S. Cirila

Ștefan Chirilă won the Golden Boot at the 2024 Generation adidas Cup with the FC Cincinnati U17 side, capping a season in which he scored 41 goals across youth competitions. He had arrived at the FC Cincinnati Academy only a year earlier, in 2023.

Born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, he started out with Lehigh Valley United and FC Delco before joining the Philadelphia Union Academy in 2019 as an under-12 player.

His senior debut came quickly. On 17 March 2024 he played for FC Cincinnati 2 in the opening match of the MLS Next Pro season against Chicago Fire FC II. Two months later, on 21 May 2024, FC Cincinnati signed him as a Homegrown Player on a contract running through the 2028 MLS season, with an option for 2029. The club acquired his Homegrown rights from Philadelphia Union without a transfer fee. He has scored 25 goals in 61 appearances for the second team. He joined the first-team roster in 2025 and made his MLS debut that year.

Eligible for both the United States and Romania, he first played for the US at under-18 level. He won two caps at the International Youth Football Tournament in Japan in September 2024. He then committed to Romania, for whom he has played seven times at under-18 level, in friendlies against Slovakia, Croatia, Turkey and Switzerland. At under-19 level he has three caps. One of them was a start in a UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifier against Iceland on 18 November 2025, which Romania won 3-0.