In 2009, Trică came back to his first club, Universitatea Craiova, but after a year, in 2010, he joined Concordia Chiajna, a team from the second Romanian division which he helped promote to Liga I for the first time in history and after a few games in the first division for Concordia, in October 2011, Trică decided to end his playing career. Throught his career, Eugen Trică earned a total of 289 matches with 51 goals scored in Liga I and 30 appearances with 7 goals in European competitions.
He played 91 Liga I games for "U" Craiova in which he scored 14 goals, managing to reach the 1998 Cupa României final in 1998 which was lost in front of Rapid București, also during this period he earned the nickname José after teammate Ionel Gane compared him to José Mari Bakero. He then joined Steaua București in 1998, winning in his first season the 1998–99 Cupa României, being introduced by coach Emerich Jenei to replace Cristian Ciocoiu in the overtime of the final against Rapid București which was won at the penalty shoot-out where he scored a goal.