Adrian Neaga

Early career

Neaga's career started once he signed his first professional contract with FC 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 FC Argeş Piteşti again.

Drugs scandal

In 2001 Neaga failed a drug test which has been performed at the end of a Divizia A, however despite all the evidence that Neaga took drugs, he was not suspended in any way because just before that game he was bought by Steaua's Gigi Becali for a rumoured fee of USD1 million, back then the highest fee ever paid for a player by a Romanian club and Becali didn't want his money to be vanished.

Steaua years

By the time of his transfer to Steaua, Neaga was considered one of the most talented players from Romania's Divizia A and everybody reckoned that he will soon follow the footsteps of Adrian Mutu and play in Serie A.

It was not the case however, because as soon as he moved to Bucharest his life changed dramatically. He purchased himself a Maserati, lived in a very expensive neighborhood and he was rather interested in the city's nightlife than in football.

After two mediocre years leaves with Steaua he is sold to the Arabian club Al-Nasr. It was the turning point of Neaga's career. Away from friends and family, Neaga re-discovered himself and, more importantly, re-discovered the pleasure of playing football. There is no secret, however, that Mircea Rednic, the coach of Al-Nasr, played a major role in that change.

Neaga ended his contract with the Arabs sooner and returned to Steaua. It was a different player. During the 2003 - 04 season he scored 13 goals in 24 games played.

Walter Zenga was appointed head coach by Steaua in the summer of 2004 and he soon made Neaga one of the two team leaders, the other being 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.

In February 2005 however, everything changed again. Gigi Becali received a buying offer from the Korean club Chunnam Dragons that read USD 1.5 million. Becali accepted the offer, it was no matter that Neaga and the team were due to play a very important game against Valencia CF, then the Spanish football champions and UEFA Cup winners, in the second round of the UEFA Cup.

Korean life

In February 2004 More or less against his will, Neaga was sold to a Korean club. In meantime he became an important part of the Romania for which he won five caps in 2004 and going to Korea meant that would end.

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 made a statement saying that he would like to return to Steaua and his club agreed the transfer, should the Romanian club pay a USD1.5 million release fee, but the Steaua refused and Neaga joined the side of Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma instead. With his new team Neaga became champion of Korea 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.

Steaua comeback

In the early months of 2007, Adrian stated that he would love to return home and to no other club than Steaua. In the summer of 2007, once again rumors that he will return began to sparkle in the media. These rumors became reality when Steaua agreed to pay the Korean club a sum of USD 800,000, still not enough to gain his services for the following period. Ilwha Chunma's officials claimed a sum of USD 1,000,000 to release Neaga, so the only solution was that the player would pay the difference of USD 200,000 to his former club, which he did. As a result, Neaga is Steaua's player beginning June 2007. At Steaua he scored a goal in the 2-0 home victory against BATE Borisov of Belarus, thus qualifying for the first time in his life in the UEFA Champions League, where he will play against the likes of Arsenal and Sevilla.