Gheorghe Butoiu

Gheorghe Butoiu (born 7 November 1968 in Câmpulung Muscel, Argeș County) is a Romanian former football player and manager.

Club career
Gheorghe Butoiu was born on 7 November 1968 in Câmpulung Muscel and started to play junior level football when he was aged 12 at local club ARO Muscelul Câmpulung, then in 1983 when he was age 16 he started to play for the team's senior squad in Divizia C. In 1986 he was brought to play at Steaua București's youth center, after being seen by Nicolae Pantea. He worked at The Military Men with coaches Bujor Hălmăgeanu and Lajos Sătmăreanu, being sent in 1988 to play for Steaua Mizil in Divizia B where he was one of the team's top-scorers in his single season spent there. Afterwards Steaua București sent him and Ioan Tătăran at Farul Constanța in exchange for Marian Popa. At Farul he made his Divizia A debut on 25 October 1989 in a 0–0 against Sportul Studențesc București, spending six seasons and a half with the club and in the first half of the 1995–96 season he scored a personal record of 12 goals which impressed Standard Liège's assistant coach Léon Semmeling who came to Romania to see him play, including witnessing a 7–0 victory against Politehnica Iași in which Butoiu scored a double, afterwards recommending him to Les Rouches. At Standard he was teammate with compatriot Mircea Rednic, but he spent only half of year with the club, being used by head coach Robert Waseige in 13 games, scoring twice. He returned to Romania, signing with Rapid București where he worked with coaches Mircea Rădulescu, Ion Dumitru, Nicolae Manea and Mircea Lucescu. He also played with The Railway Men four games in the 1996–97 UEFA Cup, scoring one goal from about 40 meters in a 1–0 victory against Lokomotiv Sofia which helped the team advance to the next phase of the competition where they were eliminated by Karlsruhe. After his Rapid spell ended, Butoiu went to play again for a short while at Farul where he was wanted by coach Ioan Andone. Then he went to play for one season at Național București where he was requested by his former coach from Farul, Florin Marin, having a successful spell with The Bankers, during which he was also coached by José Ramón Alexanko and Gino Iorgulescu. In the 1999–2000 season he started his third spell at Farul which was unsuccessful as in the second half of the season coach Vasile Simionaș did not use him much and the team relegated to Divizia B.  He stayed with The Sailors in Divizia B for a half of season, working with coach Petre Grigoraș, then moving for the second part of the season to retire in his hometown at the club where he started to play football, ARO Muscelul Câmpulung under the guidance of coach Ionel Augustin. Gheorghe Butoiu has a total of 259 appearances with 53 goals scored in Divizia A.

International career
Gheorghe Butoiu was used by coach Anghel Iordănescu on 27 September 1995 in one game for Romania's B team at Belo Horizonte against the similar team of Brazil who had players Sávio and Zé Roberto among others, Butoiu managing to score against goalkeeper Dida the final goal of the 2–2 draw.

Coaching career
Gheorghe Butoiu started coaching at Farul Constanța's youth center, managing in 2008 to win the national junior championship for the first time after 45 years with the help of players like Denis Alibec, Cosmin Matei or Kehinde Fatai. Shortly after that performance, he started coaching seniors, firstly CS Eforie in Liga III. In the beginning of the 2009–10 Liga II he returned at Farul as Marius Șumudică's assistant, becoming head coach for 18 games after Șumudică's departure. He started the year 2010 as head coach of Farul's satellite team from Liga III but had to return to coach the first team alongside technical director Dennis Șerban as after only five rounds from the second half of the season, Ștefan Stoica was dismissed after obtaining only four points. For the following season, The Sailors named Ioan Sdrobiș as head coach, but Butoiu remained in the coaching staff as an assistant until January 2011 when Sdrobiș left the club and Butoiu became again head coach for a few months. In 2012 he led Eolica Dobrogea in Liga III together with Mihai Guliu and at the beginning of 2013 they went together in Liga II to coach Săgeata Năvodari where they managed to help the team gain promotion in Liga I for the first time in its history. In the following season he remained in Săgeata's technical staff as an assistant of Tibor Selymes and in December 2013 he had his first spell as head coach in Liga I, as after the dismissal of Selymes he was appointed as caretaker for the last two rounds of the year, obtaining in his first match the team's first away victory of the season, a 2–1 against Gaz Metan Mediaș. Afterwards Butoiu continued to work in Săgeata's new coaching staff led by Cătălin Anghel, the team relegating back to the second league by the end of the season and in November 2014 after Anghel left the team, Butoiu led the team again for a short while as head coach.