Rareș Andrei Ilie (; born 19 April 2003) 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 an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As #Cent ...

for Israeli Premier League club Maccabi Tel Aviv, on loan from

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

club

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

. He started out as a senior with

Rapid București Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a '' cascade' ...

at age 17, amassing over 50 matches in the first two leagues combined before signing for French team Nice in 2022. At international level, Ilie has represented the under-18, under-19 and under-21 sides of Romania.

Club career

Rapid București

Ilie made his senior debut for

on 5 September 2020, aged 17, in a 2–1 victory over Pandurii Târgu Jiu in the

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

championship. On 19 November that year, he scored his first goal in a 1–0 league win 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 ...

. Ilie amassed three goals from 22 appearances during his debut season 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 ...

, with "the White-Burgundies" finishing as Liga II runners-up and thus earning direct promotion. On 18 July 2021, Ilie recorded his professional debut by starting in a 1–0

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 ...

defeat of Chindia Târgoviște. His first goal in the competition came on 19 November, in a 2–2 away draw against the same opponent. Ilie contributed with 38 games and six goals in all competitions during the 2021–22 campaign, being one of the most proficient players of Rapid București.

Nice

On 14 July 2022, Rapid București shareholder Victor Angelescu announced an agreement for the move of Ilie to

club

. The French side officialised his signing three days later, and press generally reported the transfer fee as being

€ 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 ...

5 million plus bonuses. Ilie made his debut on 7 August 2022, coming on as a 64th-minute substitute for

Alexis Beka Beka Alexis Adelin Beka Beka (born 29 March 2001) is a French professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for club Nice. Club career Caen Beka Beka made his debut with Caen in a 0–0 Ligue 2 tie with Clermont on 20 December 201 ...

in a 1–1 league draw at

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

, and one week later started in a 1–1 home draw with

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

. On the 18th, he registered his

European European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

debut in a 0–1 away loss to Maccabi Tel Aviv in the UEFA Europa Conference League play-off round.

Loan to Maccabi Tel Aviv

On 1 February 2023, Ilie moved to Israeli Premier League club Maccabi Tel Aviv on loan for the remainder the

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 ...

Career statistics

Club

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ilie, Rares 1999 births Living people Romanian footballers Footballers from Bucharest FC Rapid București players OGC Nice players Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. players Liga I players Liga II players Ligue 1 players Israeli Premier League players Romanian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Israel Romanian expatriate sportspeople in France Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Israel Romania under-21 international footballers Romania youth international footballers Association football midfielders