Bogdan Stelea

Stelea was born on 5 December 1967 in Bucharest, Romania and began playing football at age 12 when he was brought to the youth center of Dinamo București by boxing coach Dumitru Ion. There, he worked with Iosif Varga, and also during these years he was teammates with future national team competitor Florin Prunea. He made his Liga I debut on 20 November 1986, playing for Dinamo under the guidance of coach Mircea Lucescu in a 2–0 victory against Oțelul Galați. However, shortly afterwards he was sent on loan for the second half of the season to Politehnica Iași, where he did not make any appearances. Stelea returned under Lucescu's command at Dinamo and became the first-choice goalkeeper in 1988, replacing Dumitru Moraru. His first achievement was reaching the quarter-finals of the 1988–89 European Cup Winners' Cup where they were eliminated on the away goals rule after 1–1 on aggregate by Sampdoria; he conceded only two goals in six games and kept four clean sheets. In the following season he helped the club win The Double, playing 22 league matches, and appearing the entire match in the 6–4 win over rivals Steaua București in the Cupa României final. He also played eight matches in the 1989–90 European Cup Winners' Cup campaign when the team reached the semi-finals where they were eliminated after losing 2–0 on aggregate to Anderlecht; he conceded five goals and kept three clean sheets. While he was in a training camp before a game in the 1990–91 European Cup against Porto,…

Early years and 1990 World Cup

Stelea played 91 games for Romania in which he conceded 72 goals, making his debut on 23 November 1988 when coach Emerich Jenei sent him to replace Silviu Lung for the last 20 minutes of a 3–0 friendly victory against Israel. His second game was a 1–0 victory against Bulgaria in the successful 1990 World Cup qualifiers. He was selected by coach Jenei to be part of the final tournament squad, but did not play in any games.

1994 World Cup and Euro 1996

After playing one match during the Euro 1992 qualifiers, Stelea made six appearances in the successful 1994 World Cup qualifiers. He was part of the "Golden Generation" that reached the quarter-finals of the 1994 World Cup final tournament, but was used by coach Anghel Iordănescu in only two group stage games, a 3–1 victory against Colombia and a 4–1 loss to Switzerland. Florin Prunea was chosen to play in the other three games of the campaign. Stelea played 10 games during the successful Euro 1996 qualifiers. Subsequently, he played under Iordănescu in two 1–0 losses to France and Bulgaria in the final tournament, as his side failed to progress from their group.

1998 World Cup and Euro 2000

Stelea played eight games in the successful 1998 World Cup qualifiers. Afterwards he was used by Iordănescu in all four games during the final tournament as the team reached the round of 16 where they were eliminated after a 1–0 loss to Croatia. He went on to play seven matches…

Stelea started his coaching career in 2009, when he worked as an assistant for Romania's national team under Răzvan Lucescu, who had been his coach at his last club, FC Brașov. On 6 June 2012, Stelea became head coach of Astra Ploiești, but two months later, following a home draw against CS Turnu Severin, he was sacked and replaced with Gheorghe Mulțescu. Afterwards he went to coach for a year Romania's under-21 national team from 2013 until 2014. In June 2014, Stelea accepted an offer from his former national team colleague Gheorghe Hagi to coach his club Viitorul Constanța, but resigned after not obtaining any victory in the first four rounds of the season.

His son, Bogdan Stelea Jr., was also a footballer who played as a defender and spent his career in the lower leagues of Romania, playing for teams such as FC Snagov and Chindia Târgoviște. In 1994, Stelea was named Honorary Citizen of Bucharest.