Ștefan Preda

Preda was born on 18 June 1970 in Ploiești, Romania and began playing football in 1992 at Minerul Filipești in Divizia C. Shortly afterwards he joined Petrolul Ploiești where he made his Divizia A debut on 13 June 1993 under coach Marin Ion in a 3–1 home win over Farul Constanța. He helped the club win the 1994–95 Cupa României, playing the entire match under coach Ion in the penalty shoot-out victory against Rapid București in the final. He started the next season by playing in the 2–0 loss to Steaua București in the 1995 Supercupa României. Subsequently, he made four appearances in the 1995–96 Cup Winners' Cup campaign as The Yellow Wolves got past Wrexham in the qualifying round, being eliminated by Rapid Wien in the following one. In the middle of the 1997–98 season, Preda left Petrolul to join Dinamo București. He helped his new club win The Double in the 1999–2000 season, playing 30 league games under coach Cornel Dinu, and he kept a clean sheet in the 2–0 victory against Universitatea Craiova in the Cupa României final. He then played in both legs of the 7–4 aggregate loss to Polonia Warsaw in the 2000–01 Champions League second qualifying round. In the same season he won another Cupa României, but coach Dinu used Florin Prunea in the 4–2 victory in the final against Rocar București. For the second half of the 2000–01 season, Preda went to play for Astra Ploiești. In 2001 he signed with Universitatea Craiova. In 2002 when Craiova owner Gheorghe Nețoiu left the team…

Preda played three friendly games for Romania, making his debut on 1 June 1994 when coach Anghel Iordănescu sent him in the 79th minute to replace Florin Prunea in a 0–0 draw against Slovenia. His following two games took place in February 1995, the results being a 1–0 loss to Greece and a 1–1 draw against Turkey. He was selected by Iordănescu to be part of the squad that went to the 1994 World Cup final tournament, but he did not play in any games. For representing his country at that final tournament, Preda was decorated by then President of Romania, Traian Băsescu on 25 March 2008, with the Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" – (The Medal of "Sportive Merit") Class III.

International stats

Preda started his managerial career in 2006, as head coach at Liga II team Chimia Brazi, a position he held until 2007. He returned to Chimia in 2008, remaining there until 2009. Since 2014, Preda has worked as a goalkeeper coach at teams such as Steaua București, Viitorul Constanța and Farul Constanța.

In 1994, Preda was named Honorary Citizen of Bucharest.