Ionel Ganea

Ionel Ganea
Personal information
Full name Ioan Viorel Ganea
Date of birth (1973-08-10) 10 August 1973
Place of birth Făgăraș, Romania
Height 1.79 m (5 ft 10 1⁄2 in)
Playing position Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1993–1994 ICIM Brașov
1994–1996 FC Brașov 50 (4)
1996–1998 FC U Craiova 56 (22)
1998 Gloria Bistrița 16 (17)
1999 Rapid București 16 (11)
1999–2003 VfB Stuttgart 107 (34)
2003–2004 Bursaspor 16 (5)
2004–2006 Wolves 34 (7)
2006 Dinamo București 18 (14)
2007 Rapid București 9 (2)
2007–2008 Politehnica Timișoara 18 (3)
2011 Sănătatea Cluj 0 (0)
Total 341 (119)
National team
1999–2006[1] Romania 45 (19)
Teams managed
2010 Dinamo II București
2011 Sănătatea Cluj
2012 Rapid Chișinău
2013 Universitatea Cluj
2014 Rapid București
2015–2016 Dunărea Călărași
2016 Voluntari
2017 Târgu Mureș
2018 Poli Timișoara
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Ioan Viorel Ganea (born 10 August 1973) is a Romanian football manager and former striker.

Playing career

Ganea debuted in Liga I (Divizia A at that time) with FC Braşov in 1994. He went on to play for a number of clubs in Romanian football over the next five years. He joined Rapid Bucharest in January 1999, where he scored 11 goals in the remainder of the season to fire the club to the league championship. He finished that season with 28 goals overall, making him the leading goalscorer.

This form won him a move to Bundesliga side VfB Stuttgart in the summer of 1999. He remained in Germany for four seasons and tasted UEFA Cup action, but was never a regular starter. He moved to Turkish top flight club Bursaspor in June 2003 on a free transfer, but stayed there for just six months before moving to England.

The striker joined Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers in December 2003 after his contract in Turkey was cancelled by mutual consent. He scored three Premier League goals during the 2003–04 season – against eventual champions Arsenal, Leeds and Newcastle – but could not prevent relegation.

He remained with the club for two seasons in the second tier, mostly under the managerialship of Glenn Hoddle. The first of these years was written off after suffering cruciate knee ligament injury on a pre-season tour of Norway. He recovered for the 2005–06 season but never held down a regular starting place, and was released as his contract expired at the end of the campaign.

He moved back to Romania, with Dinamo Bucharest on an initial one-year deal. However, just six months later, Ganea broke this contract to rejoin Rapid Bucharest on a record €350,000 ($462,000) a season. Although contracted to the end of 2009 with Rapid, Ganea left on a free transfer in June 2007 for FC Timişoara, despite the fact that he could have earned up to €1 million a season through bonuses at Rapid.

He returned briefly on the pitch as a professional player only for one game on 22 September 2011 in a Romanian Cup match against FC Steaua București.

International career

Ganea made his debut for the Romanian national team on 3 March 1999 against Estonia, scoring both goals in a 2–0 win. He represented his country at Euro 2000 and scored a last minute penalty against England that took Romania to the quarter finals at the expense of their opponent. He made 45 caps and 19 goals, but his last game was in 2006. In 2004 while playing against Scotland for Romania, Ganea performed a high and late tackle on Celtic defender John Kennedy, causing the young Scot substantial knee damage and keeping him out of action for more than three years. Kennedy never fully recovered from this and eventually, in November 2009, it forced him to retire.

Controversy

While playing for Romania against Scotland in April 2004, he tackled Celtic defender John Kennedy resulting in a knee injury that left Kennedy unable to play for three years. Kennedy has since been forced to retire from professional football as a result of this and subsequent injuries.[2]

In April 2006 he was involved in more controversy when he criticised the Wolverhampton Wanderers manager at that time, Glenn Hoddle, claiming "he is the most difficult manager I have worked with in my career".[3]

In August 2007, Ganea was banned for 22 matches after attacking one of the assistant referees after being sent off during a match between his club Timișoara and Rapid Bucharest.[4]

Personal life

His son, George is also a footballer.[5][6]

International goals

Scores and results table. "Score" indicates the score after the player's goal:

# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
13 March 1999Stadionul Lia Manoliu, Bucharest, Romania Estonia1–02–0Friendly
23 March 1999Stadionul Lia Manoliu, Bucharest, Romania Estonia2–02–0Friendly
328 April 1999Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania Belgium1–01–0Friendly
49 June 1999Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania Azerbaijan1–04–0UEFA Euro 2000 Qual.
519 September 1999Rheinpark Stadion, Vaduz, Liechtenstein Liechtenstein2–03–0UEFA Euro 2000 Qual.
619 September 1999Rheinpark Stadion, Vaduz, Liechtenstein Liechtenstein3–03–0UEFA Euro 2000 Qual.
726 April 2000Stadionul Gheorghe Hagi, Constanţa, Romania Cyprus2–02–0Friendly
820 June 2000Stade du Pays de Charleroi, Charleroi, Belgium England3–23–2UEFA EURO 2000 Group A
93 September 2000Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania Lithuania1–01–0World Cup 2002 Qual.
1028 February 2001GSP Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus Lithuania1–03–0Friendly
1128 February 2001GSP Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus Lithuania2–03–0Friendly
1213 February 2002Stade de France, Saint Denis, France France1–21–2Friendly
1327 March 2002Stadionul Gheorghe Hagi, Constanţa, Romania Ukraine4–04–1Friendly
1417 April 2002Zdzisław Krzyszkowiak Stadium, Bydgoszcz, Poland Poland1–02–1Friendly
157 September 2002Koševo Stadium, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina3–03–0UEFA Euro 2004 Qual.
1612 February 2003Neo GSZ Stadium, Larnaca, Cyprus Slovakia2–12–1Friendly
177 June 2003Stadionul Ion Oblemenco, Craiova, Romania Bosnia and Herzegovina2–02–0UEFA Euro 2004 Qual.
1811 June 2003Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, Norway Norway1–01–1UEFA Euro 2004 Qual.
196 September 2003Stadionul Astra, Ploieşti, Romania Luxembourg3–04–0UEFA Euro 2004 Qual.

Honours

Club

Universitatea Craiova
Rapid București
VfB Stuttgart
Dinamo București

References

  1. ↑ Stokkermans, Karel (10 June 2011). "Ioan Viorel Ganea - Goals in International Matches". RSSSF. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
  2. ↑ "Celtic Defender John Kennedy Forced to Retire from Football". Evening Times. Archived from the original on 16 November 2009.
  3. ↑ Cooper, Scott (8 April 2006). "Ganea fires angry broadside at Hoddle". Thefootballnetwork.net. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  4. ↑ "Soccer-Ganea banned for 22 matches for attacking linesman". Reuters. 31 August 2007. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  5. ↑ "VIDEO Primul gol al lui Ganea jr. la Rapid: "Cel mai frumos moment din viața mea!"" [VIDEO The first goal of Ganea jr. at Rapid: "The most beautiful moment of my life!"] (in Romanian). Gsp.ro. 10 October 2015. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
  6. ↑ "Fiul lui Ionel Ganea: "Tata şi-a făcut treaba, eu trebuie să-mi fac singur un nume în fotbal"" [The son of Ionel Ganea: "Dad has done his job, I have to make on my own in football"] (in Romanian). Realitatea.net. 20 July 2017. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
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