Ioan Petcu

Petcu was born on 1 May 1959 in Hunedoara, Romania. When he was aged 14, his football talent was noticed by coach Dumitru Pătrașcu who brought him to Corvinul Hunedoara. On 2 April 1977, he made his Divizia A debut, playing in Corvinul's 2–1 home win against Steaua București. In 1979 the team was relegated but Petcu stayed with the club, helping it get promoted back to the first league after one season under the guidance of coach Mircea Lucescu. Afterwards he helped Corvinul finish third in the 1981–82 Divizia A season. Then he appeared in four games in the 1982–83 UEFA Cup as they got past Grazer AK in the first round, being eliminated in the following one by FK Sarajevo, Petcu scoring a goal against the latter with a lob after an assist from Florea Dumitrache. In the 1985–86 season as coach Ion Ionescu promoted an offensive style of play, Petcu managed to score a personal record of 20 goals. On 5 June 1990, he made his last Divizia A appearance in a 2–0 home victory against Universitatea Craiova, totaling 363 matches with 135 goals in the competition, all of them for Corvinul. In 1990 he went to play in the Cypriot Second Division for APEP Pelendriou. After one year, he was transferred to Hungarian club, Diósgyőr where he was teammates with compatriot and former Corvinul colleague, Romulus Gabor. He made his Nemzeti Bajnokság I debut on 25 August 1991 under coach Ladislau Vlad in a 2–0 home loss to Siófok. Petcu scored his first goal for them on 20 September when he opened…

Petcu played two games for Romania, making his debut on 1 May 1982 when coach Mircea Lucescu sent him at half-time to replace Aurel Țicleanu in a 3–1 victory against Cyprus in the Euro 1984 qualifiers. His following game was a friendly which took place on 2 March 1986 and ended with a 1–0 win over Egypt.

After he ended his playing career, Petcu started to work as a manager in 1995, coaching various teams in the Romanian lower leagues such as Corvinul Hunedoara, Unirea Sânnicolau Mare, Bihor Oradea, FC Hunedoara, Mureșul Deva and Cetate Deva. He managed to gain promotion to Liga II with Unirea Sânnicolau Mare in the 2007–08 season. After 2012 he was the vice-president of FC Hunedoara. His last coaching spell took place between 2021 and 2023 at Aurul Brad in Liga III.

Player

Corvinul Hunedoara

Divizia B: 1979–80

Manager

Unirea Sânnicolau Mare

Liga III: 2007–08