In 2020 and 2021, Superliga clubs were completing transfers worth €8 million and €11 million. In the following years, the ceiling dropped to around €5–6 million, while this summer the league’s top players are being sold or negotiated for fees of around €3–4 million. Over the past year, however, clubs from the Czech Republic, Croatia, Serbia and Hungary have sold players for between €12 million and €22 million.
U Cluj sold Andrei Coubiș to Lincoln City for €3 million. It is the biggest fee in the Cluj club’s history, after the defender had been signed from Sampdoria for just €125,000.
Universitatea Craiova accepted a €2.1 million offer from Chicago Fire for Anzor Mekvabishvili, and the Georgian agreed to the move.
The other two names are Jovo Lukić and Ștefan Baiaram, the two teams’ standout players. U Cluj rejected €2 million for the Superliga top scorer and want €3 million. Craiova are asking €5 million for Baiaram, but the most important offer so far, from Anderlecht, was worth €4 million.
These are four players from last season’s champions and runners-up. One was sold for €3 million, another for €2.1 million, while the offers for the two biggest names at the clubs have not gone beyond €4 million. For now, this is the market for the Superliga’s top players.
How the ceiling fell from €11 million
The difference compared with the start of the decade is considerable. In 2020, Craiova sold Valentin Mihăilă to Parma for €8.5 million. In January 2021, FCSB received €11 million for Dennis Man. A few months later, Alexandru Cicâldău joined Galatasaray for €6.5 million.
Since 2021, no Superliga club has completed a sale worth more than €7 million. D.C. United paid around €6 million for Louis Munteanu in 2026, while Rareș Ilie, Florinel Coman and Albion Rrahmani all left for €5 million, joining Nice, Al-Gharafa and Sparta Prague respectively.
Of those players, only Man and Rrahmani really lived up to the fees. Man became an important player for Parma and later moved to PSV, while Rrahmani was sold by Sparta to Venezia for €7.5 million.
At the other end of the scale, Rareș Ilie made only ten appearances for Nice, while Cicâldău lost his place at Galatasaray and eventually returned to Craiova.
The neighbours have sold for more over the past year
Looking at the past year, Romania is clearly losing the race against the other leagues in the region. Four of them have completed at least one sale worth more than twice the fees currently being discussed in the Superliga:
Czech Republic: El Hadji Malick Diouf, Slavia Prague to West Ham – €22 million;
Croatia: Martin Baturina, Dinamo Zagreb to Como – €18 million, plus bonuses;
Serbia: Andrija Maksimović, Red Star Belgrade to Leipzig – €14.1 million;
Hungary: Alex Tóth, Ferencváros to Bournemouth – €12 million.
Slovakia also went beyond the level reached by Romania. Slovan Bratislava received €7.5 million from Middlesbrough for David Strelec.
Over the same period, the biggest departure from the Superliga was Louis Munteanu. D.C. United paid around €6 million for the CFR striker.
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