Dacian Varga

Dacian Varga

Personal information
Full name	Dacian Șerban Varga
Date of birth	(1984-10-15) 15 October 1984 (age 40)
Place of birth	Petroșani, Romania
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Position(s)	Winger / Forward
Youth career
1994–1997	Mureșul Deva
1997–2001	Dinamo București
2001–2004	Sportul Studențesc
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2004–2013	Sportul Studențesc	135	(22)
2009	→ Unirea Urziceni (loan)	22	(5)
2010	→ Rapid București (loan)	1	(0)
2011	→ Kuban Krasnodar (loan)	27	(1)
2012	→ Vaslui (loan)	15	(2)
2014	CS U Craiova	15	(3)
2015	Târgu Mureş	0	(0)
2015–2016	Petrolul Ploiești	17	(1)
2016	Bregalnica Štip	0	(0)
2019	CS FC Dinamo	0	(0)
Total		232	(34)
International career
2006	Romania U–21	2	(0)
2009–2011	Romania	4	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Dacian Şerban Varga (born 15 October 1984) is a Romanian former footballer who played mainly as a midfielder. He is the son of Ioan Varga, a former player of Dinamo Bucharest.^[1][2][3]

Varga began his football career at the age of 8, when his father took him at an indoor-football club based in Deva, a neighbour city of Petroșani. He played for this club until 1996, when he moved at Dinamo Bucharest's youngsters.

At the age of 12, Varga moved to Dinamo's youngsters. He was trained by two former glories, Gheorghe Mihali and Iulian Mihăescu. He became national champion with his teammates before moving to another football club based in Bucharest, Sportul Studențesc.

Varga arrived at Sportul Studențesc when he was 17. Before playing for the senior team, he played until 2004 at Sportul Studențesc Youngsters, a well-known Youth Academy in Bucharest and in Romania. When he arrived at Sportul, he had a controversy with his coach, Cornel Jurcă, in his first match for Sportul's second team, and he was relegated to the Youth Team.^[4] The Youth Team coach, Cristian Sava, helped Varga very much, and in 2004, Varga was ready for playing in the Romanian top division, then called Divizia A.^[4]

His first season at Sportul Studențesc found his team playing in Liga II. After a good season, the team promoted again in Liga I. His first match in Liga I was against Dinamo Bucharest, his former club. After playing only eight matches in the first Liga I season, he became again a first-team player for Sportul in the 2005–2006 season. He scored his first Liga I goal in a match against Jiul Petroșani,^[5] a team based in his hometown of Petroșani. The second Liga I goal came in a match against Politehnica Timișoara, in 2006.^[6] He scored another goal in a thrilling 5–4 victory for Sportul Studențesc against Dinamo Bucharest, beating Dinamo goalkeeper Cristian Munteanu in the last minute.^[7] After Sportul Studențesc relegated in the second division, Varga became the star-player of the team, after a lot of first-team players, like Ionuţ Mazilu, Stelian Stancu, Costin Lazăr or Eduard Stăncioiu left the team. In 2013, after a litigation with Sportul, when unsuccessfully trying to left the team, Varga was declared free agent by Romanian Football Federation, after 9 years spent here.

In January 2009, Varga was loaned to FC Unirea Urziceni, thus ending a two-year absence from Liga I. He scored four goals, including a winning strike against title contenders Dinamo, as the team surprisingly finished on top of the table.

During the summer of 2009, Varga was in talks with a number of teams, but ultimately returned to the Ialomița-based team for a one-year loan. Varga made his debut in European competitions in a UEFA Champions League clash against Sevilla FC on 16 September and scored in a 1–1 draw with VfB Stuttgart two weeks later. It was the first goal ever scored in a European competition by Unirea Urziceni.

On 18 December 2013, Varga joined Liga II side CS U Craiova on a free transfer.^[8] He was released in March 2015^[9]

In June 2015, Varga signed a contract with ASA Târgu Mureș where he reunited with coach Dan Petrescu. He played in the first squad in Romanian Supercup, on 8 July, against Steaua București, but after the game Petrescu left the club and five days later Varga ended his contract with ASA on mutual agreement.^[10]

Dacian Varga is a former member of Romania national under-21 football team. He made his debut for Romania U-21 team in a match against Turkey U-21 football team, in February 2006. Romania lost the match, and Varga played 60 minutes. The second, and also the last match played by Varga for Romania U-21 football team, was against Switzerland U-21 football team, a 3–3 draw.

In February 2009, Dacian made his debut for Romania national football team in a friendly match against Croatia. He came off the bench in the second half as a substitute. He is only the second player in Romania's history to be capped while playing for a second league club.

• Dacian Varga at Soccerway
• Dacian Varga at RomanianSoccer.ro (in Romanian)
• Dacian Varga profile at SportulStudentesc.com (in Romanian)