Titus Ozon


Titus Ozon was a Romanian international football striker and manager. He was considered one of the greatest talents in postwar Romanian football, being known for his dribbling abilities.

Club career

Ozon, nicknamed "Nas", was born on 13 May 1927 in the Obor neighborhood of Bucharest, Romania. He began playing football at the age of 10 under the guidance of coach Ștefan Cârjan at Unirea Tricolor București. Ozon started his senior career at Unirea Tricolor, helping the side gain promotion to the first league at the end of the 1946–47 Divizia B season. Subsequently, he made his Divizia A debut on 26 October 1947 in a 4–0 away loss to Oțelul Reșița. He scored a personal record of 21 goals until the end of the 1947–48 season.
In 1948, Unirea Tricolor merged with Carmen București to create Dinamo, Ozon playing until 1954 for the new club, with the exception of the 1951 season spent at Dinamo Brașov. He earned the Divizia A top-scorer title for two consecutive seasons, in 1952 with 17 goals and in 1953 with 12 goals, and the team finished runner-up in these seasons. Dinamo reached the 1954 Cupa României final, coach Angelo Niculescu using him as a starter until halftime when he replaced him with Valeriu Neagu in the 2–0 loss to Metalul Reșița. Ozon also netted two goals in two victories against rivals CCA București.
In 1955 he joined Progresul București. With them, Ozon reached the 1958 Cupa României final where coaches Ioan Lupaș and Cornel Drăgușin used him the entire match in the 1–0 loss to Știința Timișoara. Subsequently, he switched teams again, going to Rapid București. He reached two Cupa României finals in 1961 and 1962 under the guidance of coach Ion Mihăilescu which were lost to Arieșul Turda and Steaua București respectively, scoring a goal against the latter. Ozon made his last Divizia A appearance on 15 March 1964 in Rapid's 1–0 victory against Crișul Oradea, the team finishing the season in second place. He has a total of 270 matches with 170 goals in the Romanian top-league.

International career

Ozon played 22 games and scored seven goals for Romania. He made his debut on 11 May 1952 when coach Emerich Vogl sent him in the 73rd minute to replace Gheorghe Bodo in a 3–1 friendly victory against Czechoslovakia in which he scored once. He was selected by coach Gheorghe Popescu to be part of Romania's 1952 Summer Olympics squad where he played in the 2–1 loss to eventual champions Hungary. Ozon also played one match in the 1954 World Cup qualifiers and two games in which he scored the victory goal in a 2–1 win over Greece during the 1958 World Cup qualifiers. He made his last appearance for The Tricolours, when he captained them in a 6–0 loss to Spain in the 1964 European Nations' Cup qualifiers.

International goals

GoalDateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
111 May 1952Stadionul Republicii, București, Romania3–13–1Friendly
28 May 1954Walter-Ulbricht-Stadion, Berlin, East Germany1–01–0Friendly
319 September 1954Népstadion, Budapest, Hungary1–11–5Friendly
429 May 195523 August Stadium, București, Romania1–02–2Friendly
512 June 1955Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, Norway1–01–0Friendly
616 June 1957Leoforos Alexandras Stadium, Athens, Greece2–12–11958 World Cup qualifiers
730 September 196223 August Stadium, București, Romania2–04–0Friendly

Managerial career

Ozon started his coaching career in 1964 at Divizia A club Progresul București, and the team was relegated at the end of his first season. In 1968 he was appointed coach at Jiul Petroșani, leading them in the first league for two seasons. In 1970 he went to work for Argeș Pitești. After the 4–1 loss to FCM Bacău in the first round of the 1971–72 season, Ozon left Argeș, with Florin Halagian replacing him, and the team then won the title.
In 1972, he was appointed head coach of Libya's national team, due to the good relations between presidents Nicolae Ceaușescu and Muammar Gaddafi. Two years later, Ozon returned for a second spell at Jiul, leading them in the 3–2 aggregate loss to Dundee United in the first round of the 1974–75 European Cup Winners' Cup. Afterwards he coached in the Romanian lower leagues for clubs such as FC Brăila, Pandurii Târgu Jiu, Azotul Slobozia and Șoimii Sibiu. With Pandurii he earned a first-ever promotion from the third league to the second in the 1976–77 season.

Acting career

In 1955 he acted in the comedy film Și Ilie face sport, directed by Andrei Călărașu, in which the lives and morals of the athletes and fans were the subject. Ozon also performed as a theater artist, being the star of the 1957 satire show "Bujor 12", which was performed at the "Constantin Tănase" theater in Bucharest.

Controversies

Ozon was part of a Divizia A selection of players that played two away matches in 1952 against CSKA and Dynamo Moscow. They received Pobeda brand watches, which they threw away, considering them "unsightly", a gesture for which the Soviets got upset. In 1953, during a match against Dinamo Tbilisi played in Bucharest, Ozon managed a pass between the legs of Georgian star Avtandil Gogoberidze. After this game he was named an "enemy of the people" by the communist regime, which accused him of mocking the Soviets, being sanctioned with ten percent of his salary and arrested at the garrison for a day.
In 1955 he wanted to leave Dinamo București, because of the "army atmosphere there", and secretly signed with Progresul București. However, the generals of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were bothered by this, and tried to prevent him from submitting a report to the Romanian Football Federation by accusing him of having legionnaire sympathies, because he played for Unirea Tricolor. According to an interview given by Ozon in 1995, he was deported to the Delta to cut reeds, where he was detained in a cabin, guarded by security. He managed to escape and arrived at the federation headquarters, hidden in a car to report his experience. The coach from Progresul, Cornel Drăgușin, considered him a "conflicting, independent and brilliant player on the field".
In 1958, after returning to the country from a tournament with Progresul in Albania, he was caught by customs with about 3,000 ivory buttons for which he was charged with smuggling and suspended from sports. After six months, according to the writer George Mihalache, Titus Ozon met with Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej on Calea Victoriei and asked for his suspension to be lifted. Gheorghiu-Dej agreed with the condition that Ozon would play for the team that he liked, Rapid.

Death

Ozon died on 24 November 1996 at age 69.
A park in Sector 2 of Bucharest is named after him and has a statue of Ozon displayed within it.

Honours

Player

Unirea Tricolor București
Dinamo București
  • Divizia A runner-up: 1952, 1953
  • Cupa României runner-up: 1954
Progresul București
Rapid București
Argeș Pitești
  • Divizia A: 1971–72
Pandurii Târgu Jiu
  • Divizia C: 1976–77