Ion Gheorghe Ionescu (born 5 April 1938) is a Romanian former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

striker.

Club career

Rapid București

Ion Gheorghe Ionescu, nicknamed "Puiu" was born on 5 April 1938 in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, Romania, growing up in the

Cotroceni Cotroceni is a neighbourhood in western Bucharest, Romania, located around the Cotroceni hill, in Bucharest's Sector 5. The nearest Metro stations are Eroilor, Academia Militară, and Politehnica. History The Hill of Cotroceni was once cove ...

neighborhood. He made his

Divizia A Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

debut, playing for

Rapid București Rapid(s) or RAPID may refer to: Hydrological features * Rapids, sections of a river with turbulent water flow * Rapid Creek (Iowa River tributary), Iowa, United States * Rapid Creek (South Dakota), United States, namesake of Rapid City Sport ...

under coach Ion Mihăilescu on 30 October 1960 in a 2–0 loss in front of Minerul Lupeni. He spent eight seasons at Rapid, making a successful couple in the team's offence with Emil Dumitriu, winning two times the top-goalscorer of Divizia A title in the 1962–63 season with 20 goals and in 1965–66 with 24 goals. In the 1966–67 season, under the guidance of coach Valentin Stănescu he helped Rapid win the first league title in the club's history, being the team's top-goalscorer with 15 goals scored in 22 matches. In the following season he appeared in four matches in the

1967–68 European Cup The 1967–68 European Cup was the 13th European Cup, UEFA's premier club football tournament. The competition was won by Manchester United, who beat Benfica 4–1 in the final at Wembley Stadium, London. The European Cup title marked the tent ...

campaign, scoring one goal against Trakia Plovdiv which helped Rapid advance to the following round where they were eliminated by

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

. Ionescu reached three

Cupa României The Cupa României () is a Association football, football cup competition for List of football clubs in Romania, Romanian teams which has been held annually since 1933–34 Cupa României, 1933–34, except during World War II. It is the Romania ...

finals, playing in the last two, the first two from

1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...

and

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

under the guidance of coach Ion Mihăilescu were lost in front of Arieșul Turda respectively Steaua București while at the one from

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

he was coached by Stănescu in the loss with Dinamo București. For the way he played in 1967, Ionescu was placed fourth in the ranking for the Romanian Footballer of the Year award.

Alemannia Aachen

In October 1967 Rapid played a friendly game against

Alemannia Aachen Aachener Turn- und Sportverein Alemannia 1900 e. V., short Alemannia Aachen (), is a German football club from the western city of Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia. A long-term fixture of the country's second division, Alemannia enjoyed a three- ...

in which Ionescu scored two goals and in December Romania's national team played a friendly against Aachen in which Ionescu scored three goals. These five goals impressed the leaders of the German club who wanted to transfer Ionescu to their team. During Romania's communist era, transfers of Romanian footballers outside the country were rarely allowed, Ionescu had to convince the

Romanian Football Federation The Romanian Football Federation (; FRF) is the governing body of football in Romania. They are headquartered in the capital city of Bucharest and affiliated with FIFA and UEFA since 1923 and 1955 respectively. The Federation organizes the men's ...

to allow the transfer and he managed to do so after having a meeting with communist politician Gheorghe Apostol who talked to

Leonte Răutu Leonte Răutu (until 1945 Lev Nikolayevich (Nicolaievici) Oigenstein; February 28, 1910 – September 1993) was a Bessarabian-born Romanian communist activist and propagandist, who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Romania, deputy prime minister ...

and helped Ionescu receive approval for his transfer in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, thus becoming the first Romanian footballer who obtained in the communist regime the right to play abroad. Aachen paid $100,000 and a bus for his transfer. Ionescu made his

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

debut on 17 August 1968 under coach Michael Pfeiffer in a 4–1 away victory against

Nürnberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the largest city in Franconia, the second-largest city in the German state of Bavaria, and its 544,414 (2023) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest city in Germany. ...

. In the following round he scored a double in a 4–2 home win over

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a German professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The club currently plays in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German footb ...

. He netted a total of seven goals in 24 league matches by the end of his first season spent at the club, including another brace in 4–0 against

TSV 1860 Munich , commonly known as TSV 1860 München (; ''sechzig'' locally ; lettered as ) or 1860 Munich, is a sports club based in Munich. The club's association football, football team plays in the 3. Liga, the third tier of German football league system ...

, making a successful couple in the team's offence with Roger Claessen, helping Aachen finish second in the championship.

Late career

After two years spent in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

at Alemannia Aachen, Ionescu came back in Romania to play for Crișul Oradea where he made his last Divizia A appearance on 28 June 1970 in a 0–0 with Dinamo Bacău, having a total of 184 matches in which he scored 107 goals in the competition. He ended his career by playing two seasons in Belgium at Cercle Brugge, a club he helped promote from the second to the first league.

International career

Ionescu played 15 games at international level for

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

, making his debut on 23 December 1962 when coach Silviu Ploeșteanu sent him on the field at half-time to replace Cicerone Manolache in a friendly which ended with a 3–1 loss against

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. His following three games were at the 1966 World Cup qualifiers. In a friendly against

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

which ended with a 2–1 victory, Ionescu scored his first two goals for the national team. His following three games were at the Euro 1968 qualifiers in which he scored two goals in a 7–0 victory against

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

. Ionescu's last game for the national team was a 2–2 against

at the 1970 World Cup qualifiers. Ionescu also played nine games for Romania's Olympic team, being chosen by coach Ploeșteanu to be part of the

1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honor was subseq ...

squad from

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

where he played four games and scored one goal in a 3–1 victory against

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

helping the team finish on the fifth place.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Ionescu goal''.

Managerial career

Ionescu started his managerial career in 1978 at

Divizia B The Liga 2, most commonly 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 football season. It is currently sponsored by Casa Pariu ...

club, Gloria Buzău which he helped promote by the end of the season to

where he coached it the full 1978–79 season. He had another experience at

, afterwards retiring from his coaching activity and working as a

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

and for a short while as a

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

Honours

Player

Rapid București *

: 1966–67 *

runner-up: 1960–61, 1961–62, 1967–68 Alemannia Aachen *

runner-up: 1968–69 Cercle Brugge *

Belgian Second Division The Belgian Second Division was the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was founded by the Royal Belgian Football Association in 1909 and folded in 2016, when it was replace ...

: 1970–71

Manager

Gloria Buzău *

: 1977–78

Individual

*Total matches played in

: 184 matches – 107 goals *Top-goalscorer of

: 1962–63, 1965–66 * Romanian Footballer of the Year (''fourth place''): 1967

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ionescu, Ion 1938 births Living people Footballers at the 1964 Summer Olympics Romanian men's footballers Romania men's international footballers Romanian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in West Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Romanian expatriate sportspeople in West Germany Liga I players Bundesliga players Belgian Pro League players Challenger Pro League players Olympic footballers for Romania FC Rapid București players Alemannia Aachen players FC Bihor Oradea (1958) players Cercle Brugge K.S.V. players Romanian football managers FC Rapid București managers FC Gloria Buzău managers Men's association football forwards Footballers from Bucharest FC Rapid București non-playing staff 20th-century Romanian sportsmen