Ionel Dănciulescu

Ionel Dănciulescu

Danciu celebrates promotion to La Liga with Hércules
Personal information
Full name	Ionel Daniel Dănciulescu
Date of birth	6 December 1976
Place of birth	Slatina, Romania
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current team	Dinamo București (executive director)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps^†	(Gls)^†
1993–1995	Electroputere Craiova	31	(8)
1995–1997	Dinamo București	64	(22)
1997–1998	Altay	7	(1)
1998–2001	Steaua București	129	(54)
2002–2009	Dinamo București	198	(103)
2005	→ Shandong Luneng (loan)	26	(10)
2009–2010	Hércules	25	(10)
2010–2013	Dinamo București	93	(27)
Total		573	(235)
National team
1996–1997	Romania U21	5	(1)
1999–2009	Romania	8	(2)
Teams managed
2014	Dinamo București
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (goals)

Ionel Daniel Dănciulescu (born 6 December 1976 in Slatina, Olt County) is a Romanian former footballer and current manager. He holds the all-time record for the most competitive appearances in Liga I, with 515 games played over 20 years.^[1] He is also the second highest goalscorer in the history of Liga I, with 214 goals scored in his career (behind Dudu Georgescu with 252).

Club career

Born in Slatina, Romania, Ionel Dănciulescu started playing football in his hometown as a youngster for CSŞ Slatina, and was said to have great potential for striking a ball and to score goals. In his early career he got noticed immediately and was transferred in the capital of his region, Oltenia at Electroputere Craiova.

Electroputere Craiova

In 1993, Dănciulescue joined Electroputere making his Divizia A debut on 6 October 1993 against the derby rival at that time Universitatea Craiova, which ended 2–2. Over the course of two seasons with Electroputere, he scored 8 goals in 31 league games playing alongside the likes of Ștefan Nanu, Gabriel Popescu, and two other (later team-mates at Steaua), Sabin Ilie and Claudiu Răducanu. In 1995, Electroputere Craiova were relegated to the second league. Dănciulescu signed for Dinamo Bucharest and went on to become a promising striker.

Dinamo Bucharest

Having arrived in 1995, Dănciulescu only spent two seasons at Dinamo București, scoring 22 goals in 64 games. However, he did not win any trophies with Dinamo. He left the club for Turkey in 1997.

Altay Izmir

During the half season of 1997–98, Dănciulescu had a brief spell with Altay in the Turkish Super League. He played there seven games and scoring one goal.

Steaua Bucharest

After returning from Turkey, Dănciulescu decided to join Romanian team Steaua București. He played three seasons with Steaua, scoring 54 goals in 129 league games. In the seasons 1997–98 and 2000–01 Steaua won the championship titles as well as the Romanian Cup in 1998–99 and a Romanian Supercup title in 2001.

In the second part of the season 2001–02 Dănciulescu had a conflict with both Gigi Becali, the boss of Steaua București, and Victor Pițurcă, Steaua's coach, and had to leave along with Ion Vlădoiu.

Return to Dinamo Bucharest

He signed again with Dinamo Bucharest, but his second spell period was probably the hardest in his career. He even played in the second league at that time via Dinamo's satellite team Poiana Câmpina. He came back strong during the 2002–03 season, after he scored 16 goals in 26 games. The fans accepted him and he became the top-scorer of the team along with Claudiu Niculescu. The Romanian press called them the "N&D couple".

In 2004, he was named Romanian Footballer of the Year, after becoming the top goalscorer in the 2003–04 season of Divizia A and scoring 2 goals in 5 matches with the national team. During his second spell with Dinamo, Dănciulescu won the Romanian League in the seasons 2003–04 and 2006–07, and two more Romanian Cups in 2002–03 and 2003–04. As of August 2008 he was the fourth overall goalscorer in the history of the Romanian First Division (with 187 goals), after Dudu Georgescu, Rodion Cămătaru and Marin Radu. He was top scorer in the 2007–08 season, scoring 21 goals for Dinamo Bucharest, which he also captained several times that season.^[2]

Shandong Luneng

In 2005, he was loaned out to China side Shandong Luneng, which paid him 350.000 USD for 10 months. Dănciulescu scored 10 goals in 25 league games being the top-scorer of the team and helping them to reach the Chinese FA Cup final, where they finished runners-up.

Hércules C.F.

On 1 September 2009, Dănciulescu signed for Spanish side Hércules Alicante in the Segunda División securing a two-year deal. On 19 June 2010, Dănciulescu helped Hércules to promote to La Liga, after a break of 13 years, contributing 10 goals in 25 league games. He also scored two goals in the Spanish Cup against SD Huesca and Almería and became the overall top scorer of the team.

