Florin Constantin Costea (born 16 May 1985) is a former Romanian professional footballer who played as a striker, currently sporting director of

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 FC U Craiova.

Club career

Universitatea Craiova

Costea started in the Romanian Divizia B for the local teams Rarora Râmnicu-Vâlcea and CSM Râmnicu Vâlcea, then he transferred to one of the most popular teams in Romania Universitatea Craiova, who competed at the time in the same league. After his new team was promoted, he became one of their key players and one of the best strikers of the

. The 2008/09 season was great for Florin, finishing the top scorer of the Romanian first division, together with Gigel Bucur after both had scored 17 goals. On 21 March 2010, while playing a match against Politehnica Iaşi, the opposing goalkeeper made a rash challenge on Florin Costea, injuring him. He was forced to leave the pitch, and realising the severity of his injury he was taken out in tears. It was later discovered that he had broken his

Medial collateral ligament The medial collateral ligament (MCL), also called the superficial medial collateral ligament (sMCL) or tibial collateral ligament (TCL), is one of the major ligaments of the knee. It is on the medial (inner) side of the knee joint and occurs in ...

and

Cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint, wrist joint and the atlanto-axial joint. In a fashion similar to the cords in ...

. He was sidelined for 8 months. After Universitatea Craiova was disaffiliated he became a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

Steaua București

On 3 August 2011 Florin Costea moved to Steaua București on a free transfer, later signing a 4-year contract, worth around

€ 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 ...

300,000 per year. Here he rejoined his brother

Mihai Costea Mihai Alexandru Costea (born 29 May 1988) is a Romanian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Sparta Râmnicu Vâlcea. He is the younger brother of Florin Costea. Club career FC U Craiova Costea played in Universitatea Craiov ...

International career

Since 2008 he gathered six selections in the Romania national football team. His first selection was courtesy to an injury of Romanian star attacker Adrian Mutu.

International stats

Personal life

He is the older brother of

Honours

CSM Râmnicu Vâlcea * Divizia C: 2004–05 Universitatea Craiova * Divizia B: 2005–06 ARO Muscelul Câmpulung * Liga IV – Argeș County: 2022–23

Individual

top scorer: 2008–09 (17 goals) (joint with Gigel Bucur)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Costea, Florin 1985 births Living people People from Drăgășani Footballers from Vâlcea County Romanian men's footballers Romania men's international footballers Men's association football forwards SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea players FC U Craiova 1948 players FCSB players CS Turnu Severin players CFR Cluj players FC Arsenal Tula players Zakho SC players ACS Viitorul Târgu Jiu players Russian Premier League players Iraq Stars League players Liga I players Liga II players Liga III players Romanian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in Iraq Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Iraq 21st-century Romanian sportsmen