champions league

An attack-minded midfielder who can also play as an out-and-out striker, Nicolae Dica is a menace from long-range free-kicks.

Club
A prolific scorer throughout his career, Dica’s first club was FC Dacia Pitesti. He left them after two seasons to join FC Arges Pitesti – now FC 2005 Pitesti. He scored 33 goals in 88 league games in the course of three-and-a-half seasons at the club, but moved up a gear after he signed for FC Steaua Bucuresti in December 2003, scoring nine goals in his first 14 games. The club’s top scorer in the next two seasons as Steaua won back-to-back league titles, he is occasionally liable to disappear during games but when he is on song, he can inspire his team to great things.

National team
Having made his debut in October 2003 and scored his first goal for the national team in a 2-0 friendly win against Cyprus in August 2006, Dica is now into double figures for international appearances for Romania.

Did you know?
Steaua signed him from Arges for €250,000 – most estimate his current value at around 20 times that.