Nichita Moțpan (born 17 July 2001) is a Moldovan 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 lea ...

who plays as an

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for

Russian First League The Russian First League (, Pervaya liga), formerly called Russian First Division () and Russian Football National League (FNL) () is the second level of the Football in Russia#League system, Russian football league system. The Russian Professio ...

club Fakel Voronezh and the Moldova national team.

Club career

Moțpan was born in

Bălți Bălți () is a city in Moldova. It is the second-largest city in terms of population, area and economic importance, after Chișinău. The city holds the status of municipiu. Sometimes called "the northern capital", it is a major industrial, cu ...

, Moldova. Between 2017 and 2020, he played youth football at

Rubin Kazan FC Rubin Kazan (; ) is a Russian professional football club based in the city of Kazan. They play in the Russian Premier League. Founded in 1958, Rubin played its first-ever top flight season in 2003. It has remained there through the 2021–2 ...

and Zaria Bălți. He started his senior career with FC Bălți in July 2020, where he took part in the club's promotion from the

2020–21 Moldovan "A" Division The 2020–21 Moldovan "A" Division Liga 1 is the second-level division of Moldovan Football league system, The championship is composed of 12 teams and the top two teams are promoted to the Moldovan Liga, while the bottom two teams are relega ...

, scoring 13 goals. In March 2021, he was close to moving to Polish side

GKS Bełchatów GKS Bełchatów is a Polish professional football club based in Bełchatów. The club currently competes in group I of the III liga. History GKS Bełchatów entered Poland's Klasa A in 1977 under the name of Węgiel Brunatny Bełchatów, and ...

, but the transfer fell through as FC Bălți and Moțpan could not agree on the financial terms with Bełchatów. On 1 July 2021, he made his

Moldovan National Division The Moldovan Liga, officially known as Liga 7777.md for sponsorship reasons, is an association football league that is the top division of Football in Moldova, Moldovan football league system. The competition was established in 1992, when Moldov ...

debut in a 1–0 win against

Sheriff Tiraspol Fotbal Club Sheriff Tiraspol (), commonly known as Sheriff Tiraspol or simply Sheriff, is a professional football club based in Tiraspol, a city located in the unrecognised breakaway state of Transnistria, that plays in the Liga, the top tier o ...

. In June 2022, he moved to

Israeli Premier League The Israeli Premier League (, Ligat HaAl, ) is a professional association football league in Israel and the highest level of the Israeli football league system. The league is contested by 14 clubs, and operates on a system of promotion and rele ...

side

Hapoel Haifa Hapoel Haifa Football Club (, ''Moadon HaKaduregel Hapoel Haifa'') is an Israeli professional football club located in the city of Haifa. The club won one championship (1998–99) and 4 Israeli cups (1962–63, 1965–66 and 1973–74, 2 ...

on a one-year loan. He returned to Bălți on 1 January 2023, as Hapoel opted not to extend the loan. On 18 July 2023, Moțpan signed with the

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

club Fakel Voronezh.

International career

He has represented Moldova at under-17 and under-21 level. On 10 June 2022, he made his senior international debut for the country in a 2022–23 UEFA Nations League D match against

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

. He scored one of the goals in a 4–2 loss.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Moldova's goal tally first.''

Personal life

Moțpan also holds Russian citizenship as Nikita Motspan () and was registered by the

as a domestic player.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Motpan, Nichita 2001 births Living people Moldovan men's footballers FC Bălți players Hapoel Haifa F.C. players FC Fakel Voronezh players Moldovan Super Liga players Israeli Premier League players Russian Premier League players Sportspeople from Bălți Moldovan expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Israel Moldovan expatriate sportspeople in Israel Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Moldovan expatriate sportspeople in Russia Moldova men's youth international footballers Moldova men's under-21 international footballers Moldova men's international footballers Men's association football midfielders