Vasile Simionaș

Vasile Simionaș (16 November 1950 – 19 March 2025) was a Romanian professional football manager and football player who played as a midfielder.

Club career Simionaș was born on 16 November 1950 in Iași, Romania. At the age of two, his family moved to Bârlad, then in 1956 they settled in Roman where he spent most of his childhood. After scoring a goal from the center of the field in a game, an official from Dinamo Bacău brought him to the team. He scored his first goal in the spring of 1969 in Bacău's 3–1 home win against Steaua București.

In June 1969, he moved back to his hometown at Politehnica Iași. Over the years at Politehnica he was coached by managers such as Virgil Mărdărescu or Ilie Oană, and together with Mihai Romilă and Gabriel Simionov he formed one of the best midfield lines of the Romanian league in the 1970s. Until 1984, Simionaș played 359 Divizia A matches for The Copou Squad, scoring 42 goals, and during this period, the team was relegated twice to Divizia B, but he stayed with the club, helping it get promoted back each time after one year. Simionaș has a total of 368 matches with 43 goals netted in the Romanian top-league, Divizia A. He also played for Romania's Olympic team in a 3–2 home loss to Denmark in the 1972 Summer Olympics qualifiers.

Simionaș made his first appearance for Romania on 30 January 1972 as coach Gheorghe Ola used him the entire match in a friendly which ended with a 4–2 away victory against Morocco. His following game was a 1–0 loss to Bulgaria in the 1973–76 Balkan Cup final. Over the course of five seasons the team finished twice in fourth place, being known for winning its home games against top teams which earned them the nickname "The Graveyard of the Giants". Subsequently, in the 1998–99 campaign they got past Sloga Jugomagnat, but were eliminated in the second qualifying round by Vejle.

Simionaș has a total of 456 matches as a manager in the Romanian top-division, Divizia A, consisting of 118 victories, 47 draws and 114 losses.

Personal life and death On 28 February 2025 he was named Honorary Citizen of Iași.

Honours Player Victoria Roman Divizia C: 1966–67 Politehnica Iași Divizia B: 1972–73, 1981–82 Manager CSM Suceava Divizia B: 1986–87 Progresul București Divizia B: 1991–92 Politehnica Iași Divizia C: 2001–02 Divizia B: 2003–04