Ion Ionescu (footballer, born 1938)

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Ion Ionescu
Ion Ionescu.jpg
Ionescu with Alemannia Aachen
Personal information
Full name Ion Gheorghe Ionescu
Date of birth (1938-04-05) 5 April 1938 (age 87)
Place of birth Bucharest, Romania
Height 1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s) Forward
Youth career
Rapid București
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
1960–1968 Rapid București 183 (107)
1968–1970 Alemannia Aachen 46 (10)
1970 Crișul Oradea 1 (0)
1970–1972 Cercle Brugge 30 (8)
Total260(125)
International career
1962–1969 Romania [a] 24 (5)
Managerial career
1978–1979 Gloria Buzău
1980–1981 Rapid București
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Ion Gheorghe Ionescu (born 5 April 1938) is a Romanian former football striker. [3]

Contents

Club career

Rapid București

Ionescu, nicknamed "Puiu" was born on 5 April 1938 in Bucharest, Romania, growing up in the Cotroceni neighborhood. [4] [5] [6] He made his Divizia A debut, playing for Rapid București under coach Ion Mihăilescu on 30 October 1960 in a 2–0 loss to Minerul Lupeni. [4] [7]

Ionescu (front row, third from left) with Rapid Bucuresti in 1963 Rapid Bucuresti (fotbal) 1963.jpg
Ionescu (front row, third from left) with Rapid București in 1963

He spent eight seasons at Rapid, making a successful partnership in the team's offence with Emil Dumitriu, winning the Divizia A top-scorer title twice, in the 1962–63 season with 20 goals and in 1965–66 with 24 goals. [4] [5] [6] 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-scorer with 15 goals scored in 22 matches. [4] [5] [8] [9] In the following season he appeared in four matches in the 1967–68 European Cup campaign, scoring one goal against Trakia Plovdiv that helped Rapid advance to the following round where they were eliminated by Juventus. [4] [10] Ionescu reached three Cupa României finals, playing in the last two. [11] [12] [13] The first two in 1961 and 1962 under the guidance of coach Ion Mihăilescu were lost to Arieșul Turda and Steaua București respectively, while during the one in 1968 he was coached by Stănescu in the loss against Dinamo București. [11] [12] [13] For the way he played in 1967, Ionescu was placed fourth in the ranking for the Romanian Footballer of the Year award. [14]

Alemannia Aachen

In October 1967 Rapid played a friendly game against Alemannia Aachen in which Ionescu scored two goals and in December, Romania's national team played a friendly against Aachen in which Ionescu netted three goals. [6] [15] These five goals impressed the leaders of the German club who wanted to transfer Ionescu to their team. [6] [15] During Romania's communist era, transfers of Romanian footballers outside the country were rarely allowed. [5] [6] [15] Ionescu had to convince the Romanian Football Federation to approve his transfer. [5] [6] [15] He managed to do so after a meeting with communist politician Gheorghe Apostol, who then spoke with Leonte Răutu. [5] [6] [15] This intervention helped Ionescu receive approval for his transfer to Germany, making him the first Romanian footballer under the communist regime to obtain the right to play abroad. [5] [6] [15] Aachen paid $100,000 and a bus for his transfer. [4] [5] [6] [15] Ionescu made his Bundesliga debut on 17 August 1968 under coach Michael Pfeiffer in a 4–1 away victory against Nürnberg. [16] [17] In the following round he scored a double in a 4–2 home win over Eintracht Frankfurt. [16] Ionescu netted a total of seven goals in 24 league matches by the end of his first season at the club. [4] [5] [6] [15] [16] This included another brace in 4–0 win against TSV 1860 Munich, helping Aachen finish second in the championship through a successful offensive partnership with Roger Claessen. [4] [5] [6] [15] [16]

Late career

After two years spent in West Germany at Aachen, Ionescu returned to Romania to play for Crișul Oradea where he made his last Divizia A appearance on 28 June 1970 in a 0–0 draw against Dinamo Bacău, totaling 184 matches in which he scored 107 goals in the competition. [4] [5] He ended his career by playing two seasons in Belgium at Cercle Brugge, a club he helped to get promoted from the second to the first league. [4] [5]

International career

Ionescu (center) in a match against Turkey in 1965 Romania - Turcia 1965.jpg
Ionescu (center) in a match against Turkey in 1965
Ionescu (on the left) in a friendly match against West Germany in 1967, which Romania won 1-0. Franz Beckenbauer is pictured in the center Romania - Germania 1967 1.jpg
Ionescu (on the left) in a friendly match against West Germany in 1967, which Romania won 1–0. Franz Beckenbauer is pictured in the center

