Cristian Marian Manea (; born 9 August 1997) is a Romanian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

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

club

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ), is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, which competes in the Liga I. It was founded in 1907 as ''Kolozsvári Vas ...

and the

Romania national team 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 ...

. Manea started out as a senior at Viitorul Constanța in 2014, and moved to

Apollon Limassol Apollon Limassol FC ( el, Απόλλων Λεμεσού, ''Apollon Lemesou'') is a Cypriot sports club, based in Limassol. It has football, basketball and volleyball teams. Founded in 1954, Apollon FC currently plays in the Cypriot First Divisi ...

during that summer. He did not feature in any games for the Cypriots, being loaned out consecutively to Viitorul,

Mouscron Mouscron (; Dutch and vls, Moeskroen, ; Picard and Walloon: ''Moucron'') is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, along the border with the French city of Tourcoing, which is part of the Lille metropoli ...

FCSB Fotbal Club FCSB (), commonly known as FCSB, is a Romanian professional Association football, football club based in Bucharest. It has spent its entire history in the top flight of the Romanian football league system, Romanian league system, t ...

and again CFR Cluj. Manea signed a permanent deal with the latter in 2020, and won seven domestic honours during his stints in

Cluj-Napoca ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = Counties of Romania, County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Subdivisions of Romania, Status , subdivision_name2 ...

. Internationally, Manea became the youngest player to make his debut for

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

after playing in a 1–0 win over

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

in May 2014. In

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, he represented the under-21 side in the

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

Club career

Viitorul Constanța

Born in

Agigea Agigea (; tr, Acıçay, ) is a commune in Constanța County, Northern Dobruja, Romania. The commune includes four villages: Agigea, Lazu (Turkish: ''Laz-Mahale''), Sanatoriul Agigea and Stațiunea Zoologică Marină Agigea, the last two being spe ...

, Manea spent his junior years in the

academy An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

of Viitorul Constanța. He made his professional debut for the club on 21 April 2014, in a 0–3

home loss to Steaua București.

Apollon Limassol

In the summer of 2014, an

investment fund An investment fund is a way of investing money alongside other investors in order to benefit from the inherent advantages of working as part of a group such as reducing the risks of the investment by a significant percentage. These advantages inc ...

acquired Manea's playing rights and he was registered by Cypriot side

. The transfer fee was rumoured to be worth

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

2.5 million. Previously, Romanian media reported that Manea had been sold to

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

team

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

for roughly £2.3 million, but the rumour proved to be false. In May 2018, the player himself stated that he had believed he would sign for Chelsea and that he had never physically been to Cyprus.

Various loans

Manea spent the 2014–15 campaign on loan at his former club Viitorul Constanța, and scored his first senior goal in a 2–1 away defeat of Petrolul Ploiești on 13 April 2015. On 28 August 2015, Manea moved to Belgian team

Royal Excel Mouscron Royal Excel Mouscron (, ), commonly known as Mouscron or familiarly as REM, was a Belgian professional football club based in Mouscron. The team was formed as ''Royal Mouscron-Péruwelz'' in the spring of 2010 as a result of the merging between ...

on a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

-long loan, which was extended for another year. He amassed 18 appearances in all competitions before returning to Romania on 27 June 2017, joining

also on loan. He was an undisputed starter during his stint, winning back-to-back national championships. On 2 September 2019, fellow Liga I team

agreed a deal to sign Manea on loan with an option to buy. He fell out of favour at the

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 ...

-based club, and on 31 January 2020 returned to CFR Cluj on loan for the remainder of the

CFR Cluj

On 6 September 2020, Manea signed a four-year deal with CFR Cluj for an undisclosed transfer fee.

International career

Manea earned

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for Romania at under-16, under-17, under-19 and under-21 levels. In May 2014, he was called up to the senior team by manager

Victor Pițurcă Victor Pițurcă (; born 8 May 1956) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player. Club career Pițurcă was born in Orodel, Dolj County. He joined Universitatea Craiova as a youth in 1970, aged 14, and four years later he was ...

, despite having only made five club appearances at the time. Manea made his debut as a starter against

on the 31st that month, aged 16 years, 9 months and 22 days. He became the youngest footballer to play for Romania since 1928, after breaking the record set by

Grațian Sepi Grațian Sepi (born 30 December 1910 in Vălcani, Austria-Hungary (now in Romania) – deceased 6 March 1977) was a Romanian footballer who played as a striker. Biography International career While playing in Liga I for Universitatea Cl ...

. Manea registered his first senior goal for the country on 5 June 2018, scoring the opener in a 2–0 friendly win over

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

at the

Ilie Oană Stadium Ilie Oană Stadium ( Romanian: ''Stadionul Ilie Oană'') is a football stadium in Ploiești, Romania. It has been the home ground of Petrolul Ploiești since its inauguration in September 2011, and has a capacity of 15,073 spectators. The stadi ...

Ploiești Ploiești ( , , ), formerly spelled Ploești, is a city and county seat in Prahova County, Romania. Part of the historical region of Muntenia, it is located north of Bucharest. The area of Ploiești is around , and it borders the Blejoi commu ...

. The following year, he featured for the under-21 side in all four matches of the 2019 UEFA European Championship, where Romania was eliminated by

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in the

semi-finals A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Manea goal''.

Honours

CFR Cluj *

: 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, 2021–22 *

Supercupa României The Supercupa României ( en, Romanian Supercup) is a Romanian football championship contested by the winners of the Liga I and the Cupa României. It is usually played at the Arena Națională in Bucharest. The competition started off in 1994, ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

Individual *

Team of the Season: 2017–18

References

Notes Citations

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Manea, Cristian 1997 births Living people Sportspeople from Constanța County Romanian footballers Men's association football fullbacks Liga I players FC Viitorul Constanța players Apollon Limassol FC players Belgian Pro League players Royal Excel Mouscron players CFR Cluj players FC Steaua București players Romania men's youth international footballers Romania men's under-21 international footballers Romania men's international footballers Romanian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Expatriate footballers in Belgium Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium