Ioan Andone

Ioan Andone, nicknamed "Fălcosul" was born on 15 March 1960 in Șpălnaca and when he was 14 years old he played basketball and football simultaneously, Carol Gal being his first football coach at Școala Sportivă Hunedoara, after which at 16 he decided to concentrate exclusively on his football career when he went at Corvinul Hunedoara's youth center where he was coached by Dumitru Pătrașcu.^[2][3] On 7 March 1979, Andone made his Divizia A debut for Corvinul when coach Mircea Lucescu sent him on the field in order to replace Radu Nunweiller in the last 20 minutes of a 2–0 away loss against Sportul Studențesc București.^[4][5] At the end of his first season spent at Corvinul, the club relegated to Divizia B, but Andone stayed with the club, promoting back to the first division after one year, helping the club finish third in the 1981–82 Divizia A, also appearing in four games in the 1982–83 UEFA Cup as they got past Grazer AK in the first round, being eliminated in the following one by FK Sarajevo, Andone scoring a goal against each of them.^[2][4][6]

In the summer of 1983, Andone and teammate Mircea Rednic were transferred from Corvinul to Dinamo București in exchange for five players which included Nicușor Vlad, Teofil Stredie and Florea Văetuș.^[2][4] In his first season spent with The Red Dogs, he helped the club win The Double, coach Nicolae Dumitru using him in 24 league games in which he scored one goal, also he played all the minutes in the 2–1 victory over rivals Steaua București from the Cupa României final and appeared in six matches in the 1983–84 European Cup, the club eliminating title holders Hamburg in the campaign, reaching the semi-finals where the campaign ended in front of Liverpool.^[2][7][8] He would reunite at Dinamo with his former coach from Corvinul, Mircea Lucescu, their first performance together being the winning of the 1985–86 Cupa României where in the final he played the whole match which ended with a 1–0 win against Steaua who had recently just won the European Cup.^[9]

Andone was in the center of a big scandal in the derby against Steaua from March 1989 which was lost with 2–1 after Gheorghe Hagi opened the score, Andone equalized for Dinamo and Gabi Balint scored the winning goal for Steaua in the last minute of the game, also referee Ion Crăciunescu eliminated Rodion Cămătaru and Claudiu Vaișcovici from Dinamo.^{[2][10][11][12][13][14]} Feeling that they were disadvantaged by the referee, right after the game Andone and Rednic showed some obscene gestures in front of the official tribune where Valentin Ceaușescu, the son of dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and unofficial president of Steaua was staying.^{[2][10][11][12][13][14]} Initially, the Romanian Football Federation suspended Andone for one year, but after his friend from Steaua, Marius Lăcătuș talked to Valentin Ceaușescu and convinced him to forgive Andone, his suspension was reduced to three months, Rednic also got away with it after a friend of his from Steaua, László Bölöni talked to Valentin Ceaușescu.^{[2][10][11][12][13][14]}

His following performance was playing five games and scoring one goal against Kuusysi Lahti in the 1988–89 European Cup Winners' Cup, reaching the quarter-finals where they were eliminated on the away goals rule after 1–1 on aggregate by Sampdoria.^[4][15] In the following season he won another Double with the club, Lucescu giving him 20 appearances in which he scored two goals in the league, also playing all the minutes in the 6–4 over Steaua from the Cupa României final and made another European performance as he played eight games in the 1989–90 European Cup Winners' Cup, the team reaching the semi-finals where they were eliminated after 2–0 on aggregate by Anderlecht.^{[4][2][7][16]}

After the 1989 Romanian Revolution, he was bought by Spanish side Elche for 125.000$ where he was teammate with Santiago Cañizares and played 34 matches in which he scored three goals in the 1990–91 Segunda División season.^[17][18]

Andone then went on to play for the last two seasons of his career in the Netherlands under head coach Fritz Korbach at Heerenveen in the Eerste Divisie, where he was also teammate with Rodion Cămătaru, appearing in 39 league games in which he scored 4 goals.^{[4][17][19][20]} Andone gained throughout his career a total of 255 Divizia A appearances with 35 goals scored and a total of 29 matches with three goals scored in European competitions.^[4][17][19]

