10:19am UK, Tuesday February 28, 2006

A Romanian second division football club has sold a player for a lump of meat, according to a local newspaper.

UT Arad sold defender Marius Cioara to fourth division side Regal Horia for 15kg of meat.

romania footballer for meat transfer

Worth a player or two?

The type of meat is unclear.

But the deal quickly went off for Regal - the defender decided to end his footballing career.

He is instead heading out to Spain to find a job in agriculture or construction.

A Regal official was quoted as saying: "We are upset because we lost twice - firstly because we lost a good player and secondly because we lost our team's food for a whole week."

It is not the first time Romanian football clubs havebeefed up their squads with payment in kind.

In 1998, Jiul Petrosani is reported to have swapped midfielder Ioan Radu to Vilcea for two tons of meat.

The club decided not to feed everyone but instead sell the beef and pork to pay for all the players' salaries.