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

Club career

Gheorghe Ene was born on 27 January 1937 in București, Romania and started to play football in 1952, aged 14 at junior level at Progresul ICAS București. In 1954, he started his senior career at Voința București, moving after one season at Progresul CPCS București. On 18 March 1956 he made his Divizia A debut, playing for Rapid București in a 1–1 with Minerul Petroșani. During his four seasons spent with The Railwaymen, Ene became the top scorer of the 1958–59 Divizia A with 17 goals scored. He went to play for Dinamo București where from 1962 until 1965 he helped the club win four consecutive Divizia A titles, in the first he worked with three coaches Traian Ionescu, Constantin Teașcă and Nicolae Dumitru who gave him 20 appearances in which he scored 19 goals, 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 and in the last one he played 23 games, scoring 15 times under the guidance of Angelo Niculescu. Ene also won the 1963–64 Cupa României with The Red Dogs, coach Ionescu using him all the minutes in the 5–3 victory over rivals Steaua București from the final. He would score two goals in the league in the derby with Steaua, including one in a 3–2 victory. He played in 11 European Cup matches in which he scored two goals in the 1965–66 campaign against Denmark's champion, Boldklubben 1909 which helped the team advance to the next phase where they were eliminated by the winners of the previous two seasons of the competition Inter Milan but earned a historical 2–1 victory in the first leg and also in the 1963–64 edition they got pass East Germany champion, Motor Jena, being eliminated in the next phase by Real Madrid. 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 in which he scored 116 goals in the competition.

International career

Gheorghe Ene played three games at international level for Romania, making his debut under coach Gheorghe Popescu I on 15 June 1955 in a friendly which ended with a 4–1 loss in front of Sweden. His second game was a 1–1 with Yugoslavia at the 1958 World Cup qualifiers and his last appearance took part on 8 October 1961 in a friendly which ended with a 4–0 victory against Turkey.

Managerial career

Gheorghe Ene started coaching after he ended his playing career at Dinamo București's center of children and juniors, afterwards coaching 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.

Personal life

His brother, Daniel Ene was also a footballer who played for SC Bacău and Rapid București. Gheorghe Ene died on 6 April 2009 at age 72.

Honours

Club

Dinamo București

Individual