Zsolt Szilágyi (footballer)

Zsolt Loránt Szilágyi (born 29 June 1981) is a former Romanian footballer, who spent his entire career at Universitatea Cluj. He was a fan favorite at The Red Caps for fidelity proven in time, being nicknamed Unicul căpitan (The only captain).

Playing career
Zsolt Szilágyi was born on 29 June 1981 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, starting to play football in 1991 at age 10 at the junior center of local club, Universitatea. He made his Divizia A debut on 28 May 1999 under coach Tiberiu Poraczky in a 6–0 away loss in front of FC Onești, that being his only appearance of the season, the team relegating by the end of it. In the following season he played again only in one game as the team relegated once more, but Szilágyi stayed with the club in Divizia C, helping it promote back to Divizia B football after one season. In the following years he started to play more often until in 2005, during a game with Unirea Dej he suffered an injury at the cruciate ligaments of the right leg. Because of that injury he suffered three operations which kept him off the field for about three years, a period in which the "U" Cluj promoted to the first league but relegated after only one year without him being able to help the team. From 2008 he started to play again for The Red Caps, helping them promote to the first league in 2010. He scored his first Liga I goal on 10 October 2010 in a 2–2 with Politehnica Timișoara, afterwards at a training session in December he suffered another torn cruciate ligament, this time at the left knee, being out of the field for about one year and a half. In 2012 he started to play again for "U" Cluj, scoring two more Liga I goals, first in a 1–0 win over Gloria Bistrița and the second in a 1–1 with Săgeata Năvodari. Szilágyi's last Liga I game took place on 25 October 2013 in a 2–0 away loss in front of FC Vaslui, having a total of 37 games with three goals scored in the competition.

Coaching career
Zsolt Szilágyi worked as an assistant for "U" Cluj on two occasions in 2015 and from 2016 until 2017, also in between these two spells, he was also the team's head coach for a short period while they were in the second league.

Honours
Universitatea Cluj
 * Divizia C: 2000–01