Daniel Timofte

Jiul Petroșani

Timofte was born on 1 October 1967 in Lonea, Hunedoara County, Romania and began playing junior-level football in 1976 at Corvinul Hunedoara, moving three years later to Jiul Petroșani. On 31 August 1986 he made his Divizia A debut, playing for Jiul under coach Gheorghe Mulțescu in a 3–1 home victory against Chimia Râmnicu Vâlcea. The team was relegated at the end of his first season, but Timofte stayed with the club, helping it get promoted back to the first league after two years.

Dinamo București

In the summer of 1989, Timofte had offers from Dinamo București and Steaua București. He chose to play for the former, because they were building a team composed of mainly young players like himself, and also the coach that promoted him to the senior squad at Jiul, Mulțescu, advised him to do so. In his first season at Dinamo, the club won The Double, with Timofte being used by coach Mircea Lucescu in 20 league matches in which he scored eight goals, including one in a 3–0 derby win over Steaua. He was also introduced in the 57th minute to replace Anton Doboș in the 6–4 victory in the Cupa României final against Steaua. In the same season, he played eight games in the 1989–90 European Cup Winners' Cup campaign as the club reached the semi-finals where they were eliminated after a 2–0 aggregate loss to Anderlecht.

Bayer Uerdingen

In the middle of the following season, Timofte left Dinamo and joined Bayer Uerdingen, making his Bundesliga…

Timofte has 22 appearances with two goals scored for Romania, making his debut on 28 March 1990 under coach Emerich Jenei in a friendly that ended with a 3–1 away victory against Egypt in which he scored once. Jenei used him in three games in the 1990 World Cup final tournament, as the team reached the round of 16 where the campaign ended after a 0–0 (5–4, after penalty kicks) loss to Ireland in which at the penalty shootout his strike was the only one defended by goalkeeper Packie Bonner. That penalty miss followed him when he went with Dinamo to play against Irish club St Patrick's Athletic in the 1990–91 European Cup, the Irish fans gave him mocking cheers for his shootout miss. After he ended his career, Timofte opened a number of bars in Petroșani, the first being named "Penalty", and also Packie Bonner named his boat "Timofte". In the following years he played four games in the Euro 1992 qualifiers in which he scored once in a 3–1 away win over San Marino. He also played in a 1–1 draw against Czechoslovakia during the 1994 World Cup qualifiers. Subsequently, he made four appearances in the Euro 1996 qualifiers, including his last one for The Tricolours on 26 April 1995 in a 4–1 away win over Azerbaijan. For representing his country at the 1990 World Cup, Timofte was decorated by President of Romania Traian Băsescu on 25 March 2008 with the Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" – (The Medal "The Sportive Merit") class III.

Timofte spent most of his coaching career as an assistant of Gheorghe Mulțescu at various teams from Romanian football, including giants Dinamo București. In the 2007–08 season he was Dorinel Munteanu's assistant at Vaslui. He had spells as head coach at Sportul Studențesc, Jiul Petroșani and CF Brăila. With Sportul he worked in the first league, while with Jiul he activated in the second one and with Brăila he managed to earn promotion from the third to the second league in the 2009–10 season.

In 2016, Timofte received the Honorary Citizen of Petroșani title.