Rapid land veteran Stelea

UD Salamanca's Romanian goalkeeper Bogdan Stelea has finally agreed a loan move back to FC Rapid Bucuresti in his homeland.

Former player
The 34-year-old, who played 13 games for Rapid in the second half of the 1993/94 season, helping them achieve qualification for the UEFA Cup, was on the verge of signing a one-and-a-half year contract with the club earlier this month but the deal collapsed because Stelea did not want to break his contract with Salamanca.

Stumbling block overcome
The keeper claims he is owed as much as €800,000 by the Spanish club and would have had to waive much of the sum had he broken his contract, which runs until 2003. Stelea said: "A move would have meant that I lost a lot of money. Not even Rivaldo would have done this." The clubs have overcome this stumbling block, however, with Stelea receiving €85,000 from Rapid for a six-month stint at the club before he returns to Spain in the summer to honour the remainder of his contract.

World Cup hopes
Stelea is a veteran of three FIFA World Cups - 1990, 1994 and 1998 - and the 1996 and 2000 UEFA European Championships. Capped 80 times, he has made more national team appearances than any other Romanian goalkeeper and is desperate to add to that tally in Korea/Japan, something he hopes his move to Rapid will help him achieve.