Vasile Simionaș

Vasile Simionaș (16 November 1950 – 19 March 2025) was a Romanian professional football manager and football player who played as a midfielder.

Vasile Simionaș

Personal information
Date of birth	(1950-11-16)16 November 1950
Place of birth	Iași, Romania
Date of death	19 March 2025(2025-03-19) (aged 74)
Place of death	Iași, Romania
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
1964–1966	Laminorul Roman
1966–1968	Victoria Roman
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1966–1968	Victoria Roman
1968–1969	Dinamo Bacău	9	(1)
1969–1984	Politehnica Iași[a]	359	(42)
1985	CSM Suceava
Total		368	(43)
International career
1971	Romania U23	8	(0)
1972	Romania Olympic	1	(0)
1972–1976	Romania	3	(0)
Managerial career
1983–1984	Politehnica Iași
1984–1985	Politehnica Iași (assistant)
1985	CSM Suceava
1985–1986	Politehnica Iași
1986–1988	CSM Suceava
	Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț
	CFR Pașcani
1989–1990	Politehnica Iași
1991	Dacia Unirea Brăila
1991–1992	Progresul București
1993–1994	Politehnica Iași
1994–1999	Oțelul Galați
1999	Astra Ploiești
2000	Farul Constanța
2001–2002	Politehnica Iași
2003–2004	Politehnica Iași
2013	Kosarom Pașcani
2021–2025	Politehnica Iași (board member)
Medal record Representing  Romania Universiade 1972 Romania Team
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Club career

Simionaș was born on 16 November 1950 in Iași, Romania.^[2][3][4][5] At the age of two, his family moved to Bârlad, then in 1956 they settled in Roman where he spent most of his childhood.^[2] He started playing junior level football at the age of 14 at Laminorul Roman.^[2] In 1966 he went at neighboring club, Victoria where he continued to play at junior level but also at senior level in Divizia C and Divizia B.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} After scoring a goal from the center of the field in a game, an official from Dinamo Bacău brought him to the team.^[2] At Bacău he learned a lot about football from the club's youth coach, Costică Rădulescu.^[2] In April 1968, at the age of 17, Simionaș made his Divizia A debut for Bacău when he was sent on the field by coach Nicolae Dumitru for the last 20 minutes in a match against Progresul București.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} He scored his first goal in the spring of 1969 in Bacău's 3–1 home win against Steaua București.^[2][6]

In June 1969, he moved back to his hometown at Politehnica Iași.^[2][7] Over the years at Politehnica he was coached by managers like Virgil Mărdărescu or Ilie Oană, also together with Mihai Romilă and Gabriel Simionov he formed one of the best midfield lines of the Romanian league from the 1970s.^{[3][4][5][8][9][10][11]} Until 1984, Simionaș played 359 Divizia A matches for The Copou Squad, scoring 42 goals, also during this period, the club relegated twice to Divizia B but he stayed with the club, helping it promote back each time after one year.^{[3][4][5][8][9][10]}

In 1985 he played the last games of his career while being a player-coach at CSM Suceava in Divizia B.^[12] Simionaș has a total of 368 matches with 43 goals netted in the Romanian top-league, Divizia A.^[1][3]

International career

In 1971, Simionaș played eight games for Romania's under-23 squad.^[13] He also played for Romania's Olympic team in a 3–2 home loss to Denmark at the 1972 Summer Olympics qualifiers.^[13] He won the Universiade gold medal with Romania's students football team in the 1972 edition hosted by Romania.^[3][4][14]

Simionaș made his first appearance for Romania's national team in a friendly which took place on 30 January 1972 as coach Gheorghe Ola used him all the minutes in a 4–2 away victory against Morocco.^{[13][15][16][17]} His following game was a 1–0 loss to Bulgaria from the 1973–76 Balkan Cup final.^[13][15] Simionaș's third and last match played for the national team took place on 2 July 1976 in a 2–2 draw against Iran.^[13][15]

Managerial career

Simionaș was appointed head coach at Politehnica Iași for the 1983–84 Divizia A season while also still being an active player.^[10][12] He finished the season on the eight place but despite this performance, he was replaced with Constantin Oțet for the following season, remaining in the club as his assistant.^[12] However the results were poor and he and Oțet had to leave the team.^[9] Shortly afterwards, Simionaș went as a player-coach at Divizia B club CSM Suceava.^[12] He did not spend much time at Suceava as he was called back at Politehnica Iași but could not avoid the team's relegation.^[12] He stayed with the club, fighting for promotion with Oțelul Galați but eventually failing to do so.^[12]

He made a comeback at Suceava, managing to promote it to the first league after a competition with Politehnica Iași at the end of the 1986–87 Divizia B season.^[3][5][12] In the following season he did not manage to keep Suceava in the first league, leaving with a few rounds before the end of the season.^[12] In the next two years he had spells at Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț, CFR Pașcani and Politehnica Iași.^[12] In 1991 he went at Dacia Unirea Brăila which he helped avoid relegation to Divizia B.^[12] He then went to work at Progresul București which he promoted from the second to the first division.^[12] He returned at Poli Iași in Divizia B, trying to promote it but eventually finished second, below Argeș Pitești.^[12]

In 1994, Simionaș started the most successful spell of his coaching career at Oțelul Galați.^{[6][12][18][19][20][21]} Over the course of five seasons the team finished twice on the fourth place, being known for winning its home games against top teams which earned them the nickname "The Graveyard of the Giants".^{[12][18][19][20][21]} He participated twice with Oțelul in the UEFA Cup, in the 1997–98 edition they were eliminated in the first qualifying round by HIT Gorica, then in 1998–99 they got past Sloga Jugomagnat but got eliminated in the second qualifying round by Vejle.^{[6][12][18][19][20][21][22]} In 1997 he was named the best coach from Romania.^{[3][4][5][12]}

Afterwards he had two unsuccessful spells at Astra Ploiești and Farul Constanța, relegating with the latter.^[12] In 2001 he made another comeback at Politehnica Iași, which was in Divizia C, helping it earn promotion to the second at the end of his first season at the club.^[10][12] After two seasons spent in Divizia B of which in the first one he was replaced for the second half of the season, he managed to earn promotion to Divizia A in 2004.^[12] After a disappointing start in the following season, he was replaced with Ionuț Popa.^[12]

After 2005, Simionaș started to work as an observer for the Romanian Football Federation and also managed Kosarom Pașcani for a short period in 2013.^[10][23]

Simionaș has a total of 456 matches as a manager in the Romanian top-division, Divizia A consisting of 118 victories, 47 draws and 114 losses.^[24]

Personal life and death

On 28 February 2025 he was named Honorary Citizen of Iași.^[3][4]

On 19 March 2025, Simionaș died in Iași at age 74.^[4][5][25]

Honours

Player

Victoria Roman

• Divizia C: 1966–67^[6]

Politehnica Iași

• Divizia B: 1972–73, 1981–82^[8]

Manager

CSM Suceava

• Divizia B: 1986–87^[12]

Progresul București

• Divizia B: 1991–92^[12]

Politehnica Iași

• Divizia C: 2001–02^[12]
• Divizia B: 2003–04^[12]

Notes

1. The statistics for the 1972–73 and 1981–82 Divizia B seasons are unavailable.^[1]