About Cristian Săpunaru
Cristian Ionuț Săpunaru (born 5 April 1984) is a Romanian former professional footballer who played mainly as a centre-back. He also played as a right-back or a defensive midfielder. Săpunaru began his senior career with Național București in 2002, before going on to make a name for himself at Rapid București four years later. In 2008 he signed with Porto in Portugal, where he won ten major honours over the course of four years, including the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League. After two additional seasons in Spain featuring for Zaragoza and Elche, Săpunaru spent his late years with stints between his native country and Turkey. A full international for Romania between 2008 and 2019, he amassed 36 caps and represented the nation in two European Championships. == Club career == === Early career and Porto === Săpunaru was born in Bucharest and is a product of Național București, joining its youth system at the age of only six. He signed for Rapid București in July 2006, and two years later was sold for €2.5 million to Porto as a replacement for Chelsea-bound José Bosingwa. Săpunaru agreed to a five-year contract, with the Primeira Liga club owning 50% of the player's economic rights, while Romanian sources indicated the price was actually €6 million plus two players. During his debut campaign, Săpunaru was the first-choice right-back as the northerners achieved a double, and scored his first goal in a 1–2 away loss against Nacional for the Taça da Liga.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.