Artur Ioniță (; born 17 August 1990) is a Moldovan professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for Italian club

Lecco Lecco (, , ; lmo, label= Lecchese, Lècch ) is a city of 48,131 inhabitants in Lombardy, northern Italy, north of Milan. It lies at the end of the south-eastern branch of Lake Como (the branch is named ''Branch of Lecco'' / ''Ramo di Lecco''). ...

, on loan from Pisa, and the Moldova national team.

Club career

Artur Ioniță made his professional debut at the Moldovan Divizia Națională club Zimbru Chișinău in 2007. In the 2008–09 season he played for

FC Iskra-Stal Rîbniţa FC Iskra-Stal Rîbnița is a Moldovan football club based in Rîbnița, Moldova (Transnistria). History FC Iskra-Stal (Rybnitsa) was founded in 2005 by merging an amateur team ''Stal'' that was owned by the metallurgical plant in Rîbnița, wi ...

. From 2009 to 2014 he played for the Swiss team

FC Aarau FC Aarau is a Swiss football club based in Aarau. They play in the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of Swiss football after being relegated from Swiss Super League. History FC Aarau was formed on 26 May 1902 by workers from a local br ...

, with which he transferred from the Swiss Challenge League to the Swiss Super League. Ioniță was then transferred to Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

club

Hellas Verona Hellas Verona Football Club, commonly referred to as Hellas Verona or simply Verona, is a professional Italian football club based in Verona, Italy, that currently plays in Serie A. The team won the Serie A Championship in 1984–85. His ...

in July 2014 on a free transfer. He made his début against

Atalanta Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology ...

, as a substitute for Mounir Obbadi. At Hellas Verona, Ioniță became teammates with one of his idols

Rafael Márquez Rafael Márquez Álvarez (; born 13 February 1979) is a Mexican former professional footballer and current head coach of Spanish team Barcelona Atlètic. Nicknamed '' El Káiser'', he is regarded as the best defender in Mexico's history and o ...

. Ioniță scored his first goal for Hellas during his second appearance for the club, as a substitute in the second half of the match and securing a goal against

Torino F.C. Torino Football Club (), commonly referred to as Torino or simply Toro, is an Italian professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont. They currently play in Serie A. Founded as ''Foot-Ball Club Torino'' in 1906, Torino are among the mos ...

on the 65th minute giving his team a 1–0 win. This made him the first Moldovan footballer to score a goal in Serie A. He scored his second goal for Hellas Verona in a game against

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

, playing the full 90 minutes of the game; also providing an assist for

Panagiotis Tachtsidis Panagiotis Tachtsidis ( el, Παναγιώτης Ταχτσίδης; born 15 February 1991) is a Greek professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Emirati club Khor Fakkan. Club career AEK Athens Tachtsidis was scouted by Toni Savevsk ...

on the 52nd minute. After an impressive 2015–16 season in Serie A in which he scored 4 goals and provided 2 assists in 31 matches, Ioniță was targeted by Juventus,

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

and Swansea. In July 2016, Ioniță transferred to newly promoted Serie A club, Cagliari. On 20 August 2020, Ioniță signed a contract with Benevento ahead of their return to Serie A. On 11 August 2022, Ioniță moved to Pisa on a two-year contract. On 31 January 2023, he was loaned to Modena. On 1 September 2023, Ioniță joined

on loan with an option to buy.

International career

Ioniță made his debut appearance for Moldova in 2009, in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Switzerland. Moldova lost the match 0–2. He scored his first international goal during a 5–2 win in

Podgorica Podgorica (Cyrillic: Подгорица, ; lit. 'under the hill') is the capital and largest city of Montenegro. The city was formerly known as Titograd (Cyrillic: Титоград, ) between 1946 and 1992—in the period that Montenegro form ...

against

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

and then scored again in a 1–1 draw at home to Lithuania.

Career statistics

International goals

:''Scores and results list Moldova's goal tally first.''

Honours

Aarau * Swiss Challenge League:

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

Individual *

Moldovan Footballer of the Year Moldovan Footballer of the Year is an annual award to Moldovan footballer, organized by Football Association of Moldova. Players of the year Full rankings By titles Teams By position Coach of the year Other awards ;2001 *Best Goalke ...

: 2014, 2019

References

External links

Artur Ioniţă player info at Sport1.de

Swiss Super League profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ionita, Artur 1990 births Living people Footballers from Chișinău Moldovan men's footballers Men's association football midfielders FC Zimbru Chișinău players FC Aarau players FC Iskra-Stal players Hellas Verona FC players Cagliari Calcio players Benevento Calcio players Pisa SC players Modena FC 2018 players Calcio Lecco 1912 players Swiss Super League players Serie A players Serie B players Moldova men's international footballers Moldovan expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Moldovan expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Moldovan expatriate sportspeople in Italy