Marius Niculae

Marius Niculae

Marius Constantin Niculae (born 16 May 1981), nicknamed Săgeată (Arrow in Romanian) is a Romanian footballer who plays for Vaslui and the Romania national team as a centre forward.

Niculae started his career with Dinamo Bucureşti, progressing through their youth system to the first team squad. He made his first team debut in 1996 while he was still 15 years old and finished his time at the club having scored 44 goals in 100 Divizia A appearances. He joined Primeira Liga club Sporting CP in 2001 after signing for a reported transfer fee of $3,000,000. However, the actual transfer fee is believed to be around $4,500,000. His spell in Portugal is marked by many injuries netting only 14 goals in 59 league appearances, before leaving the club in 2005. He subsequently played for Standard Liège, Mainz 05 and Inverness, before returning to Dinamo in July 2008. Most of his four-year second spell for Dinamo, he activated as team captain until his departure to Vaslui in July 2012.

His honours include two league titles (one with Dinamo and one with Sporting), three Romanian Cups, one UEFA Cup runner-up, one Romanian Super Cup and one Portuguese Supercup. In 2001, Niculae won Divizia A Golden Boot netting 20 times. In the same year, Niculae came second in voting for the Romanian Footballer of the Year.

Described as a physical striker, with great ability in the air, Niculae made his international debut in 2000 at only 18 years old and has represented Romania at the Euro 2008. Niculae first captained his country in 2012, in the friendly match against Turkmenistan in the absence of regular captain Răzvan Raț. Up to now, he managed 43 caps for Romania, scoring 15 goals.