Ionel Dănciulescu

Ionel Daniel Dănciulescu (born 6 December 1976) is a Romanian former professional footballer who played as a forward.

He holds the all-time record for the most competitive appearances in Liga I, with 515 games played over the course of twenty years. He is the second-highest goalscorer in the history of Liga I with 214 goals, only behind Dudu Georgescu with 252. He also scored 35 goals in the Cupa României and he is the player with the most appearances, 36 in the Dinamo – Steaua derby in which he scored 13 goals (8 for Steaua and 5 for Dinamo) which makes him the top-goalscorer alongside Florea Voinea.

Early years and Electroputere Craiova
Born in Slatina, Romania, Ionel Dănciulescu started playing football in his hometown as a youngster for CSȘ Slatina, alongside Claudiu Niculescu, Ionuț Luțu and Augustin Chiriță under coach Ion Pârvulescu and was said that he had a great potential for scoring goals.

In 1993, Dănciulescu joined Electroputere Craiova making his Divizia A debut at age 16 on 6 October 1993 against the city rival at that time Universitatea Craiova, which ended 2–2. Over the course of two seasons with Electroputere, he scored 8 goals in 31 league games, his first goal being in a 2–2 against Dinamo București, he also scored a double in a 4–2 loss in front of Steaua București, during this period he played alongside the likes of Ștefan Nanu, Gabriel Popescu, and two other (later teammates at Steaua), Sabin Ilie and Claudiu Răducanu.

Dinamo București
In 1995, Electroputere relegated to the second league, Dănciulescu having offers to remain in the first division, choosing to sign with Dinamo București after being convinced by the club's officials Mircea Stoenescu and Cornel Dinu. He spent two seasons with The Red Dogs, scoring 22 goals in 64 games Divizia A games, including his first hat-trick in the competition in a 3–0 against AS Bacău.

Altay Izmir
During the first half of the 1997–98 season, Dănciulescu had a brief spell in the Turkish Super League with Altay who paid Dinamo for him and Marius Coporan a fee around $400.000, playing seven games and scoring one goal against Beşiktaş, being brought there by coach Marian Bondrea and he was teammate with another Romanian, Dănuţ Moisescu.

Steaua București
Dănciulescu and Coporan returned to Romania from Turkey, after Steaua București paid Altay the same money they paid for their acquisition from Dinamo. Dănciulescu helped the club win the title in his first season spent at the club, being used by coach Mihai Stoichiță in 25 games in which he scored 14 goals, being the team's second top-goalscorer with three goals behind Cătălin Munteanu. In the following season, he won the 1998–99 Cupa României, being used by coach Emerich Jenei in the first 51 minutes when he replaced him with Ionuț Luțu in the victory at the penalty shoot-out from the final against Rapid București. Dănciulescu helped the club reach the sixteenths-finals of the 1999–2000 UEFA Cup, playing seven games in the campaign as they eliminated Levadia Tallinn, LASK Linz against whom he scored a goal, West Ham United, being eliminated by Slavia Prague. He won another league title in the 2000–01 season with The Military Men, contributing with 6 goals scored in the 26 appearances given to him by coach Victor Pițurcă. Also it was during this period when he earned the nickname "Corbul" (The Raven) from his teammate Adrian Matei.

In the middle of the 2001–02 season, Dănciulescu had a conflict with coach Pițurcă, having to leave the team.

Return to Dinamo București
He signed again with Dinamo București who paid $350.000 to Steaua for his transfer, but at the beginning of this second spell he had probably the hardest time of his career as Dinamo's fans were cussing him at games because he played for Steaua and scored against Dinamo. He scored three goals in the 13 appearances given to him by coaches Cornel Dinu and Marin Ion as the team won the title at the end of the 2001–02 season, a period in which he even played in the second league at that time via Dinamo's satellite team Poiana Câmpina. He came back strong during the following season, after he scored 16 goals in 26 games, also helping the club win the Cupa României, being used by coach Ioan Andone in all the minutes from the 1–0 victory in the final against Național București, the fans eventually accepting him as he became a top-scorer of the team, making a successful couple in the team's offence in the following years with Claudiu Niculescu, the Romanian press calling them the "N&D couple", a nickname inspired from the first letters of their family name and the Romanian pop band "N&D".

He helped the team win The Double in the 2003–04 season, contributing with 21 goals scored in the 29 league matches in which he was used by Andone, which made him the top-goalscorer of the season, however he did not play in the 2–0 victory in front of Oțelul Galați from the Cupa României final as he was suspended after receiving a red card, also he gave his contribution to the elimination Liepājas Metalurgs and Shakhtar Donetsk by scoring two goals against the first and one against the latter in the UEFA Cup, the campaign ending when they were eliminated in the second round of the competition by Spartak Moscow against whom he scored a brace in the second leg. In the first half of the following season he scored 11 goals in 15 league appearances, also he played in the Champions League qualifying rounds, managing to score the goals in both legs which were 1–0 victories against Žilina, then forcing Quinton Fortune to score a own goal against Manchester United in the eventual 5–1 loss on aggregate. These performances and the double scored for the national team in the 5–1 victory from the friendly against Germany, earned Dănciulescu the 2004 Romanian Footballer of the Year award.

