Niculae Signs

Caley Thistle have confirmed that Marius Niculae has signed for the club on a two year deal (subject to the grant of a work permit).

In a club press release, Director of Football Graeme Bennett said "We are delighted to be able to recruit someone of Marius's calibre within our existing football budget.

This has been assisted by sponsorship from The Orion Group, headed by club chairman Alan Savage. The player returned to Inverness on Monday evening and we had talks today (Tuesday) which saw Marius agree to significantly reduce his initial financial requirements. We're delighted to be able to assist manager Charlie Christie in securing a player he wanted."

Christie said: "This is a big signing for us, to be able to bring in someone who has played 26 times for his country, the last time being against Colombia in May 2006. "Marius played in the Bundesliga last season and his final game for Mainz was against Bayern Munich so he clearly has the quality. We look forward to being able to work on his fitness and blending him in to the squad as soon as possible." Club chairman Alan Savage commented:"My company does business in Romania and Nikulae was recommended. When Charlie Christie was shown the DVD of the player in action he immediately said he'd love to get him. "It is a rare opportunity to land an international player who was a free agent, thus involving no transfer fee, and the club directors were very keen to help the manager strengthen for the new SPL campaign."

 

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The club statement mentioned that Niculae had scored 6 times for his country in 26 appearances, however, according to the players own website, and the Romanian FA its 12 in 28 .... (although his caps seem to mysteriously jump from 21 to 23 without playing a game between the Croatia and Germany games) ... but it may be us trying to read it in Romanian !!! Lets just say he is indeed a seasoned European and International footballer !

Club Career		Domestic		European
		Games	Goals	Games	Goals
1996/97	Dinamo Bucharest	6	0
1997/98	Dinamo Bucharest	12	4	1 (UC)	0
1998/99	Dinamo Bucharest	28	7
1999/00	Dinamo Bucharest	27	12	4 (UC)	4
2000/01	Dinamo Bucharest	27	20	2 (UC)	1
2001/02	Sporting Lisbon	16	7	6 (UC)	3
2002/03	Sporting Lisbon	17	3	2 (CL)	0
2003/04	Sporting Lisbon	14	3
2004/05	Sporting Lisbon	12	1	5 (UC)	1
2005/06	Standard Liege	26	4
2006/07	Mainz	6	0
		191	61	20	9

 

International Career	Games	Goals
2000	6	5	Latvia (1g), Georgia, Cyprus, Yugoslavia, Algeria (2g), Algeria (2g)
2001	12	5	Ukraine, Lithuania, Italy, Georgia, Slovakia, Hungary (2g), Lithuania, Slovenia (1g), Hungary (1g), Georgia, Slovenia (1g), Slovenia
2002	3	0	Bosnia, Norway, Croatia
2003	0	0
2004	3	2	?, Germany, Andorra (2g)
2005	2	0	Netherlands, Armenia
2006	2	0	Uruguay, Colombia
2007	0	0
	28	12