25 October 2006, by Marco Pereira

Carlos desperate to end Romanian nightmare

Steaua President offers 100,000 dollars to any buyer

Portuguese goalkeeper Carlos is currently living a nightmare with his club Steaua Bucharest and is looking to get out in the next transfer window.

The former Boavista stopper enjoyed a dream start to his career in Romania, even becoming something of a cult hero among the club’s fans, but a series of mistakes has seen things turn sour.

Things came to a head when club president, Gigi Becali, made an extraordinarily disparaging remark regarding the keeper after the club’s 4-1 loss to Real Madrid.

Becali publicly announced that he would give 100,000 dollars to anyone who would take Carlos from the club: “If any club wants to take Carlos, I would offer 100,000 dollars for them to do so.”

The keeper has admitted that the comments were hurtful, and now he is focusing on leaving during the transfer window in January. And he responded by demanding the president keep his word. “It’s a disappointing declaration, but it is true that he said it. I am waiting for December to arrive and that he does not forget what he has said.”

Championship winner

The comments come as a shock as the ex-Boavista keeper helped the club win the championship six months ago and qualify for the Champions League. Carlos still has a year and half left on his contract, but is looking to buy his ticket out of town as quickly as possible.

“It is a lack of respect to speak like this about a player, but I do not want to bother with this any longer,” Carlos continued. “Now I would like to honour my contract until December and then try to set my career on a new course.”

“I will continue to be as professional as possible, train every day as if nothing had happened, but I have no will whatsoever to stay here.”

The keeper feels that he is being harshly dealt with and that every keeper has a bad spell, especially, against teams like Real Madrid. “It’s disappointing for a player to hear these types of things. It’s even more disappointing after helping the team become champions and qualify for the Champions League.”

“It is not justified to hear this because I suffered four goals against Real Madrid and because I also suffered a bad goal in the game before against Cluj. This happens to all goalkeepers in their career.”