Ciprian Marica was disqualified from driving on Sunday and the former Romania striker gave the first reaction after ignoring a red light.

Ciprian Marica after three ex-footballers got into trouble with the law: ‘They found themselves making an example of us’

Marika says that the police are “hunting” for famous people and believes that there are more important things to deal with, given that “the country is full of drugs and nobody is doing anything”.

The former football player’s license was suspended for 30 days, and he was also fined 1,450 lei.

“I didn’t want to argue with the Romanian police because of differences, namely that the card is also accepted for orange. I was with my children, we came to church. Indeed, it was orange when I passed, but you are not allowed.

If you pawned an orange, you need to be careful. Please, I did not enter into a polemic with you. They also gave me a breathalyzer test, they also gave me everything to see if they could brag more than that. Yes, I have been without rights for 30 days. I wonder if this should be contested. I will make a decision in the coming days.

They found themselves as an example for us. I think this story is exaggerated. I was already connected with Denutz Lupu, who, I don’t know what he did. Madness that only happens here. Bragging about such things that you stop and fine people you know seems childish to me, when there are a lot of drugs in the country and no one does anything.

We don’t brag about the catch, we don’t brag about the important things. The Romanian police issued a press release because they revoked my license for running a red light. Seems a little too much to me. Other things are more important” – Cyprian Marikaon PlaySport.

On Friday, Marius Lakatus (former Steaua football player) was left without a driver’s license for failing to give way to pedestrians.

At the beginning of October, Denutz Lupa was finally sentenced to 7 months in prison with execution after he was caught several times driving without a license. The former football player surrendered on Sunday.

Who is Ciprian Marica?

Born on 2 October 1985, Marika started his career at Dynamo Bucharest, where he played professionally between 2001 and 2004, before moving to Shakhtar Donetsk (2004–2007), from where he moved to Bundesliga at VfB. Stuttgart, where he played in 2007-2011. He also played for Schalke 04 (2011-2013), Getafe (2013-2014), Konyaspor (2014-2015) and Steaua (2016).

The striker scored 68 goals in 323 matches and won two titles with Dynamo (2001-2002, 2003-2004), three championships with Shakhtar (2005, 2006, 2007-2008), two Romanian Cups throughout his career ( 2002, 2003), the Ukrainian Cup (2004), the Ukrainian Super Cup (2006) and the Romanian League Cup (2016).

Ciprian Marica has 72 appearances and 25 goals for the Romanian national team, for which he made his debut in 2003. He last played for the national team in the first leg of the European Championship qualifiers in 2016, when he was captain and scored the winning goal in a 1-0 victory on Greek soil.