Ion Pop

Ion Pop (8 May 1947 – 8 December 2015) was a Romanian footballer who played as a right defender.^[2][4][5] After he retired from playing football he worked for almost 30 years at Rapid București, mainly at the team's youth center where he taught and formed generations of players, which include Nicolae Stanciu and Nicolae Grigore.^[4][5] His nephew, Mihai Iosif was also a footballer who played at Rapid București.^[5]

Ion Pop

Personal information
Date of birth	(1947-05-08)8 May 1947[1]
Place of birth	Bucharest, Kingdom of Romania[1]
Date of death	8 December 2015(2015-12-08) (aged 68)[1]
Place of death	Bucharest, Romania[2]
Height	1.71 m (5 ft 7 in)[1]
Position(s)	Right defender[2]
Youth career
1960–1961	Victoria București
1961–1964	Flacăra Roșie București
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1964	Flacăra Roșie București
1965	Petrolul Ploiești	1	(0)
1965–1967	Dinamo Pitești	34	(0)
1967–1978	Rapid București[a]	276	(5)
Total		311	(5)
International career
1968–1969	Romania U23[3]	2	(0)
1972	Romania Olympic[3]	1	(0)
1972	Romania	2	(0)
Managerial career
1989–1990	Rapid București
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

International career

Ion Pop played two friendly games for Romania, making his debut under coach Gheorghe Ola in a 4–2 away victory against Morocco.^[6][7] His second game for the national team was a 2–2 against Peru and he also appeared once for Romania's Olympic team in a 3–2 loss against Denmark at the 1972 Summer Olympics qualifiers.^[3][6]

Honours

Player

Rapid Bucureşti

• Divizia B: 1974–75^[1]
• Cupa României: 1971–72, 1974–75, runner-up 1967–68^[8][9][4]

Manager

Rapid Bucureşti

• Divizia B: 1989–90

Notes

1. The statistics for the 1977–78 Divizia B season are unavailable.^[1]