Andrei Cristea (; born 15 May 1984) is a Romanian professional footballer who plays as a forward. Although deployed as a forward, Cristea is better known for his pace and his range of passing instead of his goalscoring abilities, and represented the Romania national team from 2003 to 2010. Club career Cristea started football in his home town and made his debut in the Divizia A in 2001, for local club FCM Bacău. In the summer of 2004, Cristea transferred to Steaua București for a fee of $1 million. However, he did not manage to earn a first-team place there, despite scoring two goals that eliminated Valencia CF in the 2004–05 UEFA Cup season. He was put on the transfer list in the summer of 2006. Cristea moved to fellow Liga I club Politehnica Timişoara, in a swap which saw Gigel Coman move to Steaua București. After failing to impress at Politehnica Timişoara, he was loaned to Politehnica Iaşi for the second part of the 2007–08 season, where he had a great part in saving the team from relegation, with man of the match performances against CFR Cluj and his former team, Steaua București. Dinamo București On 9 May 2008, Cristea signed a five-year contract with Dinamo, just six days before turning 24. He called the transfer "a birthday present" and joined Dinamo after the summer holiday. He started scoring for the red and white team in the friendly games they played in pre-season. Cristea played only the first half on the season for Dinamo, netting two goals in eight matches and entering Dinamo's history by scoring the goal that brought the 1.000th victory of the team in all-time domestic championship, against Farul Constanta. Cristea again went on loan to Politehnica Iași, in the winter transfer window, where he was very well received and scored seven times in 15 games, goals which proved crucial in helping the team continue in the first division. Upon his return, he became a very important player, scoring goals that brought significant victories in Liga I and Europa League. He was the top scorer of the Romanian league in the 2009–10 season with 16 goals. Karlsruhe On 16 January 2011, Karlsruhe signed Cristea in the attempt of avoiding the relegation. On 13 February, Cristea scored two goals against the leader of Second Bundesliga, Hertha BSC. These were his first goals on this new club. On