Gheorghe Ene

Gheorghe Ene (also known as Gheorghe Ene II; 27 January 1937 – 6 April 2009) was a Romanian football striker and coach.

Ene was born on 27 January 1937 in București, Romania, and began playing junior-level football in 1952, aged 14 at Progresul ICAS București.^[1][2][3] In 1954, he started his senior career at Voința București, moving after one season to Progresul CPCS București.^[1][4][5] On 18 March 1956 he made his Divizia A debut, playing for Rapid București under coach Ferenc Rónay in a 1–1 draw against Minerul Petroșani.^[1][6] During his four seasons spent with The Railwaymen, Ene became the top-scorer of the 1958–59 Divizia A with 17 goals scored.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Ene went to play for Dinamo București where from 1962 to 1965 he helped the club win four consecutive Divizia A titles.^{[1][2][3][5][7]} In the first one he worked with three coaches, Traian Ionescu, Constantin Teașcă and Nicolae Dumitru, who gave him 20 appearances in which he scored 19 goals.^[1][7] In the following two, Dumitru and Ionescu used him in 19 matches in which he netted seven times in the first and in 14 with five goals scored in the second.^[1][7] In the last one he played 23 games, scoring 15 times under the guidance of Angelo Niculescu.^[1][7] Ene also won the 1963–64 Cupa României with The Red Dogs, coach Ionescu used him for the entire match in the 5–3 victory over rivals Steaua București in the final.^[1][8] He would score two goals in the league in the derby against Steaua, including one in a 3–2 victory.^[9] Ene played in 11 European Cup matches in which he scored two goals.^[1][2][3][5] In the 1963–64 edition they got past East Germany champion Motor Jena, but were eliminated in the next phase by Real Madrid.^[1][10] In the 1965–66 campaign, he scored two goals against Denmark's champion, Boldklubben 1909 which helped Dinamo advance to the next round.^[1][11] There, they were eliminated by Inter Milan, winners of the previous two seasons of the competition, but earned a historical 2–1 victory in the first leg.^[1][11][12]

Ene spent the last season of his career at Dinamo Bacău, making his last Divizia A appearance on 9 June 1968 in a 4–1 victory against Farul Constanța, having a total of 227 matches with 116 goals in the competition.^[1][2][3][5]

Ene played three games for Romania, making his debut under coach Gheorghe Popescu on 15 June 1955 in a 4–1 friendly loss to Sweden.^[13][14] His second game was a 1–1 draw against Yugoslavia in the 1958 World Cup qualifiers.^[13] His last appearance was on 8 October 1961 in a friendly that ended with a 4–0 victory against Turkey.^[13]

Ene started coaching after he ended his playing career at Dinamo București's children and juniors center.^[2][3][5] Afterwards he coached senior teams Jiul Petroșani, Unirea Slobozia, Muscelul Câmpulung, CS Târgoviște and Corvinul Hunedoara, mostly in the Romanian lower leagues, having only short spells in Divizia A at Jiul and Corvinul.^{[2][3][5][15]}

His brother, Daniel, was also a footballer who played for SC Bacău and Rapid București.^[16] Ene died on 6 April 2009 at age 72.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Dinamo București

• Divizia A: 1961–62, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1964–65^[1]
• Cupa României: 1963–64^[17]

• Divizia A top scorer: 1958–59^[1]

• Gheorghe Ene at WorldFootball.net
• Gheorghe Ene at Labtof.ro