Ionel Ganea: former Wolves striker’s controversies and a family tragedy | OneFootball

Ionel Ganea’s Wolves stint is remembered as much for controversy as for goals, and his story was marked by tragedy last year. He was among the club’s early Premier League scorers after arriving mid-season in 2003.

According to ExpressAndStar.com, the Romanian international came through at home before a 1999 move to Stuttgart. He shone at Euro 2000, scored regularly in Germany, then cancelled a contract in Türkiye and signed for Wolves in December 2003 following promotion.

Hopes he might fire a survival push went unfulfilled, he scored three Premier League goals and stayed two more seasons. In all, he recorded seven in 32, with injuries disrupting his second-tier spell. He later returned to Romania to finish playing, then worked as a coach, manager and technical director.

Ganea’s career was punctuated by flashpoints, from beating up the FC Brasov captain to kicking a team-mate and throwing a table. In Germany he clashed with Felix Magath, even tossing an ice cream at the coach, and had an altercation with Sol Campbell at Euro 2000. He was also said to have punched a colleague over a disputed card game.

In 2004 a challenge against Scotland left John Kennedy seriously injured, sidelined for three years before he retired. Steven Gerrard later wrote that a Ganea tackle caused a tear from knee to ankle, and Ganea replied that he would not mention him in his own book, using a derogatory phrase. At Wolves he labelled Glenn Hoddle the most difficult manager he had worked under, and was fined a week’s wages for a training-ground fight.

Back home the incidents continued, including a headbutt on an opponent and grabbing a club president by the neck. He received a 22-match ban, later cut to 16, for attacking an assistant referee. A bizarre story also circulated from the funeral of former player Ioan Dragan that he almost fought with a priest over the sermon.

Last year he was said to have been involved in a car accident with his two-year-old son. The child died a month later.

Source: ExpressAndStar.com