 On 15 May, in the last round of the Second Bundesliga, the Romanian striker saved his club from relegation, scoring a brace in the 3–2 win against Union Berlin.The next season Karlsruhe were relegated after a play-off and Cristea became a free agent.Initially, Cristea wanted to stay in Germany, where he had offers from Ingolstadt and Energie Cottbus, but Dinamo approached him and he accepted to return to Bucharest where he had the chance to again work under Dario Bonetti.