Iulian Filipescu

Iulian Filipescu

Iulian Sebastian Filipescu (born 29 March 1974) is a former Romanian footballer, who was born in Slatina, Romania. He was a centre back or defensive midfielder who possessed strength and tough tackling as well as being dead ball specialist. A fluent passer and he also possesses good technique. He debuted in Divizia A with Steaua Bucureşti in 1993. He could celebrate a league championship victory seven seasons in a row from 1993 to 1998: The first five titles with Steaua and another two with Galatasaray SK in Turkey. He then joined Real Betis of Spain, and played four and a half season there before joining Fussballclub Zürich in the Swiss Super League.

Filipescu made his debut for the Romanian national team in 1996 against Yugoslavia, and represented his country at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Euro 1996 and Euro 2000. He played his last international match in 2003, and got 52 caps and one goal in total.

During the 2006 Swiss Championship, FC Basel 1893 were atop the league table leading FC Zürich by three points. The last game of the season was between Basel and Zürich. If Basel were to win, the title would be theirs. If Zürich were to win, the title would be theirs even though they would have the same amount of points as Basel on the league table. This was because of Zürich's superior goal differential. If the game ended in a draw, Basel would win the title. in the 31st minute, Zürich's Alhassane Keita scored giving Zurich the advantage. In the 73rd minute, Mladen Petrić leveled it at 1–1. In the 93rd minute, Iulian Fillipescu scored past Pascal Zuberbühler for the game-winning goal. The final score was 2–1. FC Zürich won the Swiss Super League after the match that decided the champion out of the two teams at St. Jakob Park. After the final whistle FC Basel fans stormed the pitch and chased the FC Zürich players and officials. Fillipescu was the main man targeted for scoring the winning goal. Filipescu was almost hit by a large firework.