Cristian Costel Melinte (born 9 May 1988) 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 a full back.

Club career

He began his career at Fortuna Covaci, but just some months later he went to play for Auxerre Lugoj in

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 ...

. Then he joined

UTA Arad Asociația Fotbal Club UTA Arad (), commonly known as UTA Arad or simply UTA (''Uzina Textilă Arad''; ), is a Romanian professional football club based in the city of Arad, Arad County that competes in the Liga I. The team was founded in 1945 ...

in 2005, playing three times in his first season and four times in the following one, in

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 ...

. He then was sent on loan to

CS Ineu Club Sportiv Victoria Ineu, commonly known as Victoria Ineu, is a Romanian football club from Ineu, Arad County and currently playing in Liga VI – Arad County, the sixth tier of the Romanian football. Founded in 1920, Victoria Ineu has had ...

and then returned to UTA Arad in early 2008 playing regularly with the side. In late 2008 he joined

AS Monaco FC Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club, commonly referred to as AS Monaco (), is a professional association football, football club based in Fontvieille, Monaco, Fontvieille, Monaco. Although not in France, they are a member of the Frenc ...

for an unsuccessful trial, and then left to join

FC Dinamo București FC Dinamo București, commonly known as Dinamo București () or simply Dinamo, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in Bucharest that competes in the Liga I. Founded in 1948 as the team of the Ministry of Inter ...

later in March 2009.

Career in Italy

He was acquired by Palermo in a free transfer in August 2009, after a successful trial with the Sicilians, being awarded a four-year contract with the ''rosanero'' club. He made his debut on 29 October 2009, playing the first half in a Serie A game ended in a 3–5 away loss to

Inter Inter may refer to: Association football clubs * Inter Milan, an Italian club * SC Internacional, a Brazilian club * Inter Miami CF, an American club * Inter Playa del Carmen, a Mexican club * FC Inter Sibiu, a Romanian club * FC Inter Turku, ...

. After playing a

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

home game against Reggina, he was again featured in the Italian Serie A on 30 January 2010 as a replacement for injured Federico Balzaretti in an away game versus

Bari Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...

. Melinte's performance was then verbally criticized by club chairman

Maurizio Zamparini Maurizio Zamparini (9 June 1941 – 1 February 2022) was an Italian businessman. He was the owner and director of football club Palermo between July 2002 – February 2017 and from July 2017 – December 2018. Biography Zamparini had business ...

after the Romanian caused a penalty (then scored) with the game being 2–2, and then making a mistake that was instrumental in Bari's fourth goal. Two days later, he was sent out on loan to

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

club

Piacenza Piacenza (; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Piacenza, eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with more ...

in switch with Marco Calderoni. He returned at Palermo at the end of his loan spell, but no interested party was found and he was subsequently excluded from the first team. On 31 August 2011 he moved on loan to Petrolul Ploiești. On 3 July 2012, he was loaned to

Astra Giurgiu Asociația Fotbal Club Astra Giurgiu (), commonly known as Astra Giurgiu or simply Astra, was a Romanian football club last based in the city of Giurgiu, Giurgiu County. Founded in 1921 in Ploiești as ''Clubul Sportiv Astra-Română'', it spe ...

, until the end of the season.

References

External links

* *
Player profile at UEFA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Melinte, Cristian 1988 births Living people Footballers from Timișoara Romanian men's footballers Romania men's under-21 international footballers Romania men's youth international footballers FC UTA Arad players FC Dinamo București players Palermo FC players Piacenza Calcio 1919 players FC Petrolul Ploiești players FC Astra Giurgiu players CS Concordia Chiajna players FC Politehnica Iași (2010) players ACS Poli Timișoara players Men's association football defenders Romanian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Liga I players Liga II players Serie A players Serie B players 21st-century Romanian sportsmen