In the 2006–07 season he was the team's second top-goalscorer after Claudiu Niculescu as he netted the goal 15 times in the 31 appearances given to him by coach Mircea Rednic, including a spectacular scissors kick goal in a 4–2 victory in a derby against Steaua, helping the team win the title, also appearing in 12 matches in which he scored 5 goals as the club reached the sixteenths-finals of the 2006–07 UEFA Cup where they lost with 3–1 on aggregate in front of Benfica. In the following season Dinamo had the objective of reaching the Champions League group stage, Dănciulescu managing to score a goal with a header after a pass from Cristian Pulhac in the 1–1 draw from the first leg of the third qualifying round against Lazio Roma, however they did not qualify, losing with 3–1 the second leg. He formed a couple in Dinamo's offence with Florin Bratu, the Romanian press called them "BD in action", a nickname inspired from the first letters of their family name and the Romanian movie "BD in action" and by the end of the 2007–08 season the team had no chance of winning the title, but rivals Steaua were on the first position, having scheduled a match on Dinamo's ground which ended with The Red Dogs's 2–1 victory with each of them scoring a goal, a victory that helped CFR Cluj advance to the first position and becoming champions after the final round of the season, also Dănciulescu became the top-goalscorer of the season with 21 goals.

In August 2009 after scoring a double against Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț, he became the fourth overall goalscorer in the history of the Romanian First Division with 187 goals, only behind Dudu Georgescu, Rodion Cămătaru and Marin Radu. He helped the club fulfill "The wonder from Liberec" after winning with 3–0 the away game against Slovan Liberec, as the first leg was lost with the same score, qualifying after the penalty shoot-out to the group stage of the 2009–10 Europa League, however shortly afterwards he left Dinamo to go play for Hércules Alicante in Segunda División as he was not getting along with coach Dario Bonetti, his last game being a 1–0 away victory against rivals Steaua București after which he was applauded by the 10.000 people who were at the stadium, including Steaua's fans.

Shandong Luneng
In 2005, Dinamo loaned him out to Chinese side Shandong Luneng for $500.000, who paid Dănciulescu a salary of $350,000 for 11 months. He worked with coach Ljubiša Tumbaković, scoring 10 goals in 26 league games which helped the team finish the championship on the third position, he also helped them reach the Chinese FA Cup final in which he played all the minutes in the 1–0 loss in front of Dalian Shide and managed to reach the AFC Champions League quarter-finals.

Hércules
In August 2009, Dănciulescu signed a two-year contract with Spanish side Hércules Alicante in the Segunda División who paid Dinamo around €400.000, as he was wanted there by his former coach from The Red Dogs, Esteban Vigo. Dănciulescu scored 10 goals in 25 league games which helped Hércules earn the second place at the end of the championship, thus to promoting to La Liga after a break of 13 years, also scoring two goals in the Spanish Cup against SD Huesca and Almería.

Third spell at Dinamo București
After only one year with Hércules, his contract was terminated so Dănciulescu came back to Dinamo in July 2010 where he reunited with coach Ioan Andone. On 26 September 2011, he scored his 198th goal in Liga I in a match against Petrolul Ploiești, thus joining Rodion Cămătaru as the second most prolific goalscorer and about three weeks later he scored his 200th goal in Liga I, during a match against Ceahlăul. He helped the team win the 2011–12 Cupa României, being used by coach Dario Bonetti in the first 71 minutes when he replaced him with Cătălin Munteanu in the 1–0 victory from the final against Rapid București. On 16 March 2013 after playing in a match against Petrolul, Dănciulescu became the first footballer that reached 500 appearances in the Romanian top-league Liga I.

Ionel Dănciulescu made his last Liga I appearance on 6 October 2013, exactly 20 years since he made his debut, playing for Dinamo in a 1–1 against Ceahlăul, having a record of 515 matches played in the competition with 214 goals scored, which makes him the second best goalscorer after Dudu Georgescu who has 252. He also scored 35 goals in the Cupa României and he is the player with the most appearances, 36 in the Dinamo – Steaua derby in which he scored 13 goals (8 for Steaua and 5 for Dinamo) which makes him the top-goalscorer alongside Florea Voinea.

International career
Dănciulescu won his first Romania cap on 3 March 1999 against Estonia, in a 2–0 victory. However, he was never in the plans of Victor Pițurcă, the man who brought him on the national team first time against Estonia, and was never called up again, due to the dispute he had with Pițurcă when he was at Steaua. Dănciulescu played seven games including three at the 2006 and 2010 World Cup qualifiers during 2004 and 2009 being called up by Anghel Iordănescu and Răzvan Lucescu.

He played only eight games for Romania, his best being a friendly against Germany which ended with a 5–1 victory when he scored his only two goals for the national team against goalkeeper Oliver Kahn.

Managerial career
On 13 November 2014 after Flavius Stoican's departure from Dinamo București, the club's officials appointed Dănciulescu to lead the team in the remaining four games until the end of the first half of the season. After a 6–1 loss in front Astra Giurgiu he announced that he was not interested in continuing to coach the team, staying just for the final game of the year when the team reached the Cupa Ligii semi-finals after eliminating Universitatea Cluj at the penalty shoot-out.

International

 * Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Dănciulescu goal.

Honours
Steaua București Dinamo București Shandong Luneng Individual Records
 * Liga I: 1997–98, 2000–01
 * Cupa României: 1998–99
 * Supercupa României: 1998
 * Liga I: 2001–02, 2003–04, 2006–07
 * Cupa României: 2002–03, 2003–04, 2011–12
 * Supercupa României: 2012
 * Chinese FA Cup runner-up: 2005
 * Liga I top scorer: 2003–04, 2007–08
 * Gazeta Sporturilor Romanian Footballer of the Year: 2004
 * Most appearances in Liga I: 515
 * Second-highest goalscorer in Liga I: 214