Ion Barbu

Early career

Barbu, also known as "Bebe", was born on 24 December 1938 in Craiova, Romania and began playing football in 1954 at local club Locomotiva. Three years later he went to play for Dinamo Obor București.

Argeș Pitești

In 1959, he signed with Divizia B club, Argeș Pitești at which in his first years he worked with coach Ștefan Vasile, managing to score 10 goals in his first season as they finished in third place. In the second one he helped the club finish first and earn promotion to the first league. He made his Divizia A debut on 20 August 1961 in a 4–3 home loss to Dinamo București. However, his first top-league season was rather unsuccessful, as they were relegated back to the second league, but Barbu stayed with the club, helping it get promoted again after one year. In the 1964–65 Cupa României edition, the team reached the final, but coach Virgil Mărdărescu did not use him in the eventual 2–1 loss to Știința Cluj. He appeared in five matches in the 1966–67 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, as they eliminated Sevilla and Toulouse, the campaign ending in the third round, losing 1–0 on aggregate to Dinamo Zagreb who eventually won the competition. For the way he played in 1968, Barbu was placed fifth in the ranking for the Romanian Footballer of the Year award, the same position as his Argeș teammate, Narcis Coman. In the same year, he began forming a successful partnership in the central defense with Remus Vlad.

Beşiktaş

In 1970, Barbu was…

Barbu played seven games for Romania, making his debut on 17 November 1966, as coach Ilie Oană used him the entire match in the 4–3 friendly victory against Poland. His following two games were two losses to Italy in the Euro 1968 qualifiers. He captained Romania for the first time in a friendly that ended in a 1–1 draw against Austria. In his last match for the national team, which was also a friendly, he was again captain in the 0–0 draw against the 1966 World Cup winners, England, exchanging pennants with Bobby Moore before the match.

After he ended his playing career, Barbu coached Muscelul Câmpulung and Metalurgistul Cugir in the Romanian lower leagues. At Muscelul with the help of his former Argeș teammates, Constantin Radu, Vasile Stan, Radu Jercan and Marian Popescu, he got the team promoted from the third league to the second. He was Argeș Pitești's president from 1978 until 1982, a period in which the club won the 1978–79 Divizia A title.

In 2004, Barbu received the Honorary Citizen of Pitești title. He died in a Pitești hospital on 2 May 2011 at age 72.