Iosif Varga (6 April 1941 – 22 May 1992) was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

n footballer who played as a forward and also was a

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

Club career

Iosif Varga, nicknamed ''Piți'' was born on 4 December 1941 in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

. At the age of 10 he went to play football at the junior squads of

Dinamo București A dynamo is a magnetic device originally used as an electric generator. Dynamo or Dinamo may also refer to: Places * Dinamo (Moscow Metro), a station of the Moscow Metro, Moscow, Russia * Dinamo (Yekaterinburg Metro), a station of the Yekaterin ...

, where on 24 August 1958 he became the youngest player that scored in his Divizia A debut match, when at 16 years, 8 months and 20 days he scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

against Steagul Roșu Brașov in a 6–0 victory. In 1961, coach

Traian Ionescu Traian Ionescu (17 July 1923 – 4 October 2006) was a Romanian football goalkeeper and coach. Club career Traian Ionescu was born on 17 July 1923 in Văleni, Argeș County, Romania and started to play junior level football at age 13 at TC Tâ ...

used him as the team's game coordinator, helping the team win the

1961–62 Divizia A The 1961–62 Divizia A was the forty-fourth season of Divizia A, the top-level football league of Romania. Teams League table Results Top goalscorers Champion squad See also * 1961–62 Divizia B References {{DEFAULTSORT:1 ...

by scoring 4 goals in 15 appearances. In the next three seasons, Varga helped '' The Red Dogs'' win another three titles, at the first he contributed with 4 goals scored in 22 matches, in the second he played 8 games and in the third he appeared in two games, also during this time he helped the club win twice the Cupa României and made three appearances in the European Cup. In 1965, Varga went to play for Dinamo Pitești for a half year in which he played three Divizia A games, returning to

, where he would spend another four seasons, winning a cup, making his last Divizia A appearance on 10 November 1968 in a 3–0 victory against

Universitatea Cluj Fotbal Club Universitatea Cluj (), commonly known as Universitatea Cluj or simply as U Cluj, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I, the first ...

, a competition in which he has a total of 120 appearances and 29 goals scored. He ended his career by playing one season in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

's second tier,

Regionalliga West The Regionalliga West is a German semi-professional football division administered by the Western German Football Association based in Duisburg. It is one of the five German regional football associations. Being the single flight of the Western ...

Wuppertaler SV Wuppertaler SV is a German association football club located in Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia. The city was founded in 1929 out of the union of a number of smaller towns including Elberfeld, Barmen, Vohwinkel, Cronenberg and Ronsdorf – e ...

, scoring 8 goals in 18 appearances. After he retired from playing football he worked at Dinamo's youth center where he taught and formed generations of players, which include Florin Răducioiu, Ioan Lupescu,

Bogdan Stelea Bogdan Gheorghe Stelea (; born 5 December 1967) is a Romanian retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper, and a current coach. Having played professionally into his 40s, he played for all three major Liga I clubs in his country's capital, an ...

Florin Prunea Florin Prunea (born 8 August 1968) is a Romanian former football goalkeeper. He was born in Bucharest and started his career for Dinamo București. His breakthrough came with U Cluj in the 1988/89 season. In 1991, he won with Universitatea Craio ...

and Florin Tene. Iosif Varga died on 22 May 1992 in his native

at age 50.

International career

Iosif Varga played two friendly matches at international level for

, making his debut under coach Silviu Ploeșteanu in a 3–2 victory against

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. His second game was a 1–1 against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

and he also played one match for Romania's Olympic team at the 1964 Summer Olympics qualifiers.

Honours

Dinamo București * Divizia A: 1961–62, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1964–65 * Cupa României: 1958–59, 1963–64, 1967–68

References

External links

Iosif Varga
at Labtof.ro {{DEFAULTSORT:Varga, Iosif 1941 births 1992 deaths Romanian footballers Romania international footballers Association football forwards Liga I players FC Dinamo București players FC Argeș Pitești players Wuppertaler SV players Romanian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in West Germany Romanian expatriate sportspeople in West Germany Romanian football managers FC Dinamo București managers Footballers from Bucharest