Ionuț Bâlbă

Ionuț Mihai Bâlbă (born 1 November 1981) is a Romanian retired football player who played as a striker. He played mainly for Politehnica Iași and made 142 appearances, scoring 35 goals in the Romanian top-league, Liga I.

Career Bâlbă was born on 1 November 1981 in Pașcani, Romania and began playing junior-level football at local club CFR. He began playing for the club's senior team during the 2001–02 Divizia C season. He helped them gain promotion to the first league at the end of the 2003–04 season by netting 12 goals. In the 2005–06 season, he netted a career-best nine goals in the first league, including a brace in a 4–0 win over FCM Bacău. In the following two seasons, Bâlbă netted eight goals in each season, including two doubles in victories against Jiul Petroșani and UTA Arad. Bâlbă was heavily criticized when he had the rims of his car painted in gold, as Politehnica had financial problems at that time. In order to show solidarity and defend him, coach Ionuț Popa also had the emblems of his car painted in gold. Bâlbă returned to first league football by signing with Gloria Bistrița where he made his last Liga I appearance and also scored a goal in a 3–1 loss to Steaua București, totaling 142 matches with 35 goals in the competition. Bâlbă spent the last years of his career playing for teams in the Romanian lower leagues such as Jiul Petroșani, Viitorul Târgu Frumos and Bradu Borca.

Controversy Bâlbă was caught by police on several occasions driving under the influence, driving with a suspended license, and crashing his car into a pole. Eventually, he received a nine-month suspended sentence.

Honours Politehnica Iași Divizia B: 2003–04, 2011–12