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 lea ...

who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. He was compared to

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

, 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 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 ...

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 Victor Pițurcă was born on 8 May 1956 in Orodel, Dolj County, Romania, starting to play football in 1964 at the youth center of U ...

introduced him in the 61st minute to replace

Laurențiu Roșu Laurențiu Dumitru Roșu (born 26 October 1975) is a Romanian football manager and former player. After four seasons at Steaua București, he spent nine years as a professional in Spain – eight in the two major divisions, where he amassed ...

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

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

Honours

Galatasaray * Turkish First League: 1997–98 Steaua București *

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 ...

: 1998–99 Suwon Samsung Bluewings *

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

: 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 i ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

Korean FA Cup The Korea Cup (), formerly the Korean FA Cup, is a national Association football, football cup knockout competition of South Korea, held annually by the Korea Football Association (KFA). Before the competition was established in 1996, two simil ...

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. After ...

: 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 Results Finals Titles by club K League's principle of official statistics is tha ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

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 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

Alro Slatina *

Liga III The Liga 3, most often spelled as Liga III, is the third level of the Romanian football league system. It was founded in 1936 and was called Divizia C until 2006. An exception was the seasons 1992–93 to 1996–97, in which the league was call ...

: 2009–10

References

External links

* * *
Detailed interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lutu, Ion 1975 births Living people Footballers from Slatina, Romania 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 FCSB 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