Iosif Vigu (born 15 May 1946) is a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n former footballer who played as a

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

. He was also a

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

Club career

Vigu was born on 15 May 1946 in Șimian, Bihor,

, starting to play football at the junior squads of Crișul Oradea, moving in 1983 at Flamura Roșie Oradea where he started his senior career in Divizia B. After a short period spent at Olimpia Oradea in Divizia C, Vigu went to play for Crișul Oradea in

Divizia A Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

where he was debuted by coach Ladislau Zilahi on 4 April 1965 in a 1–0 away loss against Minerul Baia Mare. In 1966 he went to play for Steaua București where he stayed until 1980, with a interruption in the 1973–74 season when he was loaned at FC Constanța. He won his first championship title in the 1967–68 season, being used by coach Ștefan Kovács in four matches in which he scored two goals, winning two more in the 1975–76 and 1977–78 seasons, being used by coach Emerich Jenei in 34 matches in each, in the first he also scored three goals. During his period spent with '' The Military Men'' he also won five

Cupa României The Cupa României () is a Association football, football cup competition for List of football clubs in Romania, Romanian teams which has been held annually since 1933–34 Cupa României, 1933–34, except during World War II. It is the Romania ...

and played 21 games with one goal scored in European competitions, taking part in the

1971–72 European Cup Winners' Cup The 1971–72 season of the European Cup Winners' Cup football club tournament was won by Rangers, who defeated Dynamo Moscow in the final. Preliminary round First leg ---- Second leg ''4–4 on aggregate; Austria Wien won on away goa ...

campaign, playing all six games as the team reached the quarter-finals by eliminating Hibernians and

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, being eliminated after 1–1 on aggregate on the

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by Bayern Munich. For the way he played in 1977, Vigu was placed fifth in the ranking for the Romanian Footballer of the Year award. In the 1980–81 season, he played for ASA Târgu Mureș for which he made his last Divizia A appearance on 21 June 1981 in a 3–0 home victory against Politehnica Timișoara, having a total of 404 appearances with 34 goals scored in the competition. He is the first player that reached 400 appearances in Divizia A and because of that, every time a footballer reaches 400 appearances in the Romanian top-league, the press says he entered the "Iosif Vigu Club". Vigu ended his playing career in 1982 after spending one season in Divizia C at ASA Chimia Buzău.

International career

Vigu played at international level in 22 matches for

and scored 2 goals, making his debut under coach Angelo Niculescu in a Euro 1972 qualification match which ended with a 3–0 victory against

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. He scored his first goal in a 4–0 victory against

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at the 1977–80 Balkan Cup. Vigu played four games at the 1978 World Cup qualifiers, opening the score in a 6–4 loss against

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

. At the Euro 1980 qualifiers Vigu appeared in two games, a 3–2 home victory against

and a 1–0 away loss against

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. He also played two games for Romania's Olympic team without scoring.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Vigu goal''.

Managerial career

Vigu coached teams mostly from the Romanian lower leagues such as ASA Chimia Buzău, Olimpia Satu Mare, Minerul Turț, Armătura Zalău and Someșul Satu Mare and contributed to the formation of footballers Tiberiu Csik, Zoltan Ritli,

Daniel Prodan Daniel "Didi" Claudiu Prodan (23 March 1972 – 16 November 2016) was a Romanian professional association football, footballer who played mainly as a centre-back. In a career marred by injuries, he played mainly for FC Steaua București, Steaua ...

and Gábor Gerstenmájer. He had only a short spell in

when he coached Minerul Baia Mare in four games from the 1994–95 season.

Honours

Steaua București *

: 1967–68, 1975–76, 1977–78 *

: 1966–67, 1968–69, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1975–76, 1978–79 Individual * Romanian Footballer of the Year (''fifth place''): 1977

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vigu, Iosif 1946 births Living people Footballers from Oradea Romanian men's footballers Romania men's international footballers Men's association football defenders Liga I players Liga II players FC Bihor Oradea (1958) players FCSB players FCV Farul Constanța players ASA Târgu Mureș (1962) players Romanian football managers FC Olimpia Satu Mare managers Footballers from Bihor County 20th-century Romanian sportsmen