Artur Ionița

Artur Ionița (Romanian pronunciation: [arˈtur joˈnitsə]; born 17 August 1990) is a Moldovan professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Italian club Benevento and the Moldova national team.

Club Career

Artur Ionița made his professional debut at the Moldovan Divizia Naționala club Zimbru Chișinau in 2007. In the 2008–09 season he played for FC Iskra-Stal Ribnita.

From 2009 to 2014 he played for the Swiss team FC Aarau, with which he transferred from the Swiss Challenge League to the Swiss Super League.

Ionița was then transferred to Italian Serie A club Hellas Verona in July 2014 on a free transfer. He made his debut against Atalanta, as a substitute for Mounir Obbadi. At Hellas Verona, Ionița became teammates with one of his idols Rafael Marquez.

Ionița scored his first goal for Hellas during his second appearance for the club, as a substitute in the second half of the match and securing a goal against Torino F.C. on the 65th minute giving his team a 1–0 win. This made him the first Moldovan footballer to score a goal in Serie A.

He scored his second goal for Hellas Verona in a game against Genoa, playing the full 90 minutes of the game; also providing an assist for Panagiotis Tachtsidis on the 52nd minute.

After an impressive 2015–16 season in Serie A in which he scored 4 goals and provided 2 assists in 31 matches, Ionița was targeted by Juventus, Napoli and Swansea.

In July 2016, Ionița transferred to newly promoted Serie A club, Cagliari.

On 20 August 2020, Ionița signed a contract with Benevento ahead of their return to Serie A.

This page also has a version in other languages :  Артур Ионицэ (russian)