Gino Iorgulescu

George "Gino" Iorgulescu (born 15 May 1956) is a Romanian former professional footballer who played as a defender. He is the current chairman of the Romanian Professional Football League.

Club career Iorgulescu was born on 15 May 1956 in Giurgiu, Romania and began playing junior-level football at local club Dunărea, making his debut for the senior squad during the 1973–74 Divizia B season. Iorgulescu was transferred alongside Dunărea teammate Calianu to Sportul Studențesc București, where he made his Divizia A debut under coach Angelo Niculescu on 31 August 1975 in a 1–1 draw against Universitatea Craiova. In the next season, he was loaned to fellow Divizia A team, Progresul București, where he made 28 appearances with six goals scored. The highlights of this period were 12 goals scored in the 1977–78 season, a second position in the 1985–86 season and playing the entire match under coach Rădulescu in the 3–0 loss to Steaua București in the 1979 Cupa României final. He also helped the club win the 1979–80 Balkans Cup and reach the final in the 1976 edition. In the 1987–88 edition, he helped them get past GKS Katowice, then Peter Schmeichel and Brian Laudrup's Brøndby, winning the second leg 3–0 after an away loss by the same score, securing a historic penalty shootout qualification to the third round where they were defeated by Hellas Verona. For the way he played in 1982, Iorgulescu was placed fifth in the ranking for the Romanian Footballer of the Year award. Iorgulescu made his last Divizia A appearance on 20 June 1989 in Sportul's 2–1 victory against Argeș Pitești in which he scored a goal, totaling 354 appearances with 55 goals in the competition and 25 matches with four goals in the Cupa României. He played in seven games during the successful Euro 1984 qualifiers, including a 1–0 win over World Cup holders, Italy in which he had a praised performance after he annihilated his direct opponent Paolo Rossi. Iorgulescu played seven games in the 1986 World Cup qualifiers where he scored a goal in a 3–1 away victory against Turkey.

For representing his country at the Euro 1984 final tournament, Iorgulescu was decorated by President of Romania Traian Băsescu on 25 March 2008 with the Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" – (The Medal "The Sportive Merit") class III.

International goals Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Iorgulescu goal. From 1994 until 2005 Iorgulescu was president of Național București, a period in which the club finished three times as runner-up in the Divizia A championship and reached the 1997 and 2003 Cupa României finals which were both lost to Steaua București and Dinamo București respectively. During his presidency at Național he was known as a trailblazer as he appointed coaches for the team such as Walter Zenga, Roberto Landi and Cosmin Olăroiu. Iorgulescu was in the centre of a controversy when, during a game against Rapid București, which was lost with 3–1, he entered the field and chased the referee Constantin Zotta as he felt disadvantaged by his way of refereeing. In 2000 Iorgulescu had a first attempt to become the president of the Romanian Professional Football League but lost to Dumitru Dragomir. However, he ran again against Dragomir in 2013, this time winning the election.

Honours Sportul Studențesc București Balkans Cup: 1979–80, runner-up: 1976 Divizia A runner-up: 1985–86 Cupa României runner-up: 1978–79 Individual Romanian Footballer of the Year (fifth place): 1982