Adrian Ilie

Adrian Ilie

Personal information
Full name	Adrian Bucurel Ilie
Date of birth	20 April 1974 (1974-04-20)
Place of birth	Craiova, Romania
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position	Left winger / Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1991–1993	Electroputere Craiova	31	(12)
1993–1996	Steaua Bucureşti	85	(28)
1996–1998	Galatasaray	30	(12)
1998–2002	Valencia	84	(29)
2002–2003	Deportivo Alavés	22	(6)
2003–2004	Beşiktaş	13	(6)
2004–2005	FC Zürich	23	(7)
Total		287	(100)
National team
1993–2005	Romania	55	(13)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Adrian Bucurel Ilie (Romanian pronunciation: [adriˈan iˈli.e]; born April 20, 1974 in Craiova) is a retired Romanian international footballer.

Career as football player

Young Ilie started to play football for Electroputere Craiova from a very early age. In 1991, aged 17, he made his debut for the first team. A full professional contract followed in 1992, when he suddenly became one of Electroputere's best players, scoring 12 goals in 30 games in one season.

In 1993, Electroputere sold him to Steaua Bucureşti for USD90,000, which was, at that time, a record fee paid by a Romanian football club. It was however more than 20 times less than the amount Galatasaray paid for Ilie in 1996 to be able to transfer him.

After only one and a half years at Galatasaray Ilie signed with Valencia CF. This was an important step in Ilie's career, as he re-discovered the pleasure of playing football and scoring goals. In the second half of the 1997 - 98 season he played 17 games for Valencia and scored 12 goals, being a very important part of the team. He was nicknamed by Claudio Ranieri "Cobra"

In 1998, he was joined at Valencia by his brother, Sabin.

The beginning of the end for Ilie's career was in 2000. Suffering many injuries, he stayed away from Valencia's squad most of the time and was finally released from his contract in 2002, the year when he won the Spanish Football Championship. It was the seventh title Ilie won, the previously six being with Steaua Bucureşti (four) and Galatasaray (two).

Deportivo Alavés was the fifth club Ilie played for. It happened during the 2002-03 season, but the team's relegation at the end of the season broke the contract and Ilie moved back to Turkey, this time to play with Beşiktaş J.K., where he was requested by the team's coach, Mircea Lucescu.

After only one year with Beşiktaş, Ilie signed a contract with FC Zurich in 2005 but in the following year after failing to recover from a knee injury, Adrian Ilie announced his decision to retire from football.

However in 2009, he decided to come back into professional football after some discussions with Russian club FC Terek Grozny but he had to quit after failing his medical tests.

International

At the international level, Ilie won 55 caps for Romania, scoring 13 goals. He played at the 1996 European Football Championship, 1998 FIFA World Cup and 2000 European Football Championship.

International goals

Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first. "Score" column indicates the score after the player's goal.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	14 August 1996	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Israel	1-0	2-0	Friendly
2	30 April 1997	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Republic of Ireland	1-0	1-0	World Cup 1998 Qual.
3	3 June 1997	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Paraguay	1-0	3-2	Friendly
4				2-1
5	15 June 1998	Stade de Gerland, Lyon, France	Colombia	1-0	1-0	World Cup 1998 Group G
6	2 September 1998	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Liechtenstein	3-0	7-0	UEFA Euro 2000 Qual.
7				4-0
8				5-0
9	5 June 1999	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Hungary	1-0	2-0	UEFA Euro 2000 Qual.
10	4 September 1999	Tehelné pole, Bratislava, Slovakia	Slovakia	1-0	5-1	UEFA Euro 2000 Qual.
11	16 August 2000	Stadionul Cotroceni, Bucharest, Romania	Poland	1-0	1-1	Friendly
12	6 June 2001	S. Darius and S. Girėnas Stadium, Kaunas, Lithuania	Lithuania	1-0	2-1	World Cup 2002 Qual.
13	5 September 2001	Népstadion, Budapest, Hungary	Hungary	1-0	2-0	World Cup 2002 Qual.

Club career statistics

Club performance			League		Cup		League Cup		Continental		Total
Season	Club	League	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Romania			League		Cupa României		Cupa Ligii		Europe		Total
1991/92	Electroputere Craiova	Divizia A	1	0
1992/93			30	12
1993/94	Steaua Bucureşti	Divizia A	23	3
1994/95			28	11
1995/96			24	12
1996/97			10	1
Turkey			League		Fortis Turkey Cup		League Cup		Europe		Total
1996/97	Galatasaray	First League	18	6
1997/98			12	6
Spain			League		Copa del Rey		Copa de la Liga		Europe		Total
1997/98	Valencia	La Liga	17	12
1998/99			24	11
1999/00			22	5
2000/01			10	0
2001/02			10	2
2002/03	Deportivo Alavés	La Liga	22	6
Turkey			League		Fortis Turkey Cup		League Cup		Europe		Total
2003/04	Beşiktaş	Süper Lig	13	6
Switzerland			League		Schweizer Cup		League Cup		Europe		Total
2004/05	Zürich	Super League	23	7
Country	Romania		116	39
	Turkey		43	18
	Spain		105	36
	Switzerland		23	7
Total			287	100

International career statistics

Romania national team
Year	Apps	Goals
1993	1	0
1994	0	0
1995	0	0
1996	9	1
1997	6	1
1998	11	4
1999	6	2
2000	5	1
2001	9	2
2002	4	0
2003	2	0
2004	0	0
2005	2	0
Total	55	11

Honours

• Steaua Bucureşti
  • Liga 1: 1994, 1995, 1996
  • Romanian Cup: 1996
  • Romanian Super Cup: 1994, 1995

• Galatasaray
  • Turkish Super League: 1997
  • Turkish Super Cup: 1997

• Valencia CF
  • La Liga: 2002
  • Copa del Rey: 1999
  • Supercopa de España: 1999
  • UEFA Intertoto Cup: 1998
  • UEFA Champions League: Runner-up 2000

• FC Zürich
  • Swiss Cup: 2005

Career as a businessman

Following his father-in-law's advice, who worked in tourism before retiring, Ilie invested massively in Poiana Braşov where he built a hotel and several villas.

He is also the owner of Forex Braşov, a team from Romania's Liga II. Forex played the promotion play-off at the end of 2005-06 season.

References

Sporting positions
Preceded by Ilie Dumitrescu	Steaua Top Scorer 1994–1995	Succeeded by Ion Vlădoiu