While he was in a cantonment before a game from the 1990–91 European Cup against Porto, Stelea was nicknamed Arnold by Corneliu Vadim Tudor who visited them because his haircut looked similar to the one of Arnold Schwarzenegger from the movie Red Heat. In 1991–92 he was used by coach Florin Halagian in 11 Liga I games as the capital side won the national championship and eliminated with a 2–1 victory on aggregate Luis Figo's Sporting Lisabona in the UEFA Cup, but was transferred late in 1991 to Mallorca for €300.000. After two seasons in Spain, with relegation in his first, he joined Belgium's Standard Liège where he was teammate with fellow Romanian, Mircea Rednic but because he did not play much and risked not being selected to be part of Romania's 1994 World Cup squad, he quickly returned home to play for a half of year at Rapid București.
While Stelea was in a cantonment before a game from the 1990–91 European Cup against Porto, Corneliu Vadim Tudor nicknamed him Arnold because his haircut resembled Arnold Schwarzenegger's. In 1991–92, he played 11 Liga I games under coach Florin Halagian as the capital side won the national championship and eliminated Sporting Lisabona with a 2–1 aggregate score in the UEFA Cup, but was transferred to Mallorca for €300,000. After two seasons in Spain, where he faced relegation, Stelea joined Standard Liège in Belgium alongside Mircea Rednic. Due to limited playing time and risk of not being selected for the 1994 World Cup squad, he returned home to play for a half year at Rapid București.