Adrian Dumitru Mihalcea (born 24 May 1976 in

Slobozia Slobozia () is the capital city of Ialomița County, Muntenia, Romania, with a population of 48,241 in 2011. Etymology Its name is from the Romanian "slobozie", which meant a recently colonized village which was free of taxation. The word its ...

) is a Romanian professional football

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

and former player, currently in charge of

Liga II The Liga 2, most often spelled as Liga II, is the second level of the Romanian football league system. The league changed its name from Divizia B just before the start of the 2006–07. It is currently sponsored by Casa Pariurilor, a betting c ...

club Gloria Buzău.

Career

Mihalcea spent many years playing with one of the top Romanian teams,

Dinamo București A dynamo is a magnetic device originally used as an electric generator. Dynamo or Dinamo may also refer to: Places * Dinamo (Moscow Metro), a station of the Moscow Metro, Moscow, Russia * Dinamo (Yekaterinburg Metro), a station of the Yekaterin ...

, where he won the Romanian First Division championship in 2000 and the

Romanian Cup Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

in 2000 and again in 2001. Mihalcea started the 2001 season for Dinamo in excellent form, scoring 11 goals in 14 league matches, and earned 5th place in the competition for the 2001

Romanian Footballer of the Year The Romanian Footballer of the Year ( ro, Fotbalistul român al anului), also known as the Nicolae Dobrin Trophy ( ro, Trofeul Nicolae Dobrin), is an annual association football award given by the '' Gazeta Sporturilor'' newspaper to the Romanian ...

award. This performance attracted the interest of Italian

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been ...

side

Genoa 1893 Genoa Cricket and Football Club, commonly referred to as Genoa (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Genoa, Liguria, Italy, that competes in , the second division of the Italian football league system. Establis ...

, and Mihalcea signed for the club in January 2002. The following season Mihalcea scored nine goals in Serie B and was Genoa's leading goalscorer for the campaign. In summer 2003, he was sold to fellow Serie B club

Hellas Verona Hellas Verona Football Club, commonly referred to as Hellas Verona or simply Verona, is a professional Italian football club based in Verona, Italy, that currently plays in Serie A. The team won the Serie A Championship in 1984–85. His ...

and enjoyed another good season scoring five goals in 20 league matches for his new club. After the experience in Italy, a return to Dinamo Bucharest in 2004 was disappointing, with Mihalcea struggling for goals as the team narrowly missed out on the Romanian championship. They saved the season and managed, with Mihalcea one of the team's captains, to win the

. He scored only one goal that season, against Sportul Studențesc. Mihalcea was sold again at the end of that season, in the summer of 2005, this time to South-Korean club Chunnam Dragons, but he only played five games without scoring there and because he could not adapt to the Asian style of life and football he came back home. He was free of contract for about two months and trained alone in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

, at his ex-team Dinamo's stadium. At the beginning of March 2006 he signed a three-month contract with Romanian side

FC Vaslui CS Sporting Juniorul Vaslui (), commonly known as Sporting Vaslui, Juniorul Vaslui or simply as Vaslui, is a Romanian professional football club based in Vaslui, Vaslui County, founded in 2002 and re-founded in 2014. The club is currently pla ...

. At this point he was no longer in the attention of the Romania national football team. In the summer of 2006, Mihalcea moved to Cypriot side

Aris Limassol Aris Limassol (Greek: ''Άρης Λεμεσού'') is a Cypriot football club based in Limassol and one of the founder members of Cyprus Football Association. The club's colours are green, black and white, and their home is the Tsirion Stadiu ...

in an attempt to resurrect his career. He started by scoring 16 goals in 24 matches, more than he had scored in the previous five years. He continued his consistent good form by scoring 12 goals in 25 matches in the next season. Following the relegation of

Aris Aris or ARIS may refer to: People * Aris (surname) Given name * Aris Alexandrou, Greek writer * Aris Brimanis, ice hockey player * Aris Christofellis, Greek male soprano * Aris Gavelas, Greek sprinter * Aris Howard, Former President of the Jama ...

in the

Cypriot second division The Cypriot Second Division ( el, Πρωτάθλημα Β΄ Κατηγορίας) is the second highest football division of the Cypriot football league system. Administrated by the Cyprus Football Association, it is contested by 16 teams, with th ...

