Adrian Neaga
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| Adrian Neaga | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Adrian Constantin Neaga | |
| Date of birth | June 4, 1979 | |
| Place of birth | Piteşti, Romania | |
| Height | 1.78m | |
| Playing position | Striker | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | Ilhwa Chunma | |
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1997-1998 1998-1999 1999-2001 2001-2003 2003 2003-2004 2004-2006 2006- |
FC Argeş Piteşti Dacia Piteşti FC Argeş Piteşti Steaua Bucharest Al-Nasr (loan) Steaua Bucharest Chunnam Dragons Ilhwa Chunma |
5 (1) 20 (10) 47 (14) 40 (8) ? (?) 39 (19) ? (?) ? (?) |
| National team2 | ||
| 2000- | Romania | 6 (0) |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
||
Adrian Neaga, (born June 4, 1979 in Piteşti) is a Romanian football player. He is currently a striker for Ilhwa Chunma from Korea's K-League.
Contents |
[edit] Early career
Neaga's career started once he signed his first professional contract with FC Argeş Piteşti in 1997. He was then playing in the same team with Adrian Mutu.
He only played three games in his first season, scoring a goal, and then played two other games in the first half of the following season, before the club decided to loan him to Dacia Piteşti, a club from the second league, where he played 20 games and scored 10 goals, therefore gaining the right to be part of FC Argeş Piteşti again.
[edit] The Drugs scandal
In 2001 Neaga failed a drug test which has been performed at the end of a Divizia A, however despite all the evidence that Neaga took drugs, he was not suspended in any way because just before that game he was bought by Steaua Bucharest's Gigi Becali for a rumoured fee of USD1 million, back then the highest fee ever paid for a player by a Romanian club and Becali didn't want his money to be vanished.
[edit] Steaua Years
By the time of his transfer to Steaua, Neaga was considered one of the most talented players from Romania's Divizia A and everybody reckoned that he will soon follow the footsteps of Adrian Mutu and play in Serie A.
It was not the case however, because as soon as he moved to Bucharest his life changed dramatically. He purchased himself a Maserati, lived in a very expensive neighborhood and he was rather interested in the city's nightlife than in football.
After two mediocre years leaves with Steaua he is sold to the Arabian club Al-Nasr. It was the turning point of Neaga's career. Away from friends and family, Neaga re-discovered himself and, more importantly, re-discovered the pleasure of playing football. There is no secret, however, that Mircea Rednic, the coach of Al-Nasr, played a major role in that change.
Neaga ended his contract with the Arabs sooner and returned to Steaua. It was a different player. During the 2003 - 04 season he scored 13 goals in 24 games played.
Walter Zenga was appointed head coach by Steaua in the summer of 2004 and he soon made Neaga one of the two team leaders, the other being Mirel Rădoi, and in the first half of that season Neaga played 15 games in Divizia A, scoring six goals, while in the UEFA Cup he scored five times in eight games.
In February 2005 however, everything changed again. Gigi Becali received a buying offer from the Korean club Chunnam Dragons that read USD 1.5 million. Becali accepted the offer, it was no matter that Neaga and the team were due to play a very important game against Valencia CF, then the Spanish football champions and UEFA Cup winners, in the second round of the UEFA Cup.
[edit] Korean Life
In February 2004 More or less against his will, Neaga was sold to a Korean club. In meantime he became an important part of the Romania for which he won five caps in 2004 and going to Korea meant that would end.
After 18 months at Chunnam Dragons, Neaga made a statement saying that he would like to return to Steaua and his club agreed the transfer, should the Romanian club pay a USD1.5 million release fee, but the Steaua refused and Neaga joined the side of Ilhwa Chunma instead.
