Here you find the best moments of famous Romanian striker Adrian "Rica" Neaga, both for Steaua Bucharest and the National Team of Romania. He is still one of the most beloved players of Steaua in recent history.

Adrian Constantin Neaga (born 4 June 1979 in Piteşti) is a Romanian football forward. His career started once he signed his first professional contract with Argeş Piteşti in 1997. He was then playing in the same team with Adrian Mutu. He only played three games in his first season, scoring a goal, and then played two other games in the first half of the following season, before the club decided to loan him to Dacia Piteşti, a club from the second league, where he played 20 games and scored 10 goals, therefore gaining the right to be part of Argeş Piteşti again.

By the time of his transfer to Steaua Bucureşti, Neaga was considered one of the most talented players from Romania's Divizia A. In the summer of 2004, Walter Zenga was appointed head coach by Steaua Bucureşti and he soon made Neaga one of the two team leaders, alongside Mirel Rădoi, and in the first half of that season Neaga played 15 games in Divizia A, scoring six goals, while in the UEFA Cup he scored five times in eight games, finishing Steaua's top-scorer in Europe that season. In February 2005, Steaua received a buying offer from the Korean club Chunnam Dragons for USD 1.5 million. The player was sold and, in the meantime he became an important part of the Romania national football team, for which he won five caps in 2004. His run in the national side ended with his move to Korea. During his time at Chunnam Dragons, Neaga was selected in the Team of the Season and was awarded the Bronze Boot for finishing third in the goalscorers standings. After 18 months at Chunnam Dragons, Neaga joined Korean club Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma instead. With his new team, Neaga won the Korean title for the first time and, also for the first time, played in the Asian Champions League, scoring a goal in his first game, against Vietnam's champions.

In the early months of 2007, Neaga stated that he would love to return home to Steaua Bucureşti. As a result, he was a member of Steaua Bucureşti again in June 2007. Back at Steaua Bucureşti, he scored a goal in the 2-0 home victory against FC BATE of Belarus, thus qualifying for the first time in his life for the UEFA Champions League, where he played against the likes of Arsenal and Sevilla. Perhaps his best moment came in the game against arch-rivals Dinamo Bucureşti, a game in which he scored the only goal. But his club missed the chance of becoming champions of Romania, as Steaua Bucureşti finished second, after CFR Cluj, in the 2007-2008 season.

On January 2009, Neaga signed for Azerbaijani club Neftchi Baku, where he played very well and was one of the best players in that squad. In July 2010 he signed with Romanian vice-champions and UEFA Champions League revelation of 2009, Unirea Urziceni, playing against Zenit Saint-Petersburg in the UEFA Champions League preliminary rounds. After the short spell with Urziceni (the club went almost bankrupt and released most players), he signed a contract with Ukrainian Premier League side Volyn Lutsk, where he stayed for a season. Starting July 2011, he is one of the leaders of Dacia Mioveni, a newly-promoted team in Romanian First League.

свернуть