
Nicolae Dica (full name Nicolae Marius Dica) was born on May 9, 1980 in Pitesti, Romania. He is a famous Romanian football player.
Biography and Career :
He started playing professional football when he was 18 years old at a local team in his birth town, Dacia Pitesti, in B Division (second Romanian League).
In the first season Nicolae Dica played in 17 games and scored 5 times for Dacia Pitesti. In the second he played in almost all games and had a very good period. He and all the team succeeded to finish on the fourth place.
He became one of the top scorer in that season with 14 goals that's why the A Division (first Romanian League) team in his town, FC Arges Pitesti, transferred him in 2000.
Dica debuted on the 12th of August 2000 in a game against Gaz Metan Medi
as, ended with his team's victory.
He played for FC Arges 3 seasons and a half in 89 games and scored 24 goals. Because of his skills he became one of the transfer targets for all the top teams in Romanian championship. He was a part of the same generation of football players raised by FC Arges, including top player like
Adrian Mutu, Adrian Neaga and
Daniel Coman.
In 2003 Steaua Bucharest paid for him more than 1 million euro and obtained his signature.
In the first season for Steaua he scored 9 times in 14 games and in the end of the championship they became vice-champions.
In the beginning of his career at Steaua he had some conflicts with the fans and he wanted to leave but remained at Steaua and in the next season they won the champion title and he was one of the team's top scorers with 11 goals. They did the same thing in the next season and Dica's value grew. He succeeded to score 15 goals and became one of the best strikers in the Romanian championship and the best from Steaua.
He debuted in the European Cups in the season 2004-2005 in UEFA Cup and that was the best of the Romanian teams in the last 10 years because Steaua qualified in the groups phase and more than this they eliminated in 1/16 finals Valencia, the ex-winner of UEFA Cup.
In 2005 after they lost the chance to play in UEFA Champions League groups because they were eliminated by Rosenborg, they played again in UEFA Cup and had fantastic results. They defeated teams like Lens, Heerenven, Betis Sevilla and their traditional Romanian rival Rapid Bucharest in the quarter finals, but unfortunately for them they were eliminated in the semi-final by Middlebrough.
In the next season they succeeded, after 10 years to play again in UEFA Champions League Groups after they eliminated Standard Liege. They played in a group with Real Madrid, Olympique Lyon and Dynamo Kiev. Nicolae Dica had a fantastic play in the first match against Dynao Kiev and succeeded to score two goals, his boss
Gigi Becali said that he would not sell this great player not even for 10 millions of Euro.
He debuted on the 11th of October 2003 at the national Romanian team in a friendly game against Japan and he played another 15 games after. He succeeded to score two goals against Cyprus and Albania.
Nicolae Dica short info:
Height: 181 cm
Weight: 73 kg
Position: striker