Bucurel Adrian “The Cobra” Ilie (born 20 April 1974) is a Romanian former professional footballer who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. He represented the Romania national team in one World Cup and two

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

Club career

Ilie began his career with his local club

Electroputere Craiova Electroputere S.A. (which translates as ''Electropower'' in English) is a Romanian company based in Craiova. Founded in 1949, it is one of the largest industrial companies in Romania. Electroputere has produced more than 2,400 diesel locomotives, ...

before transferring to Romania's biggest club Steaua Bucuresti in 1993. During his three years with Steaua, Ilie helped the club to three consecutive Romanian league

titles A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...

and the

1995–96 Cupa României The 1995–96 Cupa României was the 58th edition of Romania's most prestigious football cup competition. The title was won by Steaua București against Gloria Bistrița. Format The competition is an annual knockout tournament. First round pr ...

. In 1996, Ilie was purchased by Turkish side Galatasaray for an amount of €2.35 million, where he won the Turkish championship in 1996–97. After an impressive season, he moved from Galatasaray to Valencia CF for a reported US$ 7 million, where he replaced in the squad the Brazilian star

Romário Romário de Souza Faria Figueiredo (born 29 January 1966), known simply as Romário (), is a Brazilian politician and a former professional footballer. A prolific striker renowned for his clinical finishing, he scored over 750 goals and was ...

and took over his no. 11 jersey. At Valencia he impressed from his debut, scoring twelve goals in 17 matches, and thus getting the nickname of "Cobra" from coach Claudio Ranieri, because he was as "lethal as a cobra". At the '' Mestalla'', Ilie made a remarkable attacking duo together with teammate Claudio López, helping ''Los Che'' to win the

1998–99 Copa del Rey The 1998–99 Copa del Rey was the 97th staging of the Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) ...

. In 2000, under Héctor Cúper's command, Valencia reached the final of the UEFA Champions League, where Ilie appeared as a substitute for Gerardo in a 3–0 loss to Real Madrid CF. Two years later, Ilie was a member of Rafael Benítez's

2001–02 La Liga The 2001–02 La Liga season, the 71st since its establishment, started on 25 August 2001 and finished on 11 May 2002. As of 2022, this is the last season that neither Barcelona or Real Madrid placed among the top two in the league table. Team ...

winning squad, scoring only two goals in 10 matches because of injuries. In 2002, Ilie left Valencia to join Deportivo Alavés but the club was relegated to the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

in his only season. He then returned to Turkey to play for

Beşiktaş J.K. Beşiktaş Jimnastik Kulübü (), also known simply as Beşiktaş (), is a Turkish sports club founded in 1903 that is based in the Beşiktaş district of Istanbul. The club's football team is one of the Big Three in Turkey and one of the most ...

before transferring to Switzerland's

FC Zürich Fussballclub Zürich, commonly abbreviated to FC Zürich or simply FCZ, is a Swiss football club based in Zürich. The club was founded in 1896 and has won the Swiss Super League 13 times and the Swiss Cup 10 times. The most recent titles a ...

a year later. In 2005, he signed with Belgian side Beerschot AC but never played with the club due to a severe ankle injury, resulting in his retirement from football at the age of only 31. However, in 2009, he decided to come back into professional football after some discussions with Russian club FC Terek Grozny but he had to quit after failing his medical tests.

International career

At the international level, Ilie won 55 caps for Romania, scoring 13 goals. He played at the

1996 European Football Championship The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

and

2000 European Football Championship The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a association football, football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The ...

. At 1998 FIFA World Cup, he scored against Colombia one of the most spectacular goals of the tournament. In the period between 1997–2000, alongside teammate Gheorghe Hagi, he was Romania's national team leader, scoring important goals and impressing with his skills. In 1998, he won the title of Romania's footballer of the year.

Personal life

He is the older brother of fellow footballer Sabin Ilie.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Steaua Bucharest * Romanian League: 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96 * Romanian Cup: 1995–96 * Romanian Supercup:

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

Galatasaray * Turkish League: 1996–97, 1997–98 * Turkish Supercup: 1997 Valencia * La Liga: 2001–02 *

Spanish Cup The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footbal ...

: 1998–99 *

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España or the ''Spanish Super Cup'' is a super cup tournament in Spanish football. Founded in 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2019–20 by four teams: the winners and runners-up of ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...

: 1998 * UEFA Champions League Runner-up: 1999–2000, 2000–01 Zürich *

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1925–26 by the Swiss Football Association. Since 1999 the winner earns the chance to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference L ...

: 2004–05 Individual * Romanian Footballer of the Year: 1998

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ilie, Adrian 1974 births Living people Sportspeople from Craiova Romanian footballers FC Steaua București players Galatasaray S.K. footballers Valencia CF players Deportivo Alavés players Beşiktaş J.K. footballers Romania international footballers UEFA Euro 1996 players UEFA Euro 2000 players 1998 FIFA World Cup players Association football forwards Association football wingers FC Zürich players Liga I players Swiss Super League players Süper Lig players La Liga players Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Romanian expatriate footballers Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland