Ion Ionescu

Ion Gheorghe Ionescu (born 5 April 1938) is a Romanian former professional football player and coach who played as a forward.

Club career

Rapid București Ionescu, nicknamed "Puiu", was born on 5 April 1938 in Bucharest, Romania, growing up in the Cotroceni neighborhood. 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.

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. 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.

Ionescu reached three Cupa României finals, playing in the last two. The first two in 1961 and 1962 under the guidance of coach Ion Mihăilescu were lost to Arieșul Turda and Steaua București respectively.

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. These five goals impressed the leaders of the German club who wanted to transfer Ionescu to their team. In the following round he scored a double in a 4–2 home win over Eintracht Frankfurt.

Crișul Oradea and Cercle Brugge After spending two years in West Germany, Ionescu came back 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 with 107 goals in the competition. His next three matches were in the 1966 World Cup qualifiers. His following three games were in the Euro 1968 qualifiers in which he scored a double in a 7–0 victory against Cyprus.

Ionescu's last appearance for the national team was a 2–2 draw against Greece in the 1970 World Cup qualifiers. 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.

International goals Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Ionescu goal. In 1977, he coached Divizia B side Gloria Buzău, guiding them to promotion to Divizia A by the season's end. He then coached the team throughout the entire 1978–79 season. Following another stint at Rapid București, he retired from coaching to work as a lawyer and, for a brief period, as a judge.

Honours Player Rapid București Divizia A: 1966–67 Cupa României runner-up: 1960–61, 1961–62, 1967–68

Alemannia Aachen Bundesliga runner-up: 1968–69

Cercle Brugge Belgian Second Division: 1970–71

Manager Gloria Buzău Divizia B: 1977–78

Individual Total matches played in Divizia A: 184 matches – 107 goals Top-scorer of Divizia A: 1962–63, 1965–66 Romanian Footballer of the Year fourth place: 1967