Iulian Chiriță

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

Club career Chiriță was born on 2 February 1967 in Târgoviște, Romania and began playing junior-level football at CSȘ Târgoviște. He started to play senior level football in 1985 at CS Târgoviște in Divizia B. 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. 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. In 1998, he went to play for one and a half years at FC Brașov. 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. 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 edition. After his spell with Rapid ended, Chiriță returned for a short while to FC Brașov. His following two games were a 2–0 win over Nigeria and a 0–0 draw against Slovenia.

International stats

Personal life In 1994, Chiriță was named Honorary Citizen of Bucharest.

Conviction Chiriță in the 1990s was in the entourage of Romanian thugs Fane Spoitoru and Gigi Boeru. After serving one year and nine months, he was released from jail and claimed he was wrongfully convicted.

Honours Rapid București Cupa României runner-up: 1994–95