Romanian water polo legend Cosmin Radu has sprung out of retirement to play for play for Dinamo Bucharest during the 2023-24 season.
The 41-year-old, who is arguably the best Romanian player of all time, returns to the fold despite hanging up his trunks two seasons ago. Radu, renowned the world over as an unstoppable left-handed centre-forward, accrued over 450 appearances for the Romanian National Team (including at the 2012 Olympic Games), spending the majority of his career in Italy and Croatia.
Radu had initally ended his career at Mladost in a memorable fashion. Mladost won the title of the Croatian champion after a thrilling final against Jug. The fifth match was ended after a penalty shootout, and Radu scored the last goal in the series for Mladost’s first title in the Croatian League after 13 years.
Since his retirement, he has served as the vice-president of the Romanian Water Polo Federation.
His return to professional water polo at Dinamo Bucharest coincides with the clubs entry into this season’s Champions League, whereby Romania’s third best team last season will attempt to qualify past the preliminary round, but will need to edge past OSC Budapest, Tourcoing and hosts of the qualification round, Jug Dubrovnik.
Radu was born in Bucharest in 1981. He started playing at the senior level for Rapid Bucharest in 1997. Cosmin won four titles of the Romanian champion with Rapid in a row (2001-2004), and was voted the best scorer of the league twice. Playing for Mladost, Radu won three Croatian Cups (2012, 2020, 2021), two titles in the Regional League (2019 and 2020) and finished his career winning the mentioned national league. As a player of Primorje, he lifted six trophies in two seasons – he was the Croatian champion twice (2014 and 2015), and won two national Cups and two titles in the Regional League in the same years. He played for the national team for more than 20 years. Radu debuted for Romania in December 1999, and his last match for the national team was this year at the Olympic Qualification Tournament in Rotterdam. His most important achievements with the national team were 4th place at the 2006 European Championship, 5th place in the 2010 World Cup, 6th place at the 2005 World Championships, an appearance at the 2012 Olympic Games, etc. Radu was the best scorer at the 2011 World Championships. Read our interview with Cosmin Radu when he retired for the first time back in 2021.
Between 2004 and 2011 he played in Italy, for Florentia. In 2011 he moved to Croatia, where he played for Mladost (2011 – 2013 and 2017 – 2021) and Primorje (2013 – 2017).
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