Giani Stelian Kiriţă (born 3 March 1977 in Bucharest) is a former

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 ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player.

Club career

Giani Kiriţă was born on 3 March 1977 in Bucharest, growing up in the Pantelimon neighborhood, where he started playing football at around the age of 11 at the children's club, Turistul Lebăda. He started to play football at senior level at

Divizia B 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 Liga II, 2006–07. It is currently Sponsor (commercial), sp ...

club

Rocar București Rocar (also T.V. or Autobuzul) was a van, light truck, bus and trolleybus manufacturer based in Bucharest, Romania. The firm also produced light offroad vehicles and later heavy road vehicles. During its existence, the company produced over 350,00 ...

, who after half of a season loaned him to

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 Yekaterinbu ...

, where he made his

Divizia A 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 ...

debut on 19 April 1997 in a 3–0 victory against

Universitatea Cluj Fotbal Club Universitatea Cluj (), commonly known as Universitatea Cluj or simply as U Cluj, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I, the first ...

. In the following season after returning to play another half of year in

Rocar Rocar (also T.V. or Autobuzul) was a van, light truck, bus and trolleybus manufacturer based in Bucharest, Romania. The firm also produced light offroad vehicles and later heavy road vehicles. During its existence, the company produced over 350,00 ...

, he was transferred by

Dinamo 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 Yekaterinbu ...

, where he would win two

titles in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

and

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, at the first contributing with 32 games and 3 goals scored and in the second appearing in 28 matches in which he scored two goals, also helping the club win three

Cupa României The Cupa României ( en, Romanian Cup) is a Association football, football cup competition for List of football clubs in Romania, Romanian teams which has been held annually since 1933–34 Cupa României, 1933–34, except during World War II. I ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

and

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

. In 2003, Kiriță went to play in the Turkish

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

at Samsunspor, Gaziantepspor, Ankaragücü and

Bursaspor Bursaspor Kulübü Derneği (), commonly known as Bursaspor, is a Turkish sports club located in the city of Bursa. Formed in 1963, the club colours are green and white, with home kits usually featuring both colours in a striped pattern. In th ...

, with the latter managing to win the

2009–10 Süper Lig The 2009–10 Süper Lig (known as the ''Turkcell Süper Lig'' for sponsorship reasons) was the 52nd season since its establishment. The season commenced on 7 August 2009 with Istanbul B.B. hosting defending champions Beşiktaş at Atatürk Olym ...

, which was the first title in the club's history, being won with one point above the team from the second place, Fenerbahçe, Kiriță appearing in 8 games in which he scored one goal in a 1–0 victory against Gaziantepspor. In January 2012, he returned to play in Romania, signing with

FCM Târgu Mureș The word FCM may refer to: Science and technology * FCM (chemotherapy), a chemotherapy regimen * Flow cytometry * Food contact materials * Fuel-containing material * Flight control module, a computer that assists in the control of an aircraft Co ...

, where he made his last

appearance on 21 May 2012 in a 2–1 loss against FC Brașov. Kiriță ended his career in December 2012 at

team

CS Buftea Club Sportiv LPS HD Clinceni, commonly known as Clinceni and formerly known as ''Academica Clinceni'' is a Romanian amateur football club based in Clinceni, Ilfov County, currently playing in the Liga IV - Ilfov County. In the summer of 2022 f ...

, where for a while he was simultaneously the team's coach. Giani Kiriță has a total of 163 matches and 9 goals scored in

, 162 matches and 15 goals scored in

and 15 games played, without scoring in European competitions.

International career

Giani Kiriță played four games at international level for

, making his debut under coach László Bölöni in a friendly which ended 1–1 against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. His second game played was also a friendly, a 2–2 against

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

. His last two appearances for the national team were at the 2002 World Cup qualifiers in a 2–0 away victory against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

and a 1–1 against Georgia.

Personal life

Giani Kiriță's mother considered having an

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

when she was pregnant with him, because of the problems she had with his father which included domestic violence. His father left the family when he was three years old, Giani seeing him rarely afterwards, being raised by his mother with the help of his grandmother and older sister. He married Daniela Milu in 2000 but they divorced in 2007, they have a daughter and a son together. After he ended his football career, Kiriță appeared in several TV shows in Romania, for a while having his own TV show called ''Giani Kiriță, antrenat la Școala Vieții'' ''(Giani Kiriță, coached at the School of Life)'' which aired on

Antena Stars Antena Stars is a Romanian TV channel. It started broadcasting on 9 April 2007 and it is a part of the Intact group, owned by the family of the Romanian businessman and politician Dan Voiculescu. On 16 December 2013, at 19:02 EET "Eet" is a ...

and had a amateur

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, inc ...

fight that he won by

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

against Andi Constantin. Kiriță is a fan of hip hop music, being a fan of American rapper

DMX Earl Simmons (December 18, 1970 – April 9, 2021), known professionally as DMX, was an American rapper and actor. He began rapping in the early 1990s and released his debut album ''It's Dark and Hell Is Hot'' in 1998, to both critical acclaim ...

, having a exact copy of his chain and for a while he had written DMX on the license plate on one of his cars, he also is a fan of Pantelimon based group

B.U.G. Mafia B.U.G. Mafia (an abbreviation for"Bucharest Underground Mafia"), is a Romanian hip hop group from Pantelimon, Bucharest, widely regarded as one of the seminal acts of gangsta rap in Romania. Founded in 1993 as Black Underground, its original line ...

, personally knowing the members.

Honours

Dinamo București *

: 1999–00, 2001–02 *

: 1999–00, 2000–01, 2002–03 Bursaspor *

: 2009–10

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kirita, Giani 1977 births Living people Footballers from Bucharest Romanian footballers Association football midfielders Romania international footballers AFC Rocar București players FC Dinamo București players MKE Ankaragücü footballers Bursaspor footballers Samsunspor footballers Gaziantepspor footballers ASA 2013 Târgu Mureș players LPS HD Clinceni players Romanian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Turkey Liga I players Liga II players Süper Lig players Romanian football managers LPS HD Clinceni managers