George Ogăraru

Ogăraru is one of the players that were promoted by Steaua București's youth club. He started his professional football career playing for Steaua at 18 years old. He debuted in Divizia A on 28 November 1998 in a victory against Olimpia Satu Mare with 3–0. In his first and second seasons at Steaua he was a substitute player and played only 7 games but did not score any goals. In the 2000–01 season he was loaned at CSM Reșița in Divizia B, where he played in 25 games and scored once. He was loaned again in 2001–02 season, this time at Oțelul Galați. There he played 20 games and scored a goal. In 2002 when Mihai Stoica, the president of Oțelul Galați became the general manager of Steaua, he took Ogăraru with him at his first team. Ogăraru became a basic player in Steaua's first eleven and in a few years his value grew very much. On 7 June 2006 Ogararu won the Divizia A championship and also played his last game for Steaua in the win against FC Vaslui with 4–0. He played for Steaua in UEFA Cup in 30 games but did not score any goal. The best seasons in UEFA Cup were in 2004–2005 when they qualified from the groups and succeeded to eliminate in the next tour Valencia, the ex-winner of UEFA Cup and especially in the season 2005–2006 when they played in the semifinals but they were defeated by Middlesbrough after the away-match in England ended 4–2 for Boro.

Ajax

In the summer break of 2006 Ajax signed Ogăraru. He debuted for Ajax in an official game on 20 August 2006…

Ogăraru earned his first cap for Romania on 26 March 2005, in a 2–0 loss against the Netherlands. After that match, Victor Pițurcă repeatedly dropped Ogăraru from the squad saying that he had an average performance at Ajax Amsterdam. He was called up by Pițurcă after two years and six months, on 9 October 2007 against Netherlands, the same team against which he played his last game for Romania.

Club

International

Marius Lăcătuș became the godfather of Ogăraru's second child on 6 January 2007. He is also the godfather of Eric, Ogăraru's first child. On 16 November 2007, Ogăraru launched his own website, with photos and videos from official matches and training sessions. He also has a blog in which he talks with his fans. The site has two versions, one in English and one in Romanian.