Iulian Chiriță

Iulian Chiriță (born 2 February 1967) is a former Romanian professional footballer who played as a central midfielder.

Iulian Chiriță

Personal information
Date of birth	(1967-02-02) 2 February 1967 (age 58)
Place of birth	Târgoviște, Romania
Height	1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position(s)	Central midfielder
Youth career
0000–1985	CSȘ Târgoviște
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1985–1987	CS Târgoviște
1988–1990	Flacăra Moreni	48	(4)
1990–1991	FC Brașov	44	(4)
1992–1996	Rapid București	132	(40)
1996	FC Brașov	6	(1)
1997	Dinamo București	23	(6)
1998	Argeș Pitești	9	(2)
1998–1999	Chindia Târgoviște	10	(3)
Total		272	(60)
International career
1994	Romania	3	(0)
Managerial career
	Cimentul Fieni
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Club career

Chiriță was born on 2 February 1967 in Târgoviște, Romania, and began playing youth-level football at CSȘ Târgoviște.^[1] He started to play senior level football in 1985 at CS Târgoviște in Divizia B.^[1][2] He made his Divizia A debut, playing for Flacăra Moreni on 18 March 1988 under coach Ion Nunweiller in a 2–0 away loss to Universitatea Craiova.^[1][3] During his time spent at Flacăra, he made his debut in European competitions, playing in both legs of the 4–1 loss on aggregate against Porto in the 1989–90 UEFA Cup.^[1][4] In 1998, he went to play for one and a half years at FC Brașov.^[1][2] Afterwards he joined Rapid București where he experienced the most successful period of his career, playing 132 Divizia A matches in which he scored 40 goals and served for a while as the team's captain.^[1][2][5] Chiriță also netted a goal in the 1995 Cupa României final, as coach Sorin Cârțu used him the entire match in the loss to Petrolul Ploiești.^[1][2][5][6] He appeared in 12 games in which he scored three goals in the UEFA Cup for The Railwaymen, most notably netting a goal against Charleroi which helped the club eliminate the Belgians in the first round of the 1994–95 UEFA Cup.^[1][2][5][7] After his spell with Rapid ended, Chiriță returned for a short while to FC Brașov, afterwards he moved to Dinamo București, then to Argeș Pitești, ending his career in the 1998–99 Divizia B season at Chindia Târgoviște.^[1][2] He has a total of 262 Divizia A matches in which he scored 57 goals and 15 games with three goals in the UEFA Cup.^[1][2] After he ended his playing career, Chiriță worked for a short while as a manager at Cimentul Fieni, deciding afterwards that it was not a job he liked.^[2]

International career

Chiriță played three friendly matches at international level for Romania, making his debut on 20 April 1994 under coach Anghel Iordănescu in a 3–0 victory against Bolivia.^[8][9] His following two games were a 2–0 win over Nigeria and a 0–0 draw against Slovenia.^[8] Chiriță was also part of Romania's squad in the 1994 World Cup where the team reached the quarter-finals, but he did not play in any games in the campaign.^[2][5][10]

International stats

Romania
Year	Apps	Goals
1994	3	0
Total	3	0

Conviction

Chiriță in the 1990s was in the entourage of Romanian thugs Fane Spoitoru and Gigi Boeru.^[2] After he scored a hat-trick for Rapid against Steaua București in a 4–1 victory in the 1994–95 Cupa României, Spoitoru and Boeru bought him a Dacia car as a gift.^[2] While he was living in Barcelona, Spain, where he owned a restaurant in Castelldefels, Chiriță was sent to jail in October 2015, receiving a sentence of two years and nine months for being part of a credit card theft mafia network.^{[2][5][11][12][13]} After serving one year and nine months, he was released from jail and claimed he was wrongfully convicted.^{[2][5][11][12][13]}

Honours

Rapid București

• Cupa României runner-up: 1994–95^[6]