# Giani Kiriță

Giani Stelian Kiriță (born 3 March 1977) is a Romanian former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder.

## Club career

Giani Kiriță was born on 3 March 1977 in Bucharest, growing up in the Pantelimon neighborhood, where he started playing Football at around the age of 11 at the children's club, Turistul Lebăda. He started to play football at senior level at Divizia B club Rocar București, who after half of a season loaned him to Dinamo București, where he made his Divizia A debut on 19 April 1997 in a 3–0 victory against Universitatea Cluj. In the following season after returning to play another half of year in Divizia B at Rocar, he was transferred by Dinamo, where he would win The Double in the 1999–2000 season, coach Cornel Dinu giving him 32 league appearances in which he scored three goals, also using him all the minutes in the 2–0 win over Universitatea Craiova from the Cupa României final. He won another Cupa României after Dinu used him the whole match in the 4–2 victory against his former side, Rocar in the 2001 final. Kiriță won his second league title in the 2001–02 season, coaches Dinu and Marin Ion giving him 28 matches in which he scored two goals. His last trophy won with The Red Dogs was the 2002–03 Cupa României, being used by coach Ioan Andone all the minutes in the 1–0 over Național București from the final.
In 2003, Kiriță went to play in the Turkish Süper Lig at Samsunspor, Gaziantepspor, Ankaragücü and Bursaspor, with the latter managing to win the 2009–10 Süper Lig while working with coach Ertuğrul Sağlam, this being the first title in the club's history which was won with one point above the team from the second place, Fenerbahçe, Kiriță appearing in eight games in which he scored one goal in a 1–0 victory against Gaziantepspor. In January 2012, he returned to play in Romania, signing with FCM Târgu Mureș, where he made his last Divizia A appearance on 21 May 2012 in a 2–1 loss in front of FC Brașov. Kiriță ended his career in December 2012 at Divizia B team CS Buftea, where for a while he was simultaneously the team's coach. Giani Kiriță has a total of 163 matches and nine goals scored in Divizia A, 162 appearances with 15 goals scored in Süper Lig and 15 games played, without scoring in European competitions.

## International career

Giani Kiriță played four games at international level for Romania, making his debut under coach László Bölöni in a friendly which ended 1–1 with Poland. His second game played was also a friendly, a 2–2 against Slovenia. His last two appearances for the national team were at the 2002 World Cup qualifiers in a 2–0 away victory against rivals Hungary and a 1–1 with Georgia.

## Personal life

Giani Kiriță's mother considered having an abortion when she was pregnant with him, because of the problems she had with his father which included domestic violence. His father left the family when he was three years old, Giani seeing him rarely afterwards, being raised by his mother with the help of his grandmother and older sister. He married Daniela Milu in 2000 but they divorced in 2007, they have a daughter and a son together. After he ended his football career, Kiriță appeared in several TV shows in Romania, for a while having his own TV show called Giani Kiriță, antrenat la Școala Vieții (Giani Kiriță, coached at the School of Hard Knocks) which aired on Antena Stars and had an amateur mixed martial arts fight that he won by knockout against Andi Constantin. Kiriță is a fan of hip hop music, being a fan of American rapper DMX, having an exact copy of his chain and for a while he had written DMX on the license plate on one of his cars, he also is a fan of Pantelimon based group B.U.G. Mafia, personally knowing the members.

## Honours

Dinamo București
* Divizia A: 1999–00, 2001–02
* Cupa României: 1999–00, 2000–01, 2002–03
Bursaspor
* Süper Lig: 2009–10