Ștefan Popescu

Youth career

Popescu was born on 5 May 1993 in Iași, Romania and began playing junior-level football at age 8 under coach Sorin Ștefan at the Noua Generație Iași club. He participated in a football tournament organized by Gillette, where he was noticed by Emerich Jenei who compared him to Roberto Carlos. Following his performance in the tournament, he earned a move to Gheorghe Popescu's football school. In 2009, Bruno Conti noticed him in a match he played against Dinamo București, bringing him to AS Roma. There, Popescu suffered a rough injury which necessitated surgery. In 2011, he moved to Cesena.

Cesena and Ajaccio

Popescu played his first match as a senior on 12 January 2012, when coach Daniele Arrigoni used him as a starter in a 2–1 away loss to Napoli in the 2010–11 Coppa Italia round of 32. He scored his side's goal in the 21st minute of the game, but suffered an injury eight minutes later and was substituted. Popescu moved to French side Ajaccio in September 2012 after impressing coach Alex Dupont in a trial, but was loaned shortly afterwards to Marseille's fifth-tier satellite club. Subsequently, he returned to Ajaccio and made his Ligue 1 debut on 25 August 2013, when coach Fabrizio Ravanelli sent him in the 82nd minute to replace Sigamary Diarra in a 0–0 draw against Nice. In January 2014, after only six months and six league matches played, he left Ajaccio after his contract was terminated by mutual agreement, along with teammate and fellow…

From 2010 to 2014, Popescu played several matches for Romania's under-17, under-19 and under-21 sides. During his time with the under-19 team, he and five other players received a one-year ban from representing their country at any level for acts of indiscipline.