Ciprian Andrei Marica (; born 2 October 1985) is a Romanian former footballer and minority shareholder of Farul Constanța. He played as a centre forward. Club career Dinamo București Marica's first professional club team was Dinamo București, from the city in which he was born. He started to gain attention even though he only played 23 games (scoring four goals) in three years with the club. Shakhtar Donetsk Ciprian transferred to the Ukrainian top club and played his so far best seasons with them. He gained international experience, getting to play in the UEFA Cup European competition. VfB Stuttgart On 23 July 2007, he transferred to German club VfB Stuttgart, after his former club, Shakhtar Donetsk, rejected another offer, from English team Derby County amongst interest from Manchester City. Marica signed a 5-year contract. Stuttgart sporting director Horst Heldt said: "Ciprian is a very flexible forward, and a permanent thorn in the side of any opposition defence, who fits outstandingly into our team. He wanted to join us desperately." Marica made his debut for VfB in the Bundesliga on 12 August 2007, in a home game against Schalke 04 (2–2). In his first season, he got plenty of appearances (28), scoring only two goals in those (plus one goal in the UEFA Champions League, which led Stuttgart to their win against the Rangers F.C.). After this first failed season then-coach Armin Veh mistrusted Marica, giving him only few appearances. Things seemed to get better after the sacking of Veh. New coach Markus Babbel entrusted him to play instead of Cacau, but Marica again failed to impress. Only after Christian Gross replaced Babbel as VfB coach, Marica got a new chance, mainly profiting by long-time injury of Cacau. This time Marica didn't disappoint his coach, scoring four goals in three consecutive matches. (Two goals in a 2–0 victory for VfB on 20 March 2010 match in Bundesliga against Hannover 96, the winning goal on 27 March 2010 away at Bayern Munich and the equalizing goal in a 2–1 victory against Borussia Mönchengladbach on 3 April 2010.) As of season 2010–11 he started again to be only the third choice behind Cacau and Pavel Pogrebnyak. On 12 July 2011, Marica was released from his contract at Stuttgart. Schalke 04 On 28 July 2011, Marica signed a two-year contract with German club Schalke 04, worth €5m. He chose to remain in Germany, despite