AEL Limassol Athlitiki Enosi Lemesou ( el, Αθλητική Ένωση Λεμεσού, translation=Athletic Union of Limassol) commonly known as AEL, is a Cypriot sports club based in the city of Limassol, most famous for its football team. AEL also maintai ...

showed interest in the striker and transferred him in the summer of 2008. After Aris returned to

Cypriot first division The Cypriot First Division ( el, Πρωτάθλημα Α΄ Κατηγορίας) is the top tier football league competition in Cyprus, run by the Cyprus Football Association. Since February 2016, it is sponsored by Cyta and is thus officially ...

, Mihalcea came back, and scored eight goals in 28 matches in the 2009–2010 season, also being named captain of the team. He was very respected at Aris for being one of its best scorers. In the summer of 2010 he signed with

Liga I The Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1, is a Romanian professional league for men's association football clubs. Currently Sponsor (commercial), sponsored by betting company Superbet, it is officially known as the SuperLiga. It ...

team Astra Ploiești, coming there as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player 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 contract at present but who is a ...

because his contract in

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

had ended. In the winter of 2010 he moved to the league winning side

Unirea Urziceni Asociația Sportivă Fotbal Club Urziceni, commonly known as FC Urziceni (), is a Romanian professional football club based in Urziceni, Ialomița County which currently plays in fourth division, Ialomița County. Unirea became national champion ...

. He ended his career at

Unirea Slobozia Asociația Fotbal Club Unirea 04 Slobozia, (), commonly known as AFC Unirea Slobozia or simply as Unirea Slobozia, is a Romanian football club based in Slobozia, Ialomița County, which competes in the Liga II. The team was founded in 1955 and ...

, in

. He helped the team maintain its place in the second division in 2012–13 season, and in June 2013 he announced his retirement, citing his desire to start his coaching career.

International career

Mihalcea's international career with

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

has not lived up to his early promise, as he played ten times for the Romanian under-21 team, scoring three goals, and was tipped to be a star of the future by

Ilie Dumitrescu Ilie Dumitrescu (; born 6 January 1969) is a Romanian football manager and former professional footballer. As a player, he was a winger who notably played in the Premier League with Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United, and in La Liga with S ...

. He was promoted to the Romania international squad in 1998 but failed to score in 16 appearances. He was overlooked for the European Championships in 2000 and last capped by

in 2003.

International stats

Manager career

Mihalcea started his manager career in 2013, at

, in his hometown. In 2017, he became assistant manager at the Romania national team, working alongside

Cosmin Contra Cosmin Marius Contra (; born 15 December 1975) is a Romanian football manager and former player. Primarily an attacking-minded right-back, he was also deployed as a midfielder. He played professionally in three countries his own notwithstanding, ...

. He was named head coach at

in March 2020. After only seven games in charge, he was sacked. Dinamo won only one of the seven games and fell into the relegation zone in

. On 7 June 2022, Mihalcea was appointed head coach at Chindia Târgoviște on a one-year deal, with an option to extend for a further year . On 20 September, after three months in charge, he was sacked.

Honours

Club

Dinamo Bucharest * Divizia A: 1999–2000 * Romania Cup: 1999–00, 2000–01, 2004–05

References

External links

* * *
Adrian Mihalcea
at Playerhistory.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mihalcea, Adrian 1976 births Living people People from Slobozia Romanian footballers Men's association football forwards Romania men's under-21 international footballers Romania men's international footballers Romanian expatriate footballers FC Dunărea Călărași players FC Dinamo București players Genoa C.F.C. players Hellas Verona F.C. players Jeonnam Dragons players CS Sporting Vaslui players Aris Limassol FC players AEL Limassol players FC Astra Giurgiu players FC Unirea Urziceni players CS Concordia Chiajna players AFC Unirea Slobozia players Liga I players K League 1 players Serie B players Cypriot First Division players Romanian football managers AFC Unirea Slobozia managers FC Dunărea Călărași managers FC UTA Arad managers CS Mioveni managers FC Dinamo București managers AFC Chindia Târgoviște managers FC Gloria Buzău managers Liga I managers Liga II managers Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Romanian expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in South Korea Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Sportspeople from Ialomița County