Ioan Andone played 55 matches and scored two goals at international level for Romania, making his debut on 11 November 1981 when coach Mircea Lucescu sent him on the field in the 82nd minute in order to replace Aurel Țicleanu in a 0–0 with Switzerland at the 1982 World Cup qualifiers.^[21][22] He made five appearances in which he scored one goal in a 2–0 victory against Sweden at the successful Euro 1984 qualifiers, being used by coach Mircea Lucescu in the 2–1 loss against West Germany at the final tournament as Romania did not pass the group stage.^[21] He played one game at the 1986 World Cup qualifiers, one at the Euro 1988 qualifiers and four at the successful 1990 World Cup qualifiers, being used by coach Emerich Jenei in all the minutes of the four matches from the final tournament, as Romania got eliminated by Ireland in the eight-finals.^[21] Ioan Andone's last game for the national team took place on 17 October 1990 in a 3–0 loss in front of Bulgaria at the Euro 1992 qualifiers.^[21] Andone was also part of Romania's U20 squad at the 1981 World Youth Championship from Australia, appearing in five games, helping the team finish the tournament on the third position, winning the bronze medal.^[2][23]

For representing his country at the 1990 World Cup, Andone was decorated by President of Romania Traian Băsescu on 25 March 2008 with the Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" – (The Medal "The Sportive Merit") class III.^[24]

Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Andone goal.^[21]

Ioan Andone started his coaching career in 1993 at Sportul Studențesc, a team he would coach on other three occasions.^[17][25] He coached Universitatea Cluj, Petrolul Ploiești, Farul Constanța, FC Brașov and Bihor Oradea before arriving in March 2003 at Dinamo București, a team with whom he won the first trophies of his coaching career consisting of a Divizia A title, three Cupa României and one Supercupa României, he would go on to have two more spells at Dinamo but without winning any trophies.^[17][26][27] At Dinamo he also made his first European performances by eliminating Shakhtar Donetsk in the 2003–04 UEFA Cup, then in the 2005–06 edition of the same competition, they eliminated Omonia Nicosia and Everton, managing a historical 5–2 win on aggregate against the latter, reaching the group stage where the campaign ended but there they still managed to earn a 1–0 victory against title holders, CSKA Moscow.^[28]

After he left Dinamo, Andone took over Cypriot club Omonia Nicosia in January 2006 and stayed there until January 2007, finishing on the second place in the 2005–06 Cypriot First Division.^[26][29] Andone coached CFR Cluj in the 2007–08 season, helping the team win the title and the cup, these being the first trophies the club won in its history, however he was dismissed in the beginning of the following season for poor results.^[17][26][30] He went to coach abroad, having spells in the Arab world at Al-Ettifaq and Al-Ahli, before returning to Europe at Bulgarian club CSKA Sofia where he worked with Romanian players Florentin Petre and Daniel Pancu.^[17][26][31] On 1 April 2010, Rapid București's officials appointed the former CSKA Sofia manager to lead the team until the end of the 2009–10 season.^[25] On 9 April 2012 he returned for a second spell at CFR Cluj, replacing Jorge Costa before the 26th round of the 2011–12 season, managing to win the title at the end of it and in the following season CFR eliminated Slovan Liberec and Basel in the 2012–13 Champions League campaign, thus reaching the group stage of the competition where after making 4 points in three games, Andone was dismissed.^[17][26][32]

From 2013 until 2015, Andone coached abroad having two spells in Kazakhstan Premier League, the first with Astana in 2013 when he finished the championship on the second place, the second with Aktobe in 2015 when he finished the championship on the third place, also in between these two periods he had a second unsuccessful spell at Al-Ettifaq with whom he relegated from the Saudi Professional League and a spell in Cyprus at Apollon Limassol where he was dismissed while still being on the first place of the 2014–15 Cypriot First Division.^[17][26][33]

Ioan Andone has a total of 456 matches as a manager in the Romanian top-division, Liga I consisting of 207 victories, 80 draws and 169 losses.^[34]

From June 2018 until July 2021, Andone worked at Voluntari, first as general manager and from July 2020 as president.^[35]

Corvinul Hunedoara

• Divizia B: 1979–80^[4]

Dinamo București

• Divizia A: 1983–84, 1989–90^[4]
• Cupa României: 1983–84, 1985–86, 1989–90^[4]

Dinamo București

• Divizia A: 2003–04^[4][17][26]
• Cupa României: 2002–03, 2003–04, 2004–05^[4][17][26]
• Supercupa României: 2005^[4][17][26]

CFR Cluj

• Liga I: 2007–08, 2011–12^[4][17][26]
• Cupa României: 2007–08^[4][17][26]
• Supercupa României runner-up: 2012^[4][17][26]

Shabab Al Ahli

• UAE Super Cup runner-up: 2009

• Ioan Andone at RomanianSoccer.ro (in Romanian)
• Ioan Andone at National-Football-Teams.com  
• Ioan Andone at BDFutbol