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Florin Orban, 19.01.2017, 12:00

Romanian football player Lucian Sanmartean has been signed by the club Al-Taawoun of Saudi Arabia, currently coached by Romanian Costel Galca. Al-Taawoun is currently 7th placed in the league tables in Saudi Arabia. Lucian Sanmartean started his football career at Gloria Bistrita. Over the years he played for Panathinaikos of Greece, Utrecht of the Netherlands, FC Vaslui, Steaua Bucharest and Pandurii Targu Jiu in Romania and Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia.

Another transfer worth mentioning is that of Bogdan Stancu, who penned down a two-and-a-half-year deal with Bursaspor of Turkey. Aged 29, Stancu had been previously playing for Genclerbirligi. Bursaspor is currently in 5th place in the Turkish First League. At the end of the first half of regular season, Bursaspor has 27 points after 17 rounds.

Stancus new club won the League Trophy in 2010 and was coached by Romanians Ion Nunweiller in the 1990-1991 season and Gheorghe Hagi in the 2003-2004 season respectively. Bogdan Stancu has 48 caps in Romanias national team and has scored 12 goals. Last summer he scored the two goals in the matches Romania played at the European Football Championship in France, both from penalty kick, the first in the 1-2 defeat against France and the second in the 1-all draw against Switzerland.

Let us also note that Pandurii Targu Jiu, currently training in Turkey, played its first friendly of its winter-break campaign. Pandurii drew 1-all against Anji Mahacikala, a team currently ranking 11th in the Russian First League. In their next fixture Pandurii will take on Krylya Sovietov Samara, also of Russia, in a match hosted by the Turkish city of Belek.