Ion Ionuț Luțu (born 3 August 1975) is a Romanian former 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 played 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 ...

. He was compared to

Gheorghe Hagi Gheorghe "Gică" Hagi (; born 5 February 1965) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player, who is currently the owner and manager of Liga I club Farul Constanța. Deployed as an attacking midfielder, Hagi was considered one of ...

, being nicknamed "the Little Hagi" or "Hagi-Luțu". He was known for his fine dribbling and technique, as well as spectacular finishing, but also for his inconsistency.

International career

Ionuț Luțu played his only game for

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 ...

on 3 March 1999 when coach

Victor Pițurcă Victor Pițurcă (; born 8 May 1956) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player. Club career Pițurcă was born in Orodel, Dolj County. He joined Universitatea Craiova as a youth in 1970, aged 14, and four years later he was ...

introduced him in the 61st minute to replace

Laurențiu Roșu Laurențiu Dumitru Roșu (born 26 October 1975) is a Romanian retired footballer who played as either a forward or winger, and is a manager. After four seasons at Steaua București, he spent nine years as a professional in Spain – eight i ...

in a friendly which ended with a 2–0 victory against

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

Honours

Galatasaray * Turkish First League: 1997–98 Steaua București * Cupa României: 1998–99 Suwon Samsung Bluewings * AFC Champions League: 2000–01, 2001–02 *

Asian Super Cup The Asian Super Cup was an annual football competition between the winners of the Asian Club Championship and the Asian Cup Winners' Cup. The competition started in 1995, but came to an end in 2002 after both major AFC tournaments were merged int ...

: 2002 *

Korean FA Cup The Korean FA Cup is a national football cup knockout competition of South Korea, held annually by the Korea Football Association (KFA). Before the FA Cup was established in 1996, two predecessor competitions named All Joseon Football Tournament ...

: 2002 *

Korean Super Cup The Korean Super Cup was the annual curtain-raiser to the South Korean football season from 1999 to 2006, and was contested between the champions of K League and Korean FA Cup. It was dropped from the South Korean football calendar in 2007. Afte ...

: 2000 *

Korean League Cup The Korean League Cup was a professional football competition in South Korean football. It was held by the K League Federation from 1986 to 2012. Sponsorship Champions List of finals Titles by club K League's principle of official statis ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

, 2001 Rapid București *

Romanian Supercup Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

: 2003 Alro Slatina *

Liga III The Liga 3, most often spelled as Liga III, is the third level of the Romanian football league system. Its name was changed from Divizia C to Liga III before the start of the 2006–07 season. It was the first in this format (six series of 18 t ...

: 2009–10

References

External links

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Detailed interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lutu, Ion 1975 births Living people Sportspeople from Slatina, Romania Footballers from Olt County Men's association football midfielders Romanian men's footballers Romanian expatriate men's footballers Romania men's international footballers Romania men's youth international footballers Romania men's under-21 international footballers FC Progresul București players FC U Craiova 1948 players Galatasaray S.K. footballers FC Steaua București players Suwon Samsung Bluewings players FC Rapid București players Apollon Limassol FC players FC Kairat players CSM Jiul Petroșani players CS Pandurii Târgu Jiu players Liga I players Liga II players Liga III players Süper Lig players K League 1 players Kazakhstan Premier League players Cypriot First Division players Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in South Korea Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Expatriate men's footballers in Kazakhstan Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Kazakhstan Romanian expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus