Ciprian Marica
Marica with Schalke in 2011.
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Ciprian Andrei Marica | ||
| Date of birth | 2 October 1985 | ||
| Place of birth | Bucharest, Romania | ||
| Height | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) | ||
| Playing position | Striker | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1996–2001 | Dinamo București | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 2001–2004 | Dinamo București | 23 | (4) |
| 2004–2007 | Shakhtar Donetsk | 73 | (16) |
| 2007–2011 | VfB Stuttgart | 93 | (19) |
| 2011–2013 | Schalke 04 | 34 | (5) |
| 2013–2014 | Getafe | 27 | (6) |
| 2014–2015 | Konyaspor | 7 | (1) |
| 2016 | Steaua București | 7 | (0) |
| Total | 264 | (51) | |
| National team‡ | |||
| 2003–2006 | Romania U21 | 10 | (4) |
| 2003–2014 | Romania | 69 | (25) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 10 May 2016. ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 13 October 2014 |
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Ciprian Andrei Marica (Romanian pronunciation: [t͡ʃipriˈan ˈmarika]; born 2 October 1985) is a Romanian retired footballer. He was mainly a second striker or a winger, but he was also able to play as a centre forward (mostly on a national level).
Marica's first professional club team was Dinamo București, from the city in which he was born. He started to gain attention even though he only played 23 games (scoring four goals) in three years with the club.
Ciprian transferred to the Ukrainian top club and played his so far best seasons with them. He gained international experience, getting to play in the UEFA Cup European competition.
On 23 July 2007, he transferred to German club VfB Stuttgart, after his former club, Shakhtar Donetsk, rejected another offer, from English team Derby County amongst interest from Manchester City. Marica signed a 5-year contract. Stuttgart sporting director Horst Heldt said: "Ciprian is a very flexible forward, and a permanent thorn in the side of any opposition defence, who fits outstandingly into our team. He wanted to join us desperately."
Marica made his debut for VfB in the Bundesliga on 12 August 2007, in a home game against Schalke 04 (2–2). In his first season, he got plenty of appearances (28), scoring only two goals in those (plus one goal in the UEFA Champions League, which led Stuttgart to their win against the Rangers F.C.).
After this first failed season then-coach Armin Veh mistrusted Marica, giving him only few appearances. Things seemed to get better after the sacking of Veh. New coach Markus Babbel entrusted him to play instead of Cacau, but Marica again failed to impress.
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