morgan De Sanctis, Wojciech Szczesny, and Allison Becker. In 2008, Bogdan Lobont announced his retirement at the age of 40.

Post Retirement

After retirement, Lobont had been a manager. He managed a Romanian Division Two side, Universitatea Cluj for one season. He managed the club to a third-place finish in his sole season that he managed. Lobont is currently served as the assistant manager of the Romania national team. With his familiarity in Romanian national team and his expertise, Lobont will be contributing his talent to regain the fame of Romanian football.