Vasile Simionaș (16 November 1950 – 19 March 2025) was a Romanian professional

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 ...

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 ...

and football player who played as a

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Club career

Simionaș was born on 16 November 1950 in

Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other #Etymology and names, alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the Cities in Romania, third largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical ...

, Romania. At the age of two, his family moved to

Bârlad Bârlad () is a city in Vaslui County, Romania. It lies on the banks of the river Bârlad (river), Bârlad, which waters the high plains of Western Moldavia. At Bârlad the railway from Iași diverges, one branch skirting the river Siret (river ...

, then in 1956 they settled in

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

where he spent most of his childhood. He started playing junior level football at the age of 14 at Laminorul Roman. In 1966 he went at neighboring club, Victoria where he continued to play at junior level but also at senior level in

Divizia C 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 ...

and

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 ...

. After scoring a goal from the center of the field in a game, an official from Dinamo Bacău brought him to the team. At Bacău he learned a lot about football from the club's youth coach, Costică Rădulescu. In April 1968, at the age of 17, Simionaș 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 for Bacău when he was sent on the field by coach Nicolae Dumitru for the last 20 minutes in a match against Progresul București. He scored his first goal in the spring of 1969 in Bacău's 3–1 home win against Steaua București. In June 1969, he moved back to his hometown at Politehnica Iași. Over the years at Politehnica he was coached by managers like Virgil Mărdărescu or Ilie Oană, also together with Mihai Romilă and Gabriel Simionov he formed one of the best midfield lines of the Romanian league from the 1970s. Until 1984, Simionaș played 359 Divizia A matches for ''The Copou Squad'', scoring 42 goals, also during this period, the club relegated twice to

but he stayed with the club, helping it promote back each time after one year. In 1985 he played the last games of his career while being a player-coach at

CSM Suceava Club Sportiv Municipal 1932 Cetatea Suceava, commonly known as CSM Cetatea Suceava or Cetatea Suceava, is a Romanian football club based in Suceava, Suceava County. The club was originally established in 1932, under the name of ''Cetatea Sucevei ...

in Divizia B. Simionaș has a total of 368 matches with 43 goals netted in the Romanian top-league, Divizia A.

International career

In 1971, Simionaș played eight games for Romania's under-23 squad. He also played for Romania's Olympic team in a 3–2 home loss to Denmark at the 1972 Summer Olympics qualifiers. He won the

Universiade The FISU World University Games, formerly the Universiade, is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The former name is a Blend word, portmanteau of the wor ...

gold medal with Romania's students football team in the 1972 edition hosted by Romania. Simionaș made his first appearance for Romania's national team in a friendly which took place on 30 January 1972 as coach

Gheorghe Ola Gheorghe Ola (10 October 1928 – 1995) was a Romanian footballer and manager. Honours Manager Romania * UEFA European Under-18 Championship: 1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the w ...

used him all the minutes in a 4–2 away victory 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 game was a 1–0 loss to

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

from the

1973–76 Balkan Cup The 1973–76 Balkan Cup was the 11th Balkan Cup football tournament. It was the first tournament played in a knockout system with semi-finals and finals. It was played between April 1973 and November 1976 between Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria and Gree ...

final. Simionaș's third and last match played for the national team took place on 2 July 1976 in a 2–2 draw against

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

Managerial career

Simionaș was appointed head coach at Politehnica Iași for the 1983–84 Divizia A season while also still being an active player. He finished the season on the eight place but despite this performance, he was replaced with

Constantin Oțet Constantin 'Tică' Oțet (24 December 1940 – 19 February 1999) was a Romanian football coach. Career Oțet was born in 1940 in Poroina, a village in Șimian commune, Mehedinți County. In 1959, Oțet began playing for Metalul Turnu Seve ...

for the following season, remaining in the club as his assistant. However the results were poor and he and Oțet had to leave the team. Shortly afterwards, Simionaș went as a player-coach at

club

. He did not spend much time at Suceava as he was called back at Politehnica Iași but could not avoid the team's relegation. He stayed with the club, fighting for promotion with Oțelul Galați but eventually failing to do so. He made a comeback at Suceava, managing to promote it to the first league after a competition with Politehnica Iași at the end of the 1986–87 Divizia B season. In the following season he did not manage to keep Suceava in the first league, leaving with a few rounds before the end of the season. In the next two years he had spells at Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț, CFR Pașcani and Politehnica Iași. In 1991 he went at Dacia Unirea Brăila which he helped avoid relegation to Divizia B. He then went to work at Progresul București which he promoted from the second to the first division. He returned at Poli Iași in Divizia B, trying to promote it but eventually finished second, below Argeș Pitești. In 1994, Simionaș started the most successful spell of his coaching career at Oțelul Galați. Over the course of five seasons the team finished twice on the fourth place, being known for winning its home games against top teams which earned them the nickname "The Graveyard of the Giants". He participated twice with Oțelul in the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

, in the 1997–98 edition they were eliminated in the first qualifying round by HIT Gorica, then in 1998–99 they got past Sloga Jugomagnat but got eliminated in the second qualifying round by

Vejle Vejle () is a city in Denmark, in the southeast of the Jutland Peninsula at the head of Vejle Fjord, where the Vejle River and Grejs River and their valleys converge. It is the site of the councils of Vejle Municipality (''Municipalities of De ...

. In 1997 he was named the best coach from Romania. Afterwards he had two unsuccessful spells at Astra Ploiești and Farul Constanța, relegating with the latter. In 2001 he made another comeback at Politehnica Iași, which was in

, helping it earn promotion to the second at the end of his first season at the club. After two seasons spent in Divizia B of which in the first one he was replaced for the second half of the season, he managed to earn promotion to Divizia A in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

. After a disappointing start in the following season, he was replaced with Ionuț Popa. After 2005, Simionaș started to work as an observer for 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 ...

and also managed Kosarom Pașcani for a short period in 2013. Simionaș has a total of 456 matches as a manager in the Romanian top-division, Divizia A consisting of 118 victories, 47 draws and 114 losses.

Personal life and death

On 28 February 2025 he was named Honorary Citizen of

. On 19 March 2025, Simionaș died in Iași at age 74.

Honours

Player

Victoria Roman *

: 1966–67 Politehnica Iași *

1972–73 Year 197 ( CXCVII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Magius and Rufinus (or, less frequently, year 950 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 197 for this y ...

, 1981–82

Manager

CSM Suceava *

: 1986–87 Progresul București *

: 1991–92 Politehnica Iași *

: 2001–02 *

: 2003–04

Notes

References

External links

*
Vasile Simionaș
at labtof.ro * {{DEFAULTSORT:Simionas, Vasile 1950 births 2025 deaths 20th-century Romanian sportsmen Romanian men's footballers Footballers from Iași Romania men's international footballers Romania men's under-21 international footballers Romania men's youth international footballers Men's association football midfielders Olympic footballers for Romania Liga I players Liga II players Liga III players FCM Bacău players FC Politehnica Iași (1945) players CSM Cetatea Suceava players Romanian football managers CSM Cetatea Suceava managers CSM Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț managers FCV Farul Constanța managers AFC Dacia Unirea Brăila managers FC Progresul București managers ASC Oțelul Galați managers FC Astra Giurgiu managers