Ionel Augustin (born 11 October 1955) is a Romanian retired footballer who played as a striker.
Club career
Ionel Augustin, nicknamed Oneață was born on 11 October 1955 in Bucharest and started to play football in 1966 at junior level at Dinamo București, making his Divizia A debut for the senior squad on 23 April 1975 in a 5–0 victory against Chimia Râmnicu Vâlcea, winning the title in his first season spent at the club, coach Nicolae Dumitru giving him a total of five appearances.[2][3][4] In the 1976–77 season he went at Jiul Petroșani in order to play more often.[2][5]
Afterwards, Augustin returned to Dinamo where for several years he would form a successful offensive trio with Gheorghe Mulțescu and Costel Orac, together being called "AMO" by the fans, a nickname inspired by their initials from the first letters of their family name.[6] He won three consecutive Divizia A titles between 1982 and 1984, in the first, coach Valentin Stănescu used him in 31 matches in which he scored seven times, in the following two he worked once again with Dumitru who gave him 31 appearances in each season, Augustin scoring 14 goals in the first and 17 in the latter, these two being his most prolific seasons of his career.[2][4] He also won three Cupa României but played in only one of the finals, the one from 1984 when coach Dumitru used him the whole match in the 2–1 win over rivalsSteaua București.[2][7] Over the years he would score two goals in the derby with Steaua in two 1–1 draws from the league.[8] He made some notable performances with The Red Dogs in European competitions, as helping the club eliminate Inter Milan by scoring one goal in the 4–3 victory on aggregate from the 1981–82 UEFA Cup, also appearing in seven matches in the 1983–84 European Cup campaign, scoring one goal against Kuusysi Lahti, one in a 3–0 victory from the first leg that helped them eliminate title holders, Hamburg and one against Dinamo Minsk, reaching the semi-finals where the campaign ended in front of Liverpool.[2][3][9]
In the middle of the 1985–86 season, Augustin went from Dinamo to Victoria București.[2] In 1988 he went at Rapid București where on 11 December he made his last Divizia A appearance in a 2–0 victory against Argeș Pitești, having a total of 383 matches with 111 goals scored in the competition, also he gained a total of 33 games with 10 goals scored in European competitions.[2][3] Augustin ended his career in 1990 after playing two seasons in Divizia B for Chimia Râmnicu Vâlcea and Unirea Slobozia.[2]
International career
Ionel Augustin played 34 matches and scored three goals for Romania, making his debut on 13 December 1978 under coach Ștefan Kovacs in a friendly which ended with a 2–1 loss in front of Greece.[10][11] He played two games in which he scored once at the Euro 1980 qualifiers, then he played in the first leg of the 1977–80 Balkan Cup final, which ended with a 2–0 defeat against Yugoslavia, he also played two matches at the 1982 World Cup qualifiers and he made six appearances at the successful Euro 1984 qualifiers, also being selected by coach Mircea Lucescu to be part of the Euro 1984 squad, playing in a group game against Portugal which ended with a 1–0 loss.[10] Augustin played in a 3–2 loss against Northern Ireland at the 1986 World Cup qualifiers, his last two games played for the national team being friendlies, a 1–1 and a 0–0 with Iraq, Augustin scoring Romania's goal in the first one.[10]
International goals
Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Augustin goal.[10]
List of international goals scored by Ionel Augustin
