Alexi Paul Pitu (born 5 June 2002) is a Romanian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as an

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

or a winger for club

Dunkerque Dunkirk ( ; ; ; Picard language, Picard: ''Dunkèke''; ; or ) is a major port city in the Departments of France, department of Nord (French department), Nord in northern France. It lies from the Belgium, Belgian border. It has the third-larg ...

. Pitu started out as a senior in 2018 at

Viitorul Constanța ''Viitorul'' ("The Future") was a daily newspaper published in the Kingdom of Romania, out of Bucharest, as a central organ of the National Liberal Party (PNL). It was formed just months after peasants' revolt of March 1907, being originally li ...

, which was merged into Farul Constanța three years later. He totalled over 80 matches in the

Liga I Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

combined, before earning a move to French side Bordeaux in 2023. Internationally, Pitu has represented

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

at several youth levels.

Club career

Viitorul Constanța / Farul Constanța

Pitu made his senior debut for

on 12 July 2018, coming on as an 86th-minute substitute for

Ianis Hagi Ianis Hagi (born 22 October 1998) is a Romanian professional Association football, footballer who last played as an attacking midfielder or a winger (association football), winger for club Rangers F.C., Rangers and the Romania national football ...

in a 2–0 win over

Racing FC Racing Fussball Club Union Luxembourg (), usually abbreviated to Racing-Union, is a professional football club based in Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. The etymology of the name originates from Racing Club Luxembourg and Union Sporti ...

in the

first qualifying round First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

of the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

. Aged 16 and one month, he thus became the youngest Romanian player to make an appearance in a

European European, or Europeans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe and other West ...

club competition. Ten days later, he recorded his

debut by playing in a 0–1 loss to

Dunărea Călărași Dunărea may refer to: * Dunărea, the Romanian name for the river Danube in Central Europe * Dunărea (river), a tributary of the Danube in Constanța County, Romania * Dunărea, a village in the commune Seimeni, Constanța County, Romania See a ...

. Pitu became a regular starter at the team after it merged with Farul Constanța in the summer of 2021, amassing 32 league games in the 2021–22 season. On 28 August 2022, he scored his first professional goal in a 3–1 away defeat of five-time defending champions

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ) or simply CFR, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I. Founded as ''Kolozsvári Vasut ...

Bordeaux

On 26 January 2023, French team

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

announced the signing of Pitu on a four-and-a-half-year contract, with the transfer fee rumoured to be worth around €2 million. Two days later, he made his

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship reasons, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligue de Football Prof ...

debut by entering as a 72nd-minute substitute for

Josh Maja Joshua Erowoli Orisunmihare Oluwaseun Maja (born 27 December 1998) is a professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for club West Bromwich Albion F.C., West Bromwich Albion. Born in Englan ...

in a 3–0 away victory over

Dijon Dijon (, ; ; in Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Digion'') is a city in and the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Côte-d'Or Departments of France, department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region in eas ...

. Pitu scored his first goal on 16 September 2023, in a 2–1 away league win over

Valenciennes Valenciennes (, also , , ; ; or ; ) is a communes of France, commune in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department, Hauts-de-France, France. It lies on the Scheldt () river. Although the city and region experienced ...

Dunkerque

On 19 January 2025, Pitu signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with

International career

On 3 March 2023, Pitu received a preliminary call-up to the Romania senior team for the

UEFA Euro 2024 qualification The UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2023 to March 2024 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams that would join the automatically qualified host team Germany in the UEFA Eur ...

matches against

Andorra Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra, is a Sovereignty, sovereign landlocked country on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees in Southwestern Europe, Andorra–France border, bordered by France to the north and Spain to A ...

and

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

, but did not make the final list. Three months later, he was named by

Emil Săndoi Emil Săndoi (born 1 March 1965) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player. Career A centre-back, who was born in Craiova and debuted in Divizia A with hometown side Universitatea Craiova in 1983. Săndoi made his debut fo ...

in the Romania under-21 squad for the 2023 UEFA European Championship.

Personal life

Pitu was born in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

, Germany, where his parents were working, he later re-located back to Romania, to attend the Gheorghe Hagi Football Academy, at age 8. Pitu's paternal uncle,

Adrian Adrian is a form of the Latin given name Adrianus or Hadrianus. Its ultimate origin is most likely via the former river Adria from the Venetic and Illyrian word ''adur'', meaning "sea" or "water". The Adria was until the 8th century BC the ma ...

, was also a professional footballer.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Viitorul Constanța *

Cupa României The Cupa României () is a Association football, football cup competition for List of football clubs in Romania, Romanian teams which has been held annually since 1933–34 Cupa României, 1933–34, except during World War II. It is the Romania ...

: 2018–19 *

Supercupa României The Supercupa României () is a Romanian football (soccer), football championship contested by the winners of the Liga I and the Cupa României. It is usually played at the Arena Națională in Bucharest. The competition started off in 1994 Supe ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Farul Constanța *

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pitu, Alexi 2002 births Living people Footballers from Karlsruhe Romanian men's footballers Romania men's youth international footballers German men's footballers German people of Romanian descent Romanian people of Aromanian descent Aromanian sportspeople Men's association football midfielders Men's association football wingers Liga I players FC Viitorul Constanța players FCV Farul Constanța players Ligue 2 players FC Girondins de Bordeaux players USL Dunkerque players Expatriate men's footballers in France Romanian expatriate sportspeople in France 21st-century German sportsmen 21st-century Romanian sportsmen