Prague, Jan 23 (CTK) – The football club Sparta Praha bought Romanian midfielder Nicolae Stanciu, 24, from Anderlecht for 4.6 million euros, according to CTK’s information, which makes Stanciu the most expensive player in the history of the top Czech league.
Until now, the highest sum was 2.9 million euros that Sparta paid to Maccabi Tel Aviv for Israeli forward Tal Ben Haim Junior, 28, last summer.
Stanciu signed a contract that expires in mid-2021 with Sparta. He should have the role of the team’s advanced playmaker and replace Tomas Rosicky, 37, who ended his career of a player last month and he has become part of Sparta’s management.
Stanciu arrived in Prague last week and passed a medical. The negotiations about his transfer continued during the weekend and the contract was finally signed on Tuesday. The contract on the transfer includes bonuses for Anderlecht for success in European leagues.
Sparta is the richest club in the Czech top football league. It hired Italian coach Andrea Stramaccioni and several foreign players last summer, but the team failed to advance to the group stage of the Europa League and was eliminated in the Czech football cup despite of the massive investments. Sparta ended in the 5th position of the standings after the autumn part of the top league and the leading Viktoria Plzen is 18 points ahead of it.
Two years ago, Stanciu contributed to the victory of Steaua Bucharest (now FCSB) over Sparta in the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League. He then moved to Anderlecht, becoming the most expensive player of the Belgian league. However, he played only ten league matches and scored one goal this season.
Stanciu played 19 matches with the Romanian national team and he scored six goals for it.
