Daniel Boloca

Daniel Boloca (born 22 December 1998) is a professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Serie A club Sassuolo. Born in Italy, he has appeared for the Romania national team at senior level.

Club career
Born and raised in Italy to Romanian parents, Boloca started his career with the youth teams of Juventus, before leaving in 2017 to join Slovak club Tatran Prešov. He successively went on to move back to Italy, playing for a number of Serie D teams before being noted by Guido Angelozzi, sporting director of Spezia, who agreed on a three-year contract with him in May 2020; the move was however cancelled by Spezia following promotion to Serie A and a change in the club management that led to Angelozzi's departure; in November 2020, after a few months without a club, Boloca eventually signed for Serie B club Frosinone, just a few days after Angelozzi's appointment as the club's new sporting director.

At Frosinone, Boloca quickly became a regular and eventually was one of the protagonists of the first team that won the 2022–23 Serie B title under head coach Fabio Grosso.

On 13 July 2023, Boloca left Frosinone for fellow Serie A club Sassuolo.

International career
Boloca made his international debut for the Romania national team on 17 November 2022, replacing Răzvan Marin in the 84th minute in a friendly against Slovenia, ended in a 2–1 defeat for the Romanian team.

Later that year, Roberto Mancini, Italy's national team head coach, announced that he was considering calling Boloca, despite having already played for Romania, as all these games were friendlies. On 15 December 2022, Boloca was selected to join the Azzurri on a training camp; after that, Boloca publicly declared his preference to play for Italy over Romania in case Mancini would choose to pick him in the future.

Personal life
Boloca is the older brother of defender Gabriele Boloca.

Honours

 * Frosinone
 * Serie B: 2022–23