Ioan Sabău

Universitatea Cluj and ASA Târgu Mureș

Sabău, nicknamed Moțul due to his ambition, a trait associated with the people from Țara Moților, was born on 12 February 1968 in Câmpia Turzii, Romania. He began playing junior-level football in 1985 at Universitatea Cluj, under the guidance of coaches Alexa Uifăleanu and Nicolae Szoboszlay. He made his professional debut playing for Universitatea in the 1984–85 Divizia B season under coach Remus Vlad, helping the team win promotion to Divizia A. In the following season, he made his debut in the Romanian top-league on 8 March 1986, replacing Nicolae Bucur for the last nine minutes of a 1–0 loss to Rapid București, also under coach Remus Vlad. In 1988, Sabău had offers from Dinamo București and Steaua București, choosing to play for the first because of coach Mircea Lucescu's project of building a team composed of mainly young players like himself. But Steaua's officials with president Ion Alecsandrescu and the relatives of dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, his son Valentin who was Steaua's unofficial president and brother Ilie who was a Romanian army general, insisted and pressured Sabău on several occasions to sign with the club, especially during his military service in which he played for Ministry of National Defence club and friend team of Steaua, ASA Târgu Mureș. He refused, eventually going to Dinamo which gave four players to Universitatea Cluj in exchange for him, including Florin Prunea.

Dinamo București

In his…

Sabău played 55 games and scored eight goals for Romania, making his debut on 3 February 1988 at age 19 under coach Emerich Jenei in a friendly which ended with a 2–0 away victory against Israel. He scored his first goal three days later in a 2–2 friendly draw against Poland. Subsequently, he played six matches during the successful 1990 World Cup qualifiers, scoring two goals, one in a 3–0 win over Greece and one in the 3–1 victory against Denmark which was decisive for the qualification to the final tournament. There, he was used by coach Emerich Jenei as a starter in all four matches, as Romania got eliminated by Ireland in the round of 16. Sabău played seven games and scored one goal in the Euro 1992 qualifiers, and then made eight appearances during the successful 1994 World Cup qualifiers, but could not be part of the final tournament squad due to an injury. He played one game in the successful Euro 1996 qualifiers. Afterwards he was selected by coach Anghel Iordănescu to be part of the final tournament squad, but did not play a single match, being injured. Sabău played three games during the successful Euro 2000 qualifiers, but was not selected in the squad for the final tournament. He made his last three appearances for the national team during the 2002 World Cup qualifiers, of which one was in a 2–0 away victory in a group match against rivals Hungary, and then two in both legs of the play-off against Slovenia which was lost with 3–2 on aggregate. For representing…

Sabău started his coaching career in 2000 at Universitatea Cluj in Divizia C, also being a player, helping the team gain promotion to Divizia B. He left shortly afterwards following a conflict with the club's officials. At the beginning of the 2003–04 Divizia B season, he returned to Universitatea, but left after only two games. He went to coach fellow Divizia B team Gaz Metan Mediaș for two seasons, but did not manage to win a promotion to Divizia A. In 2005 he went to coach Divizia A club Gloria Bistrița for four seasons, the highlight of this period being a sixth-place finish in the 2006–07 season. The team also reached 2007 UEFA Intertoto Cup final, earning a 2–1 home victory against Atlético Madrid, but lost the second leg with 1–0, thus losing the final on the away goals rule. In the 2009–10 season, Sabău coached Politehnica Timișoara, eliminating UEFA Cup holders Shakhtar Donetsk in the third round of the Champions League, which was the team of his former coach, Mircea Lucescu. Subsequently, they were eliminated by VfB Stuttgart in the next round, before reaching the Europa League group stage, where their campaign ended. Domestically, he helped Politehnica finish the championship in fifth place. In the following years, he coached first league clubs FCM Târgu Mureș, on two occasions, and Rapid București, but also had a spell in the second league at ASA Târgu Mureș, without any notable results. In January 2023, after almost 10 years of inactivity, Sabău came back to…

Sabău is featured on the main cover of FIFA 96, shown being tackled by Andy Legg during the Anglo-Italian Cup final, while playing for Brescia against Notts County, and is the first Romanian to appear on the cover of a FIFA video game. He is a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Sports commentator Ilie Dobre wrote a book about him titled Ioan Ovidiu Sabău și Patima fotbalului (Ioan Ovidiu Sabău and the passion for football), which was released in 2002.