Deselnicu was born on 23 September 1946 in Mofleni, Romania and began playing football in 1963 at
Universitatea Craiova. Deselnicu was close to winning the title in the
1972–73 season, but "U" finished in second place on equal points with Dinamo, losing controversially on the goal difference. This outcome led poet
Adrian Păunescu to nickname Craiova as "Campioana unei mari iubiri" (The Champion of a great love). In the
same season, he was part of Craiova's team that won the league title, which was the club's first trophy, being used by coach
Constantin Cernăianu in 33 games in which he scored two goals. Then he played in both legs of the 4–3 aggregate loss to
Åtvidaberg in the first round of the
European Cup. The team reached the
1975 Cupa României final in which Cernăianu used him the entire match in the eventual 2–1 loss against
Rapid București. In 1976 he went to play for a short while at
Electroputere Craiova in
Divizia B. Deselnicu returned to Universitatea where on 11 September 1976, he made his last Divizia A appearance in a 1–1 draw against
Sportul Studențesc București, totaling 246 matches with 12 goals in the competition and nine matches in European competitions (including two in the
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup). Afterwards he joined Victoria Craiova for a while, before ending his career during the
1977–78 Divizia B season at
FCM Galați. ==International career==