Romania Thank's Mutu and Piturca

ACF Fiorentina striker Adrian Mutu and national team coach Victor Piturca have been voted Romanian Player and Coach of the Year respectively.

Brilliant form
The pair won a ballot of Romanian club presidents, coaches, captains and supporters run by the newspaper Gazeta Sporturilor and are rewarded for a brilliant 2007 in which they helped their country qualify for UEFA EURO 2008™, the first major tournament Romania has reached in eight years. Mutu has been in inspirational form for both club and country, scoring six times for Romania during qualifying and nine times already for Fiorentina in Serie A.

Chivu second
He was followed in the voting by fellow internationals Cristian Chivu, Bogdan Lobont and Dorin Goian, while Piturca finished above Ioan Andone, whose CFR 1907 Cluj side go into the winter break top of Liga 1, FC Rapid Bucureşti coach Mircea Rednic, who led FC Dinamo 1948 Bucureşti to the Romanian title last year, and FC Shakhtar Donetsk's Mircea Lucescu. It is the third time Mutu has won the title after 2003 and 2005 while Piturca is named Coach of the Year for the first time.