Cristian Eugen Chivu (Romanian pronunciation: ; born 26 October 1980) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of Inter Milan's under-19 side.
A defender, he began his career with hometown club CSM Reșița before moving to FC Universitatea Craiova in 1998, leaving Romania to join Dutch club Ajax a season later. His performances as the captain of Ajax inspired an €18 million transfer to Roma in 2003. Chivu won the Coppa Italia in his last of four seasons in Rome before a transfer to Inter Milan, where he spent the rest of his career before retiring in 2014. After recovering from a fractured skull, Chivu wore a distinctive protective headgear, similar to Petr Čech's, from 2010 onwards. His honours at Inter included a treble of the Italian league, domestic cup, and the UEFA Champions League in 2010.
Chivu earned 75 international caps for Romania between 1999 and 2010, and was part of the squads for UEFA European Championships in 2000 and 2008. After retiring, he became a football pundit for Italian television stations Sky Sport and Fox Sports. He is also a technical observer for UEFA.
In 1999, Chivu was chosen to represent the Romania national under-21 team and quickly made the step up to play for the full side. In 2001, he won Cyprus International Football Tournament 2001. He represented his country at both UEFA Euro 2000 and Euro 2008. Despite being capped only four times prior to the Euro 2000, he started all four matches and scored his first international goal.
At Euro 2008, he earned plaudits for his performance, keeping previous FIFA World Cup champions Italy and runners-up France at bay, despite being played in a less familiar role as a holding midfielder. He captained Romania through World Cup qualification, but they failed to make the play-offs, finishing fifth in their group. On 21 May 2011, Chivu announced his retirement from the national team.
In August 2019, Chivu enrolled in the UEFA Pro Licence courses at Coverciano.
In July 2021 he was announced as new head coach of Inter Milan Primavera.
Chivu speaks Italian, Dutch, Spanish and English, as well as his native Romanian.
His father, Mircea was also a footballer and a coach, the Mircea Chivu Stadium from Reșița is named in his honor. He played as a right back for FCM Reșița and Universitatea Craiova winning the 1973–74 Divizia A with the team from Craiova. Mircea was coach at FCM Reșița when Cristian started his career. According to Calcio Italia magazine, Chivu has been involved in opening football schools around Romania for the past few years, and he said "I hope that he is proud when he looks down on me" in reference to his father who died in 1998.
He is married to Adelina Elisei who on 12 February 2009 gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Natalia.
1997-1998 |
1998-1999 |
1999-2003 |
1999-2010 |
2003-2007 |
2007-2014 |
| Ajax | Appearances | Dutch Eredivisie | 2000-2001 | 26 |
| Ajax | Goals | Dutch Eredivisie | 2000-2001 | 5 |