Ionel Ganea


Ioan Viorel "Ionel" Ganea is a Romanian professional football coach and former player who played as a striker.

Club career

Early career

Ganea was born on 10 August 1973 in Făgăraș, Romania and began playing senior-level football in 1992 at Divizia B side
ICIM Brașov. Two years later, coach Ioan Nagy brought him to FC Brașov, giving him his Divizia A debut on 20 August 1994 in a 3–1 away loss to Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț. In the middle of the 1995–96 season he was transferred to Universitatea Craiova with whom he reached the 1998 Cupa României final, being used by coach José Ramón Alexanko the entire match in the 1–0 loss to Rapid București. He started the 1997–98 season by netting 17 goals in just 16 appearances for Gloria Bistrița, transferring in the middle of it to Rapid where he scored 11 more, helping them win the title and also being the top-scorer of the season.

VfB Stuttgart

Ganea was transferred in the summer of 1999 to VfB Stuttgart who paid €1.75 million to Rapid. He made his Bundesliga debut on 14 August when coach Ralf Rangnick used him as a starter in a 0–0 draw against Werder Bremen. He scored his first two goals for the club on 18 September in a 4–2 home win over MSV Duisburg, managing another brace on 14 December in a 3–1 success against Hansa Rostock. The team started the following season by winning the 2000 Intertoto Cup, a campaign in which he made two appearances. Afterwards, they played in the UEFA Cup, with Ganea scoring a brace in a 3–1 victory against Tirol Innsbruck, and then closing the score in a 2–2 draw against Feyenoord, helping his side reach the round of 16 where they were defeated by Celta Vigo. In the same season, Ganea scored a hat-trick and provided three assists for Adhemar's hat-trick in a 6–1 win over Kaiserslautern in the league. Early in the 2001–02 season, Ganea netted both of his side's goals in a 2–2 draw against Nürnberg, ultimately finishing the season with 10 goals, a personal Bundesliga record for him. He started his last season at Stuttgart by helping the side win another Intertoto Cup, scoring a goal in each of the legs in the third round against Perugia, also playing in both legs of the 2–1 aggregate victory in the final against Lille. He scored a brace in a win over 1860 Munich and a hat-trick in another victory against VfL Bochum, contributing with nine goals as the team finished in second place in Bundesliga.
With 136 games played in which he scored 47 goals and provided 15 assists in all competitions for Stuttgart, Ganea was known during this period for his scoring ability after coming in the game as a substitute. Ganea claimed that his toughest opponents during his years spent in Germany were Lothar Matthäus and Jürgen Kohler, and he also cherished a shirt he received from Oliver Kahn.

Bursaspor

In the summer of 2003, after becoming free of contract, he signed with Turkish top-flight club Bursaspor that was coached by fellow Romanian Gheorghe Hagi, where he was teammates with compatriots Bogdan Vintilă, Iulian Miu and Cornel Frăsineanu. Ganea scored his first goal on 27 September in a 2–1 victory against Konyaspor, a game in which he also received a red card. He also scored a hat-trick on 2 November in a 6–0 win over Adanaspor and three weeks later he netted his last goal for Bursa in a 1–1 draw against Akçaabat Sebatspor.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

The striker joined Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers in December 2003 after his contract in Turkey was cancelled by mutual consent. He made his league debut on 10 January 2004, when coach Dave Jones sent him in the 82nd minute to replace Shaun Newton in a 2–0 away loss to Charlton Athletic. In 14 Premier League appearances he scored three goals during the 2003–04 season – against eventual champions Arsenal, Leeds and Newcastle – but could not prevent relegation.
Ganea remained with the club for two seasons in the second tier, mostly under the managership 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.