Ionescu played 15 games at international level for Romania, making his debut on 23 December 1962 when coach Silviu Ploeșteanu sent him at half-time to replace Cicerone Manolache in a friendly that ended with a 3–1 loss to Morocco. [1] [18] His next three matches were in the 1966 World Cup qualifiers. [1] In a friendly against Greece that ended with a 2–1 victory, Ionescu scored his first two goals for the national team. [1] [19] His following three games were in the Euro 1968 qualifiers in which he scored a double in a 7–0 victory against Cyprus. [1] [20] Ionescu's last appearance for the national team was a 2–2 draw against Greece in the 1970 World Cup qualifiers. [1] [21] He also played nine games for Romania's Olympic team, being chosen by coach Ploeșteanu to be part of the 1964 Summer Olympics squad in Tokyo where he played four games and scored one goal in a 3–1 victory against Mexico, helping the team finish in fifth place. [2] [22]

International goals

Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Ionescu goal. [1]
List of international goals scored by Ion Ionescu
#DateVenueCapOpponentScoreResultCompetition
18 March 1967 Leoforos Alexandras Stadium, Athens, Greece 7Flag of Greece (1822-1978).svg  Greece 1–12–1 Friendly
22–1
323 April 1967 23 August Stadium, Bucharest, Romania 8Flag of Cyprus.svg  Cyprus 4–07–0 Euro 1968 qualifiers
47–0

Managerial career

Ionescu began his managerial career in 1978 at Divizia B club Gloria Buzău, guiding them to promotion to Divizia A by the season's end. [6] He then coached the team throughout the entire 1978–79 season. [6] [23] Following another stint at Rapid București, he retired from coaching to work as a lawyer and, for a brief period, as a judge. [6]

Honours

Player

Rapid București

Alemannia Aachen

Cercle Brugge

Manager

Gloria Buzău

Individual

Notes

  1. ↑ Including 9 appearances and one goal for Romania's Olympic team. [1] [2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Ion Ionescu". European Football. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  2. 1 2 Ion Ionescu at National-Football-Teams.com
  3. ↑ "Ionescu, Ion" (in German). Kicker . Retrieved 12 February 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Ion Ionescu at RomanianSoccer.ro (in Romanian)
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Povestea lui Ion Ionescu, golgheterul din toate timpurile al Rapidului" [The story of Ion Ionescu, Rapid's all-time top scorer] (in Romanian). Independentaromana.ro. 22 January 2022. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 "Legenda Rapidului, interviu incredibil: "Am acceptat să pierdem un meci în Giulești, pe prietenie" + cum au încercat șefii unui club din Bundesliga să-l corupă" [Legend of Rapid, incredible interview: "We accepted to lose a match in Giulesti, out of friendship" + how the bosses of a Bundesliga club tried to corrupt him] (in Romanian). Gsp.ro. 24 July 2021. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
  7. ↑ "Minerul Lupeni vs. Rapid Bucuresti Liga1 1960–1961". Labtof. Archived from the original on 14 October 2022. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  8. ↑ "Romania National Champions". RomanianSoccer. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
  9. ↑ "Interviu cu Ion Ionescu, golgheterul all-time al Rapidului, la 53 de ani de la primul titlu câștigat" [Interview with Ion Ionescu, Rapid's all-time top scorer, 53 years after the first title was won] (in Romanian). Eurosport.ro. 11 June 2020. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
  10. ↑ "Ion Ionescu - Champions League 1967/1968". WorldFootball. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  11. 1 2 3 "Romanian Cup – Season 1960–1961". RomanianSoccer. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  12. 1 2 3 "Romanian Cup – Season 1961–1962". RomanianSoccer. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  13. 1 2 3 "Romanian Cup – Season 1967–1968". RomanianSoccer. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
  14. 1 2 "Romania - Player of the Year Awards". Rsssf.org. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "100.000 de dolari şi un autocar, preţul unui transfer în RFG în 1968" [$100,000 and a bus, the price of a transfer to Germany in 1968] (in Romanian). Cotidianul.ro. 13 September 2011. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
  16. 1 2 3 4 "Ion Ionescu. Bundesliga 1968/1969". WorldFootball. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  17. ↑ "1. FC Nürnberg 1:4 Alemannia Aachen". WorldFootball. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  18. ↑ "Morocco 3-1 Romania". European Football. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
  19. ↑ "Greece 1-2 Romania". European Football. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
  20. ↑ "Romania 7-0 Cyprus". European Football. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
  21. ↑ "Greece 2-2 Romania". European Football. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
  22. ↑ "Ion Ionescu - Olympic Games 1964". WorldFootball. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
    "Cum a fost ultima participare a României la Olimpiadă, în 1964, când "tricolorii" au pierdut dramatic sfertul cu Ungaria" [How was Romania's last participation in the Olympics, in 1964, when "The Tricolors" dramatically lost the quarter to Hungary] (in Romanian). Theplaymaker.ro. 27 June 2019. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
    "Romania 3-1 Mexico". 11v11. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
  23. ↑ "Ion Ionescu managerial statistics". Labtof.ro. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
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