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]
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]
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]
For representing his country at the 1990 World Cup, Andone was decorated by President of RomaniaTraian Băsescu on 25 March 2008 with the Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" – (The Medal "The Sportive Merit") class III.[24]
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]
Coaching abroad
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]
As manager and president
From June 2018 until July 2021, Andone worked at Voluntari, first as general manager and from July 2020 as president.[35]
