Ionuț Popa (17 April 1953 – 25 June 2020) was a Romanian 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 ...

and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

. Popa managed teams such as

UTA Arad Asociația Fotbal Club UTA Arad (), commonly known as UTA Arad or simply UTA (''Uzina Textilă Arad''; ), is a Romanian professional football club based in the city of Arad, Arad County that competes in the Liga I. The team was founded in 1945 ...

, Bihor Oradea, Politehnica Iași and

ACS Poli Timișoara Asociația Club Sportiv Poli Timișoara (), commonly known as ACS Poli Timișoara, Poli Timișoara or simply ACS Poli, was a Romanian professional football club based in the city of Timișoara, Timiș County. The team was founded in 2012, the ye ...

, among others.

Managerial career

Popa was the coach of

Liga I 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 ...

team Politehnica Iași from 2004, when they were promoted to the

top league Japan Rugby League One (), formerly known as the Top League (), is a rugby union competition in Japan. It is the highest level of professional rugby competition in the country. The Japan Rugby Football Union created the competition in 2003, by ...

, until January 2009, becoming one of the longest serving coaches in Liga I. He quit his job due to a lack of funds. He was soon replaced by

Cristiano Bergodi Cristiano Bergodi (born 14 October 1964) is an Italian professional football manager and former player. Club career Born in Bracciano, Lazio, Bergodi started to play at Pescara Calcio in the country's first division (Serie A) in 1987, for Pesca ...

Honours

UTA Arad *

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 ...

: 2001–02 Politehnica Iași *

: 2011–12

References

External links

* 1953 births 2020 deaths Romanian men's footballers CS Unirea Sânnicolau Mare players Romanian football managers FC UTA Arad managers FC Bihor Oradea (1958) managers CSM Jiul Petroșani managers FC Politehnica Iași (2010) managers CS Mioveni managers ACS Poli Timișoara managers Footballers from Arad County Men's association football players not categorized by position 20th-century Romanian sportsmen {{Romania-footybio-stub