Viorel Ion (born 2 November 1967) is a Romanian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager. Throughout his playing career, Viorel Ion played for several teams, including Oțelul Galați, Steaua București,

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as simply VfL Bochum (), is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has spent 35 seas ...

and

Rapid București Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a '' cascade' ...

. He was

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

of Gloria Buzău, which he helped promote to

Liga I The Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1, is a Romanian professional league for men's association football clubs. Currently sponsored by betting company Superbet, it is officially known as the SuperLiga. It is the country's top ...

during the 2006–07 season.

Career

Ion was born in

Buzău The city of Buzău (formerly spelled ''Buzeu'' or ''Buzĕu''; ) is the county seat of Buzău County, Romania, in the historical region of Muntenia. It lies near the right bank of the Buzău River, between the south-eastern curvature of the Car ...

. His Romanian first league debut took place in 1984, at the age of 17, playing for Gloria Buzău. In 1991, he left his club, at the time relegated to

Liga II The Liga 2, most often spelled as Liga II, is the second level of the Romanian football league system. The league changed its name from Divizia B just before the start of the 2006–07 Liga II, 2006–07. It is currently Sponsor (commercial), sp ...

, for Oțelul Galați. Nicknamed ''Vioară'' (''Violin''), he subsequently transferred to Steaua București, winning three Romanian Champion titles with that team. From Steaua, he went on to play in the German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

for

. Upon his return to Romania, he played for

and Oțelul Galați again. Ion made four appearances for the

Romania national football team The Romania national football team ( ro, Echipa națională de fotbal a României) represents Romania in international men's football competition and is administered by the Romanian Football Federation ( ro, Federația Română de Fotbal), al ...

Player-manager of Gloria Buzău

In 2001, he returned to Buzău, to find his old team, Gloria, relegated to the Romanian third division. He took over as

and promoted the team back to

in his first year. Later on, he attempted to lead Gloria to

in 2005, when the team lost the promotion

play-off The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

to Politehnica Timișoara. Viorel Ion succeeded to promote Gloria Buzău to Liga I during the 2006–07 season, after finishing second. After losing the first two games of the 2007–08 season, Ion resigned his position as player-manager in favor of his colleague

Ilie Stan Ilie Stan (born 17 October 1967) is a Romanian former football midfielder and current manager of Omani club Al-Seeb. After retirement as a player, he became a manager and was at the helm of UTA Arad, Gloria Buzău, Victoria Brăneşti, Steau ...

, and took on other management position with Gloria Buzău.

Honours

Club

Steaua Bucharest *

Romanian League The Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1, is a Romanian professional league for men's association football clubs. Currently sponsored by betting company Superbet, it is officially known as the SuperLiga. It is the country's top ...

(3): 1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95

Notes

The 1987–1988, 1989–1991 appearances and goals made for Gloria Buzău are unavailable.
The 1988–1989 appearances made for Gloria Buzău are unavailable.
The 2001–2002 appearances and goals made for Gloria Buzău are unavailable.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ion, Viorel 1967 births Living people People from Buzău Association football forwards Romanian footballers Romania international footballers Liga I players Bundesliga players Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany Romanian expatriate footballers FC Gloria Buzău players ASC Oțelul Galați players FC Steaua București players VfL Bochum players FC Rapid București players Romanian football managers FC Gloria Buzău managers AFC Dacia Unirea Brăila managers CS Otopeni managers