Cătălin Ionuț Cîrjan (; born 1 December 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 a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for

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 ...

club

Dinamo București A dynamo is a magnetic device originally used as an electric generator. Dynamo or Dinamo may also refer to: Places * Dinamo (Moscow Metro), a station of the Moscow Metro, Moscow, Russia * Dinamo (Yekaterinburg Metro), a station of the Yekaterin ...

Club career

Early career / Arsenal

During his junior years, Cîrjan was part of the youth setup of lower league team Viitorul Domnești, before moving to

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

club

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

in July 2019. Serious knee injuries during his time in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

sidelined his development for over a year. On 24 May 2022 however, it was announced that Cîrjan had agreed to a new contract with Arsenal. After his appearance in a friendly with Boreham Wood, Cîrjan experienced a 480-day gap before returning to action in an under-21 match in August 2022. By the following month, he resumed training with the first-team squad. On 23 June 2023, after several weeks of rumours, Cîrjan returned to Romania by signing for

club

Rapid București Rapid(s) or RAPID may refer to: Hydrological features * Rapids, sections of a river with turbulent water flow * Rapid Creek (Iowa River tributary), Iowa, United States * Rapid Creek (South Dakota), United States, namesake of Rapid City Sport ...

on a

one 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

-year loan. He made his debut as a senior in a goalless league draw with Sepsi OSK on 14 July. During his spell, Cîrjan started in only seven out of 17 Liga I appearances and did not score any goals. In the summer of 2024, Cîrjan left Arsenal upon the expiration of his contract.

Dinamo București

On 13 June 2024, Cîrjan agreed to a three-year contract with Rapid București's cross-town rivals

, being assigned the number 10 jersey. He started and scored on debut on 14 July, in a 2–3 away Liga I loss to

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 ...

. He scored again one week later, in a 4–1 home win over Petrolul Ploiești. As a result of his efficient start to the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

, Cîrjan was named Romania Player of the Month for July 2024 by the

Gazeta Sporturilor Gazeta Sporturilor () is a Romanian sports website, originally founded in 1924 as a daily newspaper. It was the third-oldest daily newspaper in Europe, with 99 years of uninterrupted publication, before issuing its last edition on 31 October 2023. ...

website.

Career statistics

Club

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cîrjan, Cătălin 2002 births Living people Romanian men's footballers Footballers from Bucharest Men's association football midfielders Arsenal F.C. players Liga I players FC Rapid București players FC Dinamo București players Romania men's youth international footballers Romania men's under-21 international footballers Romanian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Romanian expatriate sportspeople in England 21st-century Romanian sportsmen