Cătălin Vasile Căbuz

The call came late in March 2026. Mihai Popa dropped out of the Romania squad before the World Cup playoff semi-final against Turkey, and Cătălin Căbuz was summoned as the emergency replacement. He watched the 1–0 defeat from the bench, and his tally of senior caps stayed where it had been: at zero.

Căbuz came out of the youth sides in Sibiu and joined the Gheorghe Hagi Football Academy in 2009, signing his first professional contract with Viitorul Constanța in 2015. He remained registered there until 2021 but spent most of those years elsewhere — Măgura Cisnădie, CSM Râmnicu Vâlcea, Chindia Târgoviște, then Hermannstadt. It was on loan at Hermannstadt that he made his Liga I debut, on 21 July 2018 against Sepsi Sfântu Gheorghe. His senior debut for Viitorul itself did not arrive until the 2019–20 season, by which point he had already collected a Supercupa României medal with the club and three caps for Romania's under-21s.

The move to CFR Cluj in 2023, on a free transfer, produced nothing: not a single first-team appearance. He was loaned straight back to Hermannstadt, where he played 32 league matches and two in the cup, and the club then bought him outright for €50,000 in 2024. He reached the Cupa României final with them in 2024–25 and lost it.

In February 2026 he joined Argeș Pitești on a free transfer, part of a goalkeeper swap that sent David Lazar the other way. He wears the number 34 shirt.