Cristian Lucian Munteanu (born 17 October 1980) is a

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 ...

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 a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for Viitorul Dăești.

Club career

Early career

Munteanu started his professional career at the age of twenty with the local club West Petrom Arad, in the Romanian

Liga III The Liga 3, most often spelled as Liga III, is the third level of the Romanian football league system. It was founded in 1936 and was called Divizia C until 2006. An exception was the seasons 1992–93 to 1996–97, in which the league was call ...

. He spent a year playing for his home side.

FC Bihor

He was soon noticed by

Liga II The Liga 2, most commonly spelled as Liga II, is the second level of the Romanian football league system. The league changed its name from Divizia B just before the start of the 2006–07 Liga II, 2006–07 football season. It is currently Sponso ...

club FC Bihor Oradea, who bought him from Petrom Arad. There, Munteanu quickly established himself in the starting eleven and he spent four and a half years with the team, also playing in the 2003–04 Liga I.

MFC Sopron

In the summer of 2005 Munteanu moved to MFC Sopron in the

first division 1st Division or First Division may refer to: Military Airborne divisions *1st Parachute Division (Germany) *1st Airborne Division (United Kingdom) * 1st Airmobile Division (Ukraine) * 1st Guards Airborne Division Armoured divisions *1st Armoure ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. Due to financial problems, he left after two season and 35 matches.

Politehnica Iaşi

On 1 July 2007, he was bought by Politehnica Iaşi for a fee of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

50,000. Here he rejoined his former coach at FC Bihor, Ionuţ Popa. Munteanu immediately imposed himself in the starting lineup, and he stayed there until the end of the

2009–10 Liga I The 2009–10 Liga I was the ninety-second season of Liga I, the top-level football league of Romania. Unirea Urziceni were the defending champions. Teams Farul Constanța, Otopeni and Gloria Buzău were relegated at the end of the 2008–0 ...

season when

Poli DNA polymerase iota is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ''POLI'' gene. It is found in higher eukaryotes, and is believed to have arisen from a gene duplication from Pol η. Pol ι, is a Y family polymerase that is involved in transl ...

were relegated to the

CSMS Iași

In the summer of 2014, he returned to Iași, signing a contract with CSMS.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Munteanu, Cristian Lucian 1980 births Living people Footballers from Arad, Romania Romanian men's footballers Men's association football defenders Liga I players Liga II players Liga III players Nemzeti Bajnokság I players FC Bihor Oradea (1958) players FC Politehnica Iași (1945) players ASA 2013 Târgu Mureș players FC Brașov (1936) players AFC Săgeata Năvodari players FC Sopron players FC Politehnica Iași (2010) players FC Universitatea Cluj players FC Viitorul Constanța players SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea players CS Sportul Snagov players FC Olimpia Satu Mare players CS Pandurii Târgu Jiu players Romanian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Hungary Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Hungary 21st-century Romanian sportsmen