Vasile Iordache

Vasile Iordache (born 9 October 1950) is a Romanian former professional football goalkeeper and coach.

Club career Politehnica Iași Iordache was born on 5 November 1946 in Iași, Romania and began playing junior-level football at local club Politehnica under coach Mihai Bârsan. He made his Divizia A debut for Politehnica on 24 August 1969 under coach Justin Șerban in a 2–0 away loss to Farul Constanța.

Steaua București

Iordache was transferred by Steaua București in 1972 where he learned a lot about goalkeeping from the team's goalkeeper coach Ion Voinescu. He won two Divizia A titles in the 1975–76 and 1977–78 seasons, as coach Emerich Jenei used him in 13 matches for the first title and 14 for the second. Iordache also won two Cupa României, being used by Jenei the entire 90 minutes in the 1976 final in which he kept a clean sheet in the 1–0 victory against CSU Galați. In the 1979 final, he was sent on the field by coach Gheorghe Constantin to replace Rică Răducanu in the 84th minute of the 3–0 victory against Sportul Studențesc București. For the way he played in 1980 and 1981, Iordache was placed fourth on both occasions in the ranking for the Romanian Footballer of the Year award.

During his 12 seasons with The Military Men, Iordache made a total of 231 Divizia A appearances and played nine games in European competitions. There, he made his last Divizia A appearance on 20 November 1985 in a 2–0 away loss to Politehnica Timișoara, totaling 271 matches in the competition. He then went on to play three games in the successful 1977–80 Balkan Cup including appearing for the entirety of both legs in the 4–3 aggregate victory in the final against Yugoslavia.

Iordache also played four games in the 1982 World Cup qualifiers including all the minutes in the 2–1 home victory and the 0–0 draw at Wembley Stadium against England. He claims that after the game in England he had an offer from Nottingham Forest which recently won two consecutive European Cup titles but could not accept it as transfers outside the country were not allowed by Romania's communist regime. However, he did not play, as he was the oldest player in the squad, while Silviu Lung and Dumitru Moraru were preferred as the first-choice goalkeepers.

Managerial career In 1986, Iordache joined the squad of Steaua București as a goalkeeper coach, helping it win the 1985–86 European Cup and the 1986 European Super Cup. After leaving "U" Cluj, he returned to Steaua as an assistant coach one year later.

Honours Player Steaua București Divizia A: 1975–76, 1977–78 Cupa României: 1975–76, 1978–79

Romania Balkan Cup: 1977–80, runner-up 1973–76