In the first half of the 2010–11 season Stancu scored 16 times in 27 games after which Galatasaray paid €5m to secure his services.

Stancu was discovered at a trial by coach Mihai Ianovschi in 1998, who took him to the junior team of Argeș Pitești.

[4] In 2001, at the age of 14, Stancu was at the youth academy of FC Argeș when his father died due to heart failure.

After a season where he scored 3 goals in 12 matches, he returned to FC Argeș and made his debut in Divizia A at the age of 19 against former champions Steaua București, game which ended as a goalless draw.

[6] In the summer of 2006, Sorin Cârțu resigned from the club and former Italian star Giuseppe Giannini was appointed as the new manager of Argeș Pitești.

Stancu was sent once again to Dacia Mioveni during the pre-season but after a few days, Gigi Nețoiu brought him to Unirea Urziceni.

[8] On 30 June 2008, Stancu played his first match in Steaua's shirt in a friendly against Maribor, scoring the first goal.

On 6 August 2009, he scored two more goals against the same Motherwell and help his team qualify in the Europa League playoffs.

After his great performances in Europa League he was rewarded by Răzvan Lucescu with a call-up in the Romania national team against Hungary.

[15] Fatih Terim decided to start the 2011–12 season with the newly arrived striker Johan Elmander and Milan Baroš.

[20] On 11 March Stancu scored a goal in a game against Beşiktaş to eventually earn a draw for Orduspor.

[24] On 25 July 2013, after Orduspor was relegated from the Süper Lig Stancu moved to Gençlerbirliği for an undisclosed fee.

[3] He made an immediate impact at Gençlerbirliği, scoring 7 league goals in his first half season,[25] the last of which was against his former club Galatasaray.

[29] On 3 September 2010, he made his debut for the Romania national team in a game against Albania coming on in the 64th minute to replace Daniel Niculae.

[33] On 21 February 2018, Stancu officially announced his retirement from the national team at 30 years of age after the unsuccessful qualifying campaign.