Gheorghe Gornea

Gica Gornea
Gornea in 1970
Personal information
Full name Gheorghe Gornea
Date of birth (1944-08-02)2 August 1944
Place of birth Sinaia, Romania
Date of death 2005 (aged 60–61)
Place of death Sinaia, Romania
Position Goalkeeper
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1963–1964 Carpați Sinaia
1964–1966 Steaua București 3 (0)
1966–1971 UTA Arad 127 (0)
1971–1972 Minerul Baia Mare 8 (0)
1972–1973 CSM Reșița 13 (0)
1973–1976 Rapid Arad 41 (0)
Total 192 (0)
International career
1968–1970 Romania 4 (0)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Gheorghe Gornea (2 August 1944 – 2005) was a Romanian football goalkeeper.

Club career

Gornea was born on 2 August 1944 in Sinaia, Romania and began playing football at local club Carpați.[1][2] He was transferred to Steaua București where he made his Divizia A debut on 30 August 1964 under coach Ilie Savu in a 4–0 away victory against Știința Craiova.[1][2][3] In his second season spent at Steaua he won the Cupa României.[1][2][4]

Afterwards he went to play for UTA Arad where in his five years spent at the club he won two consecutive titles in the 1968–69 and 1969–70 seasons.[1][2][4][5] Coach Nicolae Dumitrescu used him in 30 games in the first one and in 29 matches in the second.[1][2][4][5] He also helped the team by delivering a praised performance when they eliminated the defending European Cup champions Feyenoord in the 1970–71 European Cup season, having a total of six appearances in the competition over the course of two seasons.[1][2] For the way he played in 1968, Gornea was placed fourth in the ranking for the Romanian Footballer of the Year award.[6]

In 1971, Gornea went to play for one season in Divizia B at Minerul Baia Mare.[1][2] Afterwards he joined CSM Reșița, being brought there by his former coach from UTA, Ioan Reinhardt, where on 11 March 1973 he made his last Divizia A appearance in a 5–1 loss to Steagul Roșu Brașov, totaling 143 matches played in the competition.[1][2] He retired after playing three more seasons at Rapid Arad in Divizia B.[1][2]

International career

Gornea played four games for Romania in which he conceded two goals, all under the guidance of coach Angelo Niculescu.[2][7] He made his debut on 27 October 1968, when he came on as a substitute at halftime and replaced Narcis Coman in a 3–0 away loss to Portugal in the 1970 World Cup qualifiers, where he conceded one goal from Jacinto Santos.[2][7][8] His following game was a 0–0 friendly draw against England, followed by a 2–0 victory over Switzerland in the 1970 World Cup qualifiers.[2][7] His last game was another friendly against England, at the Wembley Stadium that ended with a 1–1 draw where his appreciated performance earned him the nickname "The hero from Wembley".[2][7] Niculescu also selected Gornea for Romania's 1970 World Cup final tournament, though he did not play in any matches there.[2][9][10]

Death

After he retired, Gornea struggled with alcoholism and had both of his legs amputated, dying in 2005 in his native town, Sinaia.[1][2][9]

Honours

Steaua București

UTA Arad

Individual

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Gheorghe Gornea at RomanianSoccer.ro (in Romanian)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "Gică Gornea, portarul marilor noastre meciuri" [Gică Gornea, the goalkeeper of our great matches] (in Romanian). Utisti.ro. 1 March 2011. Archived from the original on 9 June 2011. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  3. ^ "Universitatea Craiova vs Steaua București 0-5". Labtof. Retrieved 25 October 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d e Gheorghe Gornea at National-Football-Teams.com
  5. ^ a b "Romania National Champions". RomanianSoccer. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  6. ^ a b "Romania - Player of the Year Awards". Rsssf.org. Retrieved 20 October 2024.
  7. ^ a b c d "Gheorghe Gornea". European Football. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  8. ^ "Portugal 3-0 Romania". European Football. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  9. ^ a b "Guadalajara, blestemul unei generaţii uitate" [Guadalajara, the curse of a forgotten generation] (in Romanian). Adevarul.ro. 18 April 2010. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
  10. ^ "România la CM 1970. Enigma Dobrin" [România la WC 1970. The Dobrin enigma] (in Romanian). Gsp.ro. 2 June 2010. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gheorghe Gornea.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.