Ionel Ganea

Ionel Ganea
Personal information
Full name	Ioan Viorel Ganea
Date of birth	10 August 1973 (age 51)
Place of birth	Făgăraș, Romania
Height	1.79 m (5 ft 10+1⁄2 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team
1993–1994	ICIM Brașov
1994–1996	FC Brașov
1996–1998	Universitatea Craiova
1998	Gloria Bistrița
1999	Rapid București
1999–2003	VfB Stuttgart
2003–2004	Bursaspor
2004–2006	Wolves
2006	Dinamo București
2007	Rapid București
2007–2008	Politehnica Timișoara
2010	Sănătatea Cluj
Total
International career
1999–2006	Romania
Managerial career
2010	Dinamo II București
2011	Sănătatea Cluj
2012	Rapid Chișinău
2013	Universitatea Cluj
2014	Rapid București
2015-2016	Dunărea Călărași
2016	Voluntari
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Ioan Viorel Ganea (born 10 August 1973 in Făgăraş) 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 euros ($462,000 USD) 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 euros 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]

International goals

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

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	3 March 1999	Stadionul Lia Manoliu, Bucharest, Romania	Estonia	1–0	2–0	Friendly
2	3 March 1999	Stadionul Lia Manoliu, Bucharest, Romania	Estonia	2–0	2–0	Friendly
3	28 April 1999	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Belgium	1–0	1–0	Friendly
4	9 June 1999	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Azerbaijan	1–0	4–0	UEFA Euro 2000 Qual.
5	19 September 1999	Rheinpark Stadion, Vaduz, Liechtenstein	Liechtenstein	2–0	3–0	UEFA Euro 2000 Qual.
6	19 September 1999	Rheinpark Stadion, Vaduz, Liechtenstein	Liechtenstein	3–0	3–0	UEFA Euro 2000 Qual.
7	26 April 2000	Stadionul Gheorghe Hagi, Constanţa, Romania	Cyprus	2–0	2–0	Friendly
8	20 June 2000	Stade du Pays de Charleroi, Charleroi, Belgium	England	3–2	3–2	UEFA EURO 2000 Group A
9	3 September 2000	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Lithuania	1–0	1–0	World Cup 2002 Qual.
10	28 February 2001	GSP Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus	Lithuania	1–0	3–0	Friendly
11	28 February 2001	GSP Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus	Lithuania	2–0	3–0	Friendly
12	13 February 2002	Stade de France, Saint Denis, France	France	1–2	1–2	Friendly
13	27 March 2002	Stadionul Gheorghe Hagi, Constanţa, Romania	Ukraine	4–0	4–1	Friendly
14	17 April 2002	Zdzisław Krzyszkowiak Stadium, Bydgoszcz, Poland	Poland	1–0	2–1	Friendly
15	7 September 2002	Koševo Stadium, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina	Bosnia and Herzegovina	3–0	3–0	UEFA Euro 2004 Qual.
16	12 February 2003	Neo GSZ Stadium, Larnaca, Cyprus	Slovakia	2–1	2–1	Friendly
17	7 June 2003	Stadionul Ion Oblemenco, Craiova, Romania	Bosnia and Herzegovina	2–0	2–0	UEFA Euro 2004 Qual.
18	11 June 2003	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, Norway	Norway	1–0	1–1	UEFA Euro 2004 Qual.
19	6 September 2003	Stadionul Astra, Ploieşti, Romania	Luxembourg	3–0	4–0	UEFA Euro 2004 Qual.