Claudiu Niculescu

Claudiu Niculescu

Personal information
Full name	Claudiu Iulian Niculescu
Date of birth	23 June 1976 (1976-06-23)
Place of birth	Slatina, Romania
Height	1.82 m (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Universitatea Cluj
Number	9
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1994–1995	IELIF Craiova	29	(5)
1995–1996	Drobeta-Turnu Severin	20	(15)
1996–1998	Electroputere Craiova	48	(31)
1998–2001	Universitatea Craiova	93	(41)
2001–2002	Dinamo Bucureşti	30	(20)
2002–2003	Genoa	11	(3)
2003–2008	Dinamo Bucureşti	123	(70)
2008	MSV Duisburg	17	(4)
2008–2009	Omonia	8	(1)
2009–2010	Dinamo Bucureşti	38	(8)
2010–	Universitatea Cluj	38	(16)
National team‡
2000–2007	Romania	8	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 30 July 2011. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 2007

Claudiu Iulian Niculescu (born 23 June 1976 in Slatina) is currently playing for Universitatea Cluj soccer team. He has previously played for Universitatea Craiova and Dinamo Bucureşti and has also played at Genoa 1893 for a season.

He is a striker and is especially skilled in free-kicks.

At his first season with Dinamo Bucharest, Claudiu Iulian Niculescu won the title in the First League and he became officially one of the best strikers from the internal competition. The second season was not a brilliant one for Dinamo Bucharest and Niculescu was transferred to Genoa FC 1893 in the Italian Second Division at the middle of the season. After only half of season, in 2003 Claudiu Niculescu turned back to Dinamo Bucharest and he won another champion title with his team.

In the 2006/2007 season, he became the goal-getter of the league scoring 18 goals, 4 of these in the match against rivals Rapid Bucureşti. He was also the second goal-scorer the UEFA Cup, scoring 8 goals. In total, he scored 18 goals for Dinamo Bucureşti in European matches, and he is the all-time top scorer in European competitions for Dinamo. In Romania, he played 351 games, scoring 173 goals.

On 25 July 2010 he scored on his debut for 'U' Cluj against his former fierce rivals, Steaua Bucureşti

Honours

Dinamo Bucureşti

• Romanian League: 2001–02, 2003–04, 2006–07
• Romanian Cup: 2002-03, 2003–04, 2004–05
• Romanian Supercup: 2005

External links

• Claudiu Niculescu career stats at RomanianSoccer.ro
• (Romanian) Claudiu Niculescu - About, statistics, video, wallpapers