Cătălin Hîldan

Cătălin Hîldan
Personal information
Full name	Cătălin George Hîldan
Date of birth	3 February 1976
Place of birth	Brănești, Ilfov, Romania
Date of death	5 October 2000 (aged 24)
Place of death	Oltenița, Romania
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
1986–1994	Dinamo București
Senior career*
National team
	* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Cătălin George Hîldan (3 February 1976 – 5 October 2000) was a Romanian professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He spent most of his career at Dinamo București, where he gained team captaincy, and amassed eight appearances for the Romania national team.

Hîldan died of a cardiac arrest in October 2000, during a friendly match between Dinamo București and FC Oltenița. In 2006, he was posthumously named one of the 100 Greatest Romanians in a nationwide poll.

Club career[]

Dinamo fans paying homage to Cătălin Hîldan in 2005

Hîldan first came into contact with sports at the age of eight at the rugby club Olimpia together with his older brother Cristi. Two years later, in the summer of 1986, he joined Dinamo București along with Florentin Petre, Mihai Tararache and others. His first match for Dinamo was on 2 October 1994 in a match against rivals Steaua Bucharest.

After a couple of months he was loaned to Târgovişte, where he helped the team win promotion to the second division and then to the first division. He was recalled to Dinamo by coach Cornel Dinu. In a couple of years he became the team's captain. In the 1999–2000 season, Dinamo defeated Steaua 3–2, and won the league title for the first time in nine years.

International career[]

He was in the Romanian national team for Euro 2000, but did not play in the tournament. He played a total of eight games for the national team, and scored one goal;^[1] that goal was also the 900th goal in Romania's national team history (4 February 2000, România – Georgia 1–1).

Death[]

He died on 5 October 2000, at a friendly match between Dinamo and FC Oltenița. In the 74th minute of the game, Cătălin had a cardiac arrest, and fell to the ground. The north stand of the Dinamo Stadium is named "Peluza Cătălin Hîldan" (Cătălin Hîldan Stand), in his honour. He is nicknamed "The only captain" by Dinamo fans.^{[citation needed]}

Honours[]

Oțelul Târgoviște

Divizia B: 1995–96

Dinamo București

References[]

^ Catalin Haldan. soccernet.com (13 July 2000)

External links[]

Cătălin Hîldan from the BBC Euro 2000 information website
Cătălin Hîldan at RomanianSoccer.ro (in Romanian) and StatisticsFootball.com
Cătălin Hîldan at National-Football-Teams.com

[r1-1] Catalin Haldan. soccernet.com (13 July 2000)

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