Marian Mihai Aioani (born 7 November 1999) is a Romanian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for

Liga I 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 ...

club

Rapid București Rapid(s) or RAPID may refer to: Hydrological features * Rapids, sections of a river with turbulent water flow * Rapid Creek (Iowa River tributary), Iowa, United States * Rapid Creek (South Dakota), United States, namesake of Rapid City Sport ...

. Aioani started out as a senior at Chindia Târgoviște in 2016, aged 16, and amassed over 60 matches in the first division before moving to Farul Constanța in 2021. With the latter, he won a national title in his second season at the club. Internationally, Aioani represented Romania at under-19, under-21, and under-23 levels, being selected in the squads for the UEFA Under-21 Euro 2021 and the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

Early life

Aioani was born in

Buftea Buftea () is a town in Ilfov County, Muntenia, Romania, located north-west of Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Rom ...

, a town located 20 km north-west of

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, and grew up supporting

Dinamo București A dynamo is a magnetic device originally used as an electric generator. Dynamo or Dinamo may also refer to: Places * Dinamo (Moscow Metro), a station of the Moscow Metro, Moscow, Russia * Dinamo (Yekaterinburg Metro), a station of the Yekaterin ...

Club career

Chindia Târgoviște

Aioani started his senior career with Chindia Târgoviște on 9 March 2016, at age 16, recording his debut in a 7–0

Liga II The Liga 2, most commonly spelled as Liga II, is the second level of the Romanian football league system. The league changed its name from Divizia B just before the start of the 2006–07 Liga II, 2006–07 football season. It is currently Sponso ...

thrashing of

CSM Metalul Reșița Club Sportiv Sportul Snagov, commonly known as Sportul Snagov or simply as Snagov, was a Romanian professional Association football, football football team, club from Snagov, Ilfov County, founded in 2007 as Damila Măciuca and dissolved in 2020 ...

. He became an undisputed starter in the 2018–19 campaign, as his side achieved promotion to the

by winning the second division. Aioani's first match in the former competition came on 15 July 2019, playing the full 90 minutes in a 2–2 away draw with

Gaz Metan Mediaș Gaz may refer to: Geography *Gaz, Kyrgyzstan Iran * Gaz, Darmian, village in South Khorasan province * Gaz, Golestan, a village in Bandar-e Gaz County * Gaz, Hormozgan, a village in Minab County * Gaz, Kerman, a village * Gaz, North Khorasan, a ...

Farul Constanța

On 22 June 2021, Aioani agreed to a four-year contract with fellow Liga I team Farul Constanța, being part in a swap deal which took several players in the other direction. In the 2022–23 campaign, Aioani made 39 league appearances to help Farul in winning the national title. He had the most

clean sheets In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which the losing team fails to score. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usually seen as a result of ...

(13, shared with Mihai Popa) and was named in the Liga I Team of the Season. On 12 July 2023, he made his debut in

European European, or Europeans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe and other West ...

competitions by playing in a 1–0 home win over

Sheriff Tiraspol Fotbal Club Sheriff Tiraspol (), commonly known as Sheriff Tiraspol or simply Sheriff, is a professional football club based in Tiraspol, a city located in the unrecognised breakaway state of Transnistria, that plays in the Liga, the top tier o ...

in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

first qualifying round.

Rapid București

On 23 January 2024, it was announced that Aioani joined

on a three-and-a-half-year deal for a rumoured fee of €400,000 plus 20% interest on a future sale. Four days later, he made his debut in a 2–1 league derby win over Dinamo București.

International career

Aioani was selected by manager

Adrian Mutu Adrian Mutu (; born 8 January 1979) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player. During his playing career, he was deployed as a forward or an attacking midfielder. Mutu started his career playing two years for Argeș Pite� ...

in the

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 ...

squad for the

2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-21 Euro 2021) was the 23rd edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (26th edition if the Under-23 era is also included), the biennial international youth Association ...

, but did not make any appearance as his nation exited the tournament in the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

. He was then called up to the postponed

, this time starting in all three matches of another group-stage exit.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Chindia Târgoviște *

: 2018–19 Farul Constanța *

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Supercupa României The Supercupa României () is a Romanian football (soccer), football championship contested by the winners of the Liga I and the Cupa României. It is usually played at the Arena Națională in Bucharest. The competition started off in 1994 Supe ...

runner-up:

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Individual *Liga I Team of the Season:

*Liga I Most Clean Sheets:

References

Notes Citations

External links

*
Mihai Aioani
at

Liga Profesionistă de Fotbal Liga (Spanish and Portuguese: ''League'') or LIGA may refer to: Sports Basketball * Liga ACB, men's professional basketball league in Spain * Liga Femenina de Baloncesto, women's professional basketball league in Spain Football Latin Amer ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aioani, Mihai Living people 1999 births Footballers from Ilfov County People from Buftea Romanian men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Liga I players Liga II players AFC Chindia Târgoviște players FCV Farul Constanța players FC Rapid București players Romania men's youth international footballers Romania men's under-21 international footballers Olympic footballers for Romania Footballers at the 2020 Summer Olympics 21st-century Romanian sportsmen