The Athlete of the week

Florin Orban, 12.01.2021, 13:17

It’s still early days for the New Year and it’s also
early days for the football competitions that have been resumed around Europe.
In the Turkish championship, the Romanian Alexandru Maxim plays for Gaziantep,
in the Super Lig. Maxim drew first blood in his team’s match against Sivasspor;
Gaziantep were defeated, 1-2. Alexandru Maxim’s success prompted sports pundits
from Romania to realize, once again, that the midfielder was achieving his
career best, and was in top shape. Reason enough for Radio Romania
International to designate him the Athlete of the week. According to gsp.ro
sports platform, Maxim’s goal against Sivasspor was the 9th in the
Super Lig, where he has played 15 games so far. Added to which was a success in
the Cup of Turkey. Furthermore, Maxim scored no less than 6 goals in the last
six games.

Alexandru Maxim was born on July 8, 1990, in Piatra
Neamț (north-east). As a junior, he had a stint with Espanyol Barcelona, then
Alexandru got promoted to the club’s second-tier team. He then played for
Badalona, also in Spain. In 2011, Alexandru Maxim played for Pandurii Targu
Jiu, in Romania. From 2013 to 2020 he played for the German team Stuttgart,
then Maxim got transferred to Mainz, also in Germany. With the national team, for
which he scored 7 goals, Alexandru Maxim made his debut on May 30, 2012, in a
friendly game against the national team of Switzerland. He has had no less than
40 caps ever since. The Romanian Football Federation rated Maxim’s goal in the
match against Austria last year the most beautiful goal scored by Romania’s
national teams in 2020.

Gaziantep are 4th-placed in Turkey’s Super
Lig, after 17 rounds. However, Gaziantep has a vacancy for the head-coach job,
since the Romanian Marius Sumudica quit in the wake of a dispute with
Gaziantep’s management. Romanian defender Alin Tosca has also been signed up by
Gaziantep.

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