Early career Belodedici was born on 20 May 1964 in a family of
Serbian ethnicity in the village of
Socol, Romania, near the border with Yugoslavia. He spoke only
Serbian until elementary school, and completed his first four grades in that language. In the fifth he began learning
Romanian.
Steaua București In the summer of 1982, Belodedici was signed by
Steaua București, having been selected by the club's chairman
Ion Alecsandrescu. He finished
his first season with 17 league appearances, playing alongside his childhood idol
Ștefan Sameș. The team won
The Double in the
1984–85 season, with Belodedici playing 25 matches and scoring three goals under coaches
Florin Halagian and
Emerich Jenei. He also played the entire match in the 2–1 victory in the
Cupa României final over
Universitatea Craiova. In the
following season, he won the league title, scoring two goals in the 32 appearances given to him by Jenei. In the
final, he played the entire match, including
extra time, in the eventual 2–0 victory after the penalty shoot-out against
Barcelona. After the game, he was praised by the Spanish press:"A defender so good that even if he had played for two days and two nights, he would have continued to run and always be exactly where he needed to be." He finished the season by winning another Double with Steaua, as coaches Jenei and
Anghel Iordănescu gave him 32 league appearances in which he scored five goals. In the
next season, Belodedici was used by Iordănescu in 31 league games in which he scored three goals, as
The Military Men won another title. In the first half of the
1988–89 season, Iordănescu gave him 15 appearances in which he scored once. During these years, Belodedici was placed three times among the top three in the
Romanian Footballer of the Year ranking, finishing second in 1987.
Red Star Belgrade In 1988, when
Nicolae Ceaușescu was still in power, Belodedici
defected from his home country to the neighboring
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. A friend tried to persuade him to sign for
Partizan, but the player insisted that he would only play for
Red Star Belgrade. Once he arrived in
Belgrade, after a
Red Star – Partizan derby, he contacted
Dragan Džajić, the president of Red Star. The Ceaușescu regime found him guilty of
treason and sentenced him to 10 years of prison
in absentia, but after the
1989 Romanian Revolution, all the charges were dropped. He also played the entire match in the 1–0 win over
Hajduk Split in the
Yugoslav Cup final. In the
following season, Belodedici won the league title, playing 34 matches and scoring once under coach
Ljupko Petrović. He also played in all nine games in the historical
European Cup campaign. He finished the season by winning another title, as coach
Vladica Popović gave him 24 appearances in which he scored once.
Spain and Mexico Belodedici signed with
Valencia, making his
La Liga debut on 5 September 1992 under coach
Guus Hiddink in a 1–0 victory against
Rayo Vallecano. Two years later, he joined
Valladolid for the
1994–95 season, totaling 80 appearances in the Spanish top-league.
Return to Steaua București In 1998, aged 34, Belodedici returned to Steaua. The team was composed mostly of former professional football players, including
Tom Cristea,
Daniel Iftodi,
Bogdan Andone,
Silvian Dobre, and
Costel Mozacu. In 2014, 50-year-old Belodedici had an offer to play for
Argeș 1953 Pitești, but the move fell through as GVD asked for a transfer fee. ==International career==