Ion Țîrcovnicu

Ion Țîrcovnicu (7 April 1936 – 10 March 2003) was a Romanian football forward.

Club career
Ion Țîrcovnicu was born on 7 April 1936 in Bucharest, Romania, starting to play football in 1954 at local club, Voința in Divizia B. In 1955 he went at Progresul CPCS București, also in the second league, then one year later he signed with Progresul București where he made his Divizia A debut on 2 April 1956 in a 2–1 home loss in front of Flamura Roșie Arad in which he scored his side's goal. Afterwards he went for a short period at Dinamo 6 București, then he played one season for Dinamo Cluj and two for Dinamo Bacău.

In 1960, Țîrcovnicu signed with Dinamo București where in his first season he scored a personal record of 11 goals, including one in a 3–2 loss in a derby against Steaua București as the team finished the season on the second place. In the following one he worked with three coaches Traian Ionescu, Constantin Teașcă and Nicolae Dumitru, scoring five goals in 20 appearances, as the team won the title. Then he made his debut in European competitions, appearing in a 1–1 with Galatasaray in the 1962–63 European Cup, also scoring seven goals in the 27 appearances given to him by coaches Ionescu and Dumitru in the league, including one goal in a draw with Steaua as the team won another title. In the 1963–64 European Cup he played three games, scoring one goal in a 1–0 victory against East Germany champion, Motor Jena which helped the club advance to the next phase where they were eliminated by Real Madrid against whom he also scored once. In the same season, Țîrcovnicu helped Dinamo win The Double, coaches Ionescu and Dumitru giving him 17 appearances in which he scored five goals but he was not used in the 5–3 win over Steaua in the 1964 Cupa României final.

He started the 1964–65 season at The Red Dogs, but moved during the season to Dinamo Pitești, the team managing to win the title at the end of the season without him. During his first season spent at Pitești, the team reached the 1965 Cupa României final, coach Virgil Mărdărescu using him all the minutes in the 2–1 loss in front of Știința Cluj. He played three games in the 1966–67 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup campaign as the team eliminated Sevilla and Toulouse in the first two rounds, being defeated in the third round with 1–0 on aggregate by Dinamo Zagreb who eventually won the competition. Țîrcovnicu made his last Divizia A appearance on 1 June 1967, playing for Dinamo Pitești in a 4–2 home loss in front of Universitatea Cluj, having a total of 201 appearances with 43 goals scored in the competition, also making seven appearances with two goals in European competitions (including three appearances in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup).

International career
Ion Țîrcovnicu played one game for Romania's national team on 9 October 1963 when coach Silviu Ploeșteanu used him as a starter in a friendly against Turkey which ended 0–0. He also played two games for Romania's Olympic team, one of them was a 2–1 victory in a friendly against Yugoslavia in which he scored Romania's first goal, the other one being a 3–2 loss against Denmark at the 1964 Summer Olympics qualifiers.

Death
Ion Țîrcovnicu died on 10 March 2003 at age 66.

Honours
Dinamo București Dinamo Pitești
 * Divizia A: 1961–62, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1964–65
 * Cupa României: 1963–64
 * Cupa României runner-up: 1964–65