Return to Romania

In June 2006 he moved back to Romania, signing with Dinamo București on an initial one-year deal, claiming one of the reasons he chose Dinamo is that he was a good friend with its coach, Mircea Rednic. Ganea had to compete to earn a place in the team's offence with Ionel Dănciulescu and Claudiu Niculescu, scoring his first goal on 20 August in a 3–1 home victory against Politehnica Timișoara, one week later managing to score all the goals in a 4–0 win over Universitatea Craiova. He scored a total of 14 goals in the first half of the season, also providing an assist for Niculescu's decisive goal in the 2–1 victory against Bayer Leverkusen in the 2006–07 UEFA Cup group stage which helped The Red Dogs reach the round of 32. However, in December, after just six months, Ganea broke his contract with Dinamo which managed to win the championship without him.
He rejoined Rapid București on a record €350,000 salary per year. He scored his first goal for Rapid on 1 April 2007 in a loss to rivals Steaua București, then another one in a victory against Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț, having a total of 16 goals scored in the season, being the league's second top-scorer with two goals behind former teammate Claudiu Niculescu. The team also won the Cupa României but coach Răzvan Lucescu did not use him in the 2–1 win over Politehnica Timișoara in the final.
In June 2007, Ganea was transferred from Rapid to Politehnica Timișoara in exchange for Ștefan Grigorie. On 7 May 2008 he made his last Liga I appearance in Politehnica's 4–1 home win over Farul Constanța in which he scored once, totaling 183 matches with 73 goals in the competition and 33 games with seven goals in European competitions.
He briefly returned on the pitch as a professional player only for one game on 22 September 2011 in a Cupa României match against Steaua București that ended with a 4–0 loss.

International career

Ganea played 45 games and scored 19 goals for Romania, making his debut under coach Victor Pițurcă on 3 March 1999 in a friendly against Estonia, scoring both goals in a 2–0 win. He played five games in the successful Euro 2000 qualifiers in which he scored once in a 4–0 win over Azerbaijan and a brace in a 3–0 victory against Liechtenstein. He was used by coach Emerich Jenei in three games in the Euro 2000 final tournament, in all of them being sent on the field as a substitute. In the match against England, he scored in the last minutes of the game from a penalty the decisive goal of the 3–2 victory which helped Romania get past the group stage and reach the quarter-finals. There, he entered the field in the 54th minute to replace Viorel Moldovan in the eventual 2–0 loss to Italy. In July 2024, British tabloid newspaper, The Sun listed Ganea's penalty goal in England's top 18 disappointments suffered after winning the 1966 World Cup.
He played seven games and netted once in a 1–0 win over Lithuania in the 2002 World Cup qualifiers. Afterwards, he made eight appearances in the Euro 2004 qualifiers where he scored a goal in both victories against Bosnia and Herzegovina, once in a 1–1 draw against Norway and his last goal for The Tricolours in a 4–0 success over Luxembourg. Ganea's last appearance for the national team occurred on 6 September 2006 when coach Pițurcă sent him in the 78th minute to replace Ciprian Marica in a 2–0 away win over Albania in the Euro 2008 qualifiers.
For representing his country at the Euro 2000 final tournament, Ganea was decorated by President of Romania Traian Băsescu on 25 March 2008 with the Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" – class III.

International stats

No.DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
13 March 1999Stadionul Național, Bucharest, Romania1–02–0Friendly
23 March 1999Stadionul Național, Bucharest, Romania2–02–0Friendly
328 April 1999Stadionul Steaua, Bucharest, Romania1–01–0Friendly
49 June 1999Stadionul Steaua, Bucharest, Romania1–04–0UEFA Euro 2000 qualification
519 September 1999Rheinpark Stadion, Vaduz, Liechtenstein2–03–0UEFA Euro 2000 qualification
619 September 1999Rheinpark Stadion, Vaduz, Liechtenstein3–03–0UEFA Euro 2000 qualification
726 April 2000Stadionul Gheorghe Hagi, Constanța, Romania2–02–0Friendly
820 June 2000Stade du Pays de Charleroi, Charleroi, Belgium3–23–2UEFA EURO 2000 Group A
93 September 2000Stadionul Steaua, Bucharest, Romania1–01–0World Cup 2002 qualification
1028 February 2001GSP Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus1–03–0Friendly
1128 February 2001GSP Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus2–03–0Friendly
1213 February 2002Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France1–21–2Friendly
1327 March 2002Stadionul Gheorghe Hagi, Constanța, Romania4–04–1Friendly
1417 April 2002Zdzisław Krzyszkowiak Stadium, Bydgoszcz, Poland1–02–1Friendly
157 September 2002Koševo City Stadium, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina3–03–0UEFA Euro 2004 qualification
1612 February 2003GSZ Stadium, Larnaca, Cyprus2–12–1Friendly
177 June 2003Stadionul Ion Oblemenco, Craiova, Romania2–02–0UEFA Euro 2004 qualification
1811 June 2003Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, Norway1–01–1UEFA Euro 2004 qualification
196 September 2003Stadionul Astra, Ploiești, Romania3–04–0UEFA Euro 2004 qualification