Chivu happy to be a Roman
The 23-year-old signed for the Rome club earlier this week from Dutch side Ajax, after speculation that he might be heading to Serie A rivals Internazionale.
The deal, though, is yet to be ratified as Fifa have slapped a ban on Roma completing international transfers due to a financial wrangle with Peruvian club Sporting Cristal.
However, the defender feels that he has joined the right club and was impressed with the speed and efficiency of his transfer.
He said: "At the beginning I was sure that I would end up at Barcelona or at Inter. They said so many nice words, but produced zero facts.
"Roma surprised me. In a few hours they did everything. They are one of the most important teams in Serie A and it was my priority to play in the strongest league in the world."
Roma finished in 8th place last season in Serie A but, after speaking to Roma boss Fabio Capello, the Romanian international is convinced that good times are just around the corner for his new club.
"They assure me that Roma will be a big team next season," he added.
"(Capello) told me that together with (Walter) Samuel, I will build the strongest couple of central defenders in Serie A. He even told me that I will play like a central defender."
Chivu's agent Giovanni Becali was equally impressed with the way Roma conducted the transfer and he explained why his client had chosen the Romans above other interested parties.
He said: "Simply because they had more style. They were the only one who accepted what we asked.
"We had a lot of things to ask. We put our minimum and maximum and Roma decided to give us the maximum.
"Then they didn't say to all the newspapers 'we want Chivu, we like Chivu'. They sent a few faxes to Ajax and just like that we solved everything."
Becali also paid tribute to Chivu's former club Ajax, who were equally impressive during negotiations.
"The cost at the beginning was ‚é¼20.7 million but in the end Roma paid ‚é¼18 million. Ajax are not a team who make a fuss about ‚é¼2 million, especially when they know that the player intends to move," he added.
"Anyway, Ajax have to be happy because they have never sold a player for ‚é¼18 million."
