Iosif Varga (footballer)

Iosif Varga (6 April 1941 – 22 May 1992) was a Romanian footballer who played as a forward and also was a manager.^[3][5]

Iosif Varga, nicknamed Piți was born on 4 December 1941 in the Vitan neighborhood of Bucharest, growing up in the Pantelimon neighborhood.^[1][2][3][7] At the age of 10 he went to play football at the junior squads of Dinamo București where he worked with coach Petre Steinbach.^[3][6][7][8] On 24 August 1958 he became the youngest player that scored in his Divizia A debut match, when at 16 years, 8 months and 20 days he scored a hat-trick against Steagul Roșu Brașov in a 6–0 victory.^[3][7][6][9] He finished his first season as a senior with the winning of a trophy, coach Iuliu Baratky using him all the minutes in the 4–0 win over CSM Baia Mare from the 1959 Cupa României Final.^[3][10][11] In 1961, coach Traian Ionescu used him as the team's game coordinator, helping them win the 1961–62 Divizia A by scoring four goals in 15 appearances, including transforming a penalty in a 1–0 win in the derby with Steaua București in which he previously scored on two other occasions in the earlier seasons.^{[1][3][6][12][13][14][15]} In the next three seasons, Varga helped The Red Dogs win another three titles, working with coaches like Ionescu, Nicolae Dumitru and Angelo Niculescu in the process, at the first one contributing with four goals scored in 22 matches, in the second he played eight games and in the third he appeared in two games.^{[1][2][3][6][7][12]} Also during this time he helped the club win the 1963–64 Cupa României but did not appear in the final and made three appearances in the European Cup.^{[1][2][3][6][16]} In 1965, Varga went to play for Dinamo Pitești for a half year in which he played three Divizia A games, returning to Dinamo București, where he would spend another four seasons, winning the 1967–68 Cupa României in which he did not play in the final, making his last Divizia A appearance on 10 November 1968 in a 3–0 victory against Universitatea Cluj, a competition in which he has a total of 120 appearances and 29 goals scored.^{[1][2][3][6][17]} He ended his career by playing one season in West Germany's second tier, Regionalliga West at Wuppertaler SV, scoring 8 goals in 18 appearances.^{[1][2][3][6][7]}

Iosif Varga played two friendly matches at international level for Romania, making his debut under coach Silviu Ploeșteanu in a 3–2 victory against East Germany.^[18][19] His second game was a 1–1 against Poland and he also played one match for Romania's Olympic team at the 1964 Summer Olympics qualifiers.^[18][20]

After he retired from playing football he worked at Dinamo's youth center where he taught and formed generations of players, which include Florin Răducioiu, Ioan Lupescu, Bogdan Stelea, Florin Prunea and Florin Tene.^[1][6]

Iosif Varga died on 22 May 1992 in his native Bucharest at age 50.^[1][2][3][6]

Dinamo București

• Divizia A: 1961–62, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1964–65^[3]
• Cupa României: 1958–59, 1963–64, 1967–68^[1][2]

• Iosif Varga at Labtof.ro