Constantin Barbu

Early career and Argeș Pitești

Barbu, nicknamed "Cobra", was born on 16 May 1971 in Galați, Romania and began playing football at CSȘ Galați. In 1989, he went to Piteşti to participate in a football trial, where he was one of the six children chosen from a total of 1,600. He began playing senior-level football at Dacia Pitești, moving to Divizia B club Argeș Pitești in 1992. He helped them earn promotion to the first league at the end of the 1993–94 season. Barbu made his Divizia A debut under coach Marian Bondrea on 20 August 1994, scoring with a header past goalkeeper Dumitru Stângaciu to help Argeș earn a 3–1 victory against Steaua București. From 1997 onwards, he formed an offensive partnership with Adrian Mutu.

Samsung Bluewings and Argeș Pitești

In September 1997, after scoring a hat-trick in a 4–2 away win over Chindia Târgoviște, Barbu was transferred from Argeș to Samsung Bluewings for a $1.3 million fee. There, he was teammates with fellow Romanians Pavel Badea and Cosmin Olăroiu. However, Barbu spent less than six months at the club, scoring two goals in five K League 1 matches, before being loaned back to Argeș for one year. He scored 21 goals for Argeș during the 1997–98 season, which made him the season's top-scorer alongside Gloria Bistrița's Vasile Oană, despite missing several games because of his time in Asia. During the 1998–99 UEFA Cup, Barbu played six games and scored four goals—including two each against Dinamo Baku and İstanbulspor…

Barbu won three caps and scored twice for Romania. He made his debut on 6 September 1997, when coach Anghel Iordănescu introduced him at halftime to replace Gheorghe Craioveanu, and he went on to score once in the 8–1 win over Liechtenstein in the 1998 World Cup qualifiers. His following appearance was in a 4–0 victory against Iceland during the same qualifiers, where he won a penalty that Gheorghe Hagi converted to become Romania's all-time top scorer. In his last appearance for the national team, Barbu scored a goal in a 2–1 friendly victory against Greece. He was close to being part of the 1998 World Cup final tournament squad, but eventually Radu Niculescu was preferred in his place.

International

Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Barbu goal.

His son, Cătălin, is also a footballer who started his career at Argeș Pitești.