Cristinel Vasile Pojar (born 19 August 1967) is a Romanian former footballer who spent his entire career at Universitatea Cluj. After he ended his playing career he worked as an assistant coach.
Pojar was born on 19 August 1967 in Jucu, Cluj County, Romania and began playing junior-level football at Universitatea Cluj. He spent all of his senior career at "U", starting with the 1984âÂÂ85 Divizia B season, as they finished it in first place. In the following season he made his Divizia A debut under coach Remus Vlad on 14 September 1985 in a 1âÂÂ0 away loss to Universitatea Craiova. At the end of the 1990âÂÂ91 season, the team was relegated back to Divizia B, but Pojar stayed with the club, helping it get promoted back to the first league after one year. At age 27 he suffered an injury which kept him off the field for two years. After returning to play, Pojar suffered a cruciate ligament injury. These injuries necessitated a total of seven operations on his knees. Eventually he retired because of these problems at the end of the 1997âÂÂ98 season. He has a total of 174 Divizia A matches with four goals, and 20 appearances, also with four goals in Divizia B, receiving a single red card in his entire career. In October 2011, in order to inaugurate the new Cluj Arena stadium, "U" Cluj organized a friendly match against Kuban Krasnodar, where Pojar was working as an assistant and the match also served as Pojar's retirement match. He played again a few minutes for "U", the game ending with a 4âÂÂ0 loss to the Russians.
Pojar played one game for Romania's under-21 team when on 20 August 1986 he was sent at halftime by coach Mircea RÃÂdulescu to replace Marcel Sabou in a 3âÂÂ0 loss to Norway.
Pojar started working as an assistant coach for Tiberiu Poraczky at Universitatea Cluj in the 1998âÂÂ99 Divizia A season. Subsequently, he worked again for the same team, assisting Ioan SabÃÂu's in the 2000âÂÂ01 Divizia C season, helping them earn promotion to Divizia B. In 2004, he became Dan Petrescu's assistant at Sportul StudenÃÂesc, following him in Poland at Wisà Âa Kraków. Afterwards they came back to Romania at Unirea Urziceni, where they won the 2008âÂÂ09 Liga I title. Then, they moved to Russia, coaching at Kuban Krasnodar and Dynamo Moscow.
Universitatea Cluj