Ion Ionescu

Ion V. "Jackie" Ionescu (2 May 1936 – 30 June 2024) was a Romanian football player and coach.

He was mostly known for his coaching spells at Politehnica Timișoara with whom he won a Cupa României and reached three other finals. He also eliminated Celtic in the 1980–81 European Cup Winners' Cup.

Early life Ionescu was born on 2 May 1936 in the Crai Nou village which is part of the Rudna commune in Romania. In 2016, during an interview with the Adevărul newspaper, he described his early life in Rudna:"I lived exclusively in Rudna, among Serbs. I was born in Crai Nou, but my father built a house in Rudna. It was nice. We had a neat house near the train station. We had fruit trees, a very rich vineyard, a small lake with fish, it was an idyllic country life before the Second World War, with Serbian friends, Hungarian friends, Romanian friends. We were all the same, there was no problem of misunderstandings.".

Playing career Ionescu started playing football in 1945, aged 9 at Politehnica Timișoara's junior center. He stayed at Poli for a decade, going through all the stages of the youth center, playing right midfielder and even catching a match for the senior team in a friendly against Flamura Roșie Arad in 1954, where his direct opponent was József Pecsovszky. In 1972 at age 36, Ionescu returned to Politehnica in Divizia B, helping the team finish in first place in his first season, earning promotion to the first league after an absence of five years. He was the assistant coach of Constantin Cernăianu for Romania's students football team, winning the Universiade gold medal in the 1974 edition that was held in France.

In 1975 he went to coach Jiul after the 22nd round of the season, helping the team avoid relegation, managing to earn a 2–0 win over Dinamo București. In the following season the team finished in 12th place, avoiding relegation once again. He participated with Poli in the 1980–81 European Cup Winners' Cup, eliminating Celtic in the first round, being eliminated in the following one by West Ham United. He left Politehnica shortly afterwards but returned in 1982 for only a short while, leaving before the end of the season at which the club was relegated. Shortly afterwards he signed with Sportul Studențesc București where he worked with Lucescu's son, Răzvan, who was a player, but with whom he had no problem. He then participated with the club in the 1992–93 UEFA Cup edition where in the first round they faced Real Madrid, obtaining a 1–1 draw at Timișoara and losing with 4–0 at Santiago Bernabéu.

Ionescu has a total of 496 matches as a manager in the Romanian top-division, Divizia A consisting of 194 victories, 89 draws and 213 losses.

After retirement After retiring as a coach, Ionescu held positions as a university professor, an advisor at Politehnica Timișoara (2005–2007), and a columnist for various local and national sports newspapers. Eventually Politehnica eliminated Shakhtar.

Writing Ionescu wrote five books about football: (Football. Training methods and means) - co-written with Angelo Niculescu (1972) (Football – The tactic of today) - co-written with Cornel Dinu (1977) (Football – The concept of the game) - co-written with Cornel Dinu (1982) (Football – The technique and the tactic of the game) (A ball in Babylon)

Death Ionescu died on 30 June 2024 at age 88 in Timișoara.

Honours Player Știința București Divizia C: 1958–59

Manager Politehnica Timișoara Divizia B: 1972–73, 1986–87 Cupa României: 1979–80, runner-up 1973–74, 1980–81, 1991–92