Second return to Dinamo

After only one year with Hércules, his contract was terminated so Dănciulescu came back to Dinamo in July 2010. He became a regular player for Dinamo in Ioan Andone's coaching spell and remained in the first squad in 2011, with Liviu Ciobotariu as manager. On 26 September 2011, he scored his 198th goal in Liga I in a match against Petrolul Ploiești, thus joining Rodion Cămătaru as the second most prolific goalscorer.^[3] On 17 October, Ionel Dănciulescu scored his 200th^[4] goal in Liga I, during a match against Ceahlăul Piatra-Neamț.

In September 2013, Dănciulescu became the most prolific goalscorer in Cupa României after he scored once in a game against Sănătatea Cluj. He reached 41 goals in the competition, passing the record of Florea Voinea.^[5]

Career statistics

As of 6 October 2013

Club	Season	League		Cup		Europe		Other		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Electroputere Craiova	1993–94	4	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	5	2
	1994–95	27	7	1	1	0	0	0	0	27	8
	Total	31	8	2	2	0	0	0	0	32	10
Dinamo	1995–96	32	14	0	0	2	0	0	0	34	14
	1996–97	32	8	2	2	0	0	0	0	34	10
	Total	64	22	2	2	2	0	0	0	68	24
Altay
	1997–98	7	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	1
	Total	7	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	1
Steaua	1997–98	25	14	3	1	0	0	0	0	28	15
	1998–99	33	15	7	6	5	2	0	0	45	23
	1999–00	30	14	2	1	7	1	1	0	40	16
	2000–01	27	6	3	3	0	0	0	0	30	9
	2001–02	14	5	1	1	4	0	0	0	19	6
	Total	129	54	16	12	16	3	1	0	162	69
Dinamo	2001–02	13	3	4	1	0	0	0	0	17	4
	2002–03	26	16	5	2	2	0	0	0	33	18
	2003–04	29	21	5	6	5	6	0	0	39	33
	2004–05	15	11	4	2	6	3	0	0	25	16
	Total	83	51	18	11	13	9	0	0	114	71
Shandong Luneng
	2005	26	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	26	10
	Total	26	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	26	10
Dinamo	2005–06	14	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	14	2
	2006–07	31	15	2	1	12	5	0	0	45	21
	2007–08	32	21	2	0	4	2	1	1	39	24
	2008–09	34	12	4	2	2	0	0	0	40	14
	2009–10	4	2	0	0	2	0	0	0	6	2
	Total	115	52	8	3	20	7	1	1	144	63
Hércules
	2009–10	25	10	3	2	0	0	0	0	28	12
	Total	25	10	3	2	0	0	0	0	28	12
Dinamo
	2010–11	29	7	5	3	0	0	0	0	34	10
	2011–12	32	13	4	1	4	1	0	0	40	15
	2012–13	27	7	1	0	1	0	0	0	29	7
	2013–14	5	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	6	1
	Total	93	27	11	5	5	1	0	0	109	33
In Romania		515	214	57	41	56	20	2	1	630	270
Career total		573	235	60	43	56	20	2	1	691	293

International career

Dănciulescu won his first Romania cap on 3 March 1999 against Estonia, in a 2–0 victory. However he was never in the plans of Victor Pițurcă, the man who brought him on the national team first time against Estonia, and was never called up again, due his conflict he had with Pițurcă when he was at Steaua. Dănciulescu was once called up during 2004 and 2009 by Anghel Iordănescu and Răzvan Lucescu.

He played only eight games for Romania, his best match was a friendly one against Germany ended with Romania's victory, 5–1 when he scored his only two goals for Romania.

International goals

Romania's goal tally first. "Score" column indicates the score after the player's goal.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	28 April 2004	Stadionul Giulești-Valentin Stănescu Bucharest, Romania	Germany	3–0	5–1	Friendly
2	28 April 2004	Stadionul Giulești-Valentin Stănescu Bucharest, Romania	Germany	4–0	5–1	Friendly

Honours

Club

Dinamo Bucureşti

• Liga 1(3):2001-02,2003-04,2006-07
• Cupa României(4):2002-03,2003-04,2004-05,2011-12
• Supercupa României(2):2005,2012

Individual

• Liga 1 Golden Boot: 2003–04, 2007–08
• Romanian Footballer of the Year: 2004

References

1. Orice Sport (13 November 2013). "Dănciulescu a pus capăt carierei de fotbalist şi a fost numit team-manager la Dinamo" (in Romanian). Retrieved 13 November 2013.
2. Fotbal :: Dinamo a cîştigat un titlu: Dănciulescu e golgeter
3. "Danciulescu l-a egalat pe Camataru la numarul de goluri in prima liga". observator.ro (in Romanian). 26 September 2011. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
4. gsp.ro (18 October 2011). "Danciu 200 în imagini » Îi va prelungi Dinamo contractul?" (in Romanian). Retrieved 18 October 2011.
5. Andra Constantinescu (24 September 2013). "Ionel Dănciulescu a devenit cel mai bun marcator din istoria Cupei României" (in Romanian). Retrieved 25 September 2013.

External links

• Ionel Dănciulescu at National-Football-Teams.com
• Career stats at www.romaniansoccer.ro
• Career stats at asport.ro