Daniel Ionuț Isăilă (born 29 June 1972) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player. He is the current head coach of UAE Pro League club Baniyas.
A former defender, Isăilă played 149 matches in Liga I, scoring seven goals. He played eight times in the UEFA Cup, four games each with Rapid București and FC Brașov.
Coaching career He began his coaching career in 2006 at second league club FC Săcele. He then joined the technical staff of Răzvan Lucescu, becoming his assistant at FC Brașov.
From July 2010 he was in numerous occasions the head coach of FC Brașov, overseen by technical director Daniel Oprea, Isăilă not having the PRO License coach certificate yet.
In November 2011, Isăilă signed a contract for four seasons with Sportul Studențesc. The club relegated under his command. In August 2012, he moved to second division club FCM Târgu Mureș, where he received a contract for a season with the main objective being promotion in Liga I. He resigned in the middle of the season, because the team was far from reaching the target, being only 5th after 16 games.
In April 2013, he was appointed head coach of Liga I side Astra Giurgiu. With Astra Giurgiu he had fantastic performances and in two years he won almost everything possible. In his first season in charge, he won the Cupa României at the National Arena Stadium against Steaua Bucharest in front of 53,000 Steaua supporters. On 11 July he won the second historical cup for Astra, the Supercup, again against Steaua Bucharest. After the best performance of Astra Giurgiu in the Championship, (2nd place) he qualified his team in the Europa League group stages for the first time, winning against Lyon in a fantastic double match which will remain in the history of the club. In October 2014, he stepped down as manager of Astra. In October the same year, he became one of the assistant coaches for the Romania national team working under Anghel Iordănescu and later Christoph Daum.
In December 2016, Isăilă was named as the head coach of Romania under-21 national team. After nearly two years in control he gave up the national team, thus leaving it with chances of qualifying to the 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship.
In June 2018, he signed with newly promoted Saudi Professional League side Al-Hazem. He was sacked on 31 January 2020 following a 0–0 draw with Al-Taawoun.
Isăilă later managed UAE Pro League clubs Baniyas, Ajman and Khor Fakkan, before returning to Baniyas for two separate tenures.
Coaching stats
TeamFromToRecordG W D L GF GA Win % FC Săcele1 July 200630 June 2007 FC Braşov9 July 201017 December 2010 FC Braşov31 August 20111 November 2011 Sportul Studenţesc3 November 201122 August 2012 FCM Târgu Mureș24 August 201211 March 2013 Astra Giurgiu14 April 201322 March 2014 Astra Giurgiu8 May 201410 October 2014 Romania U2113 December 20168 June 2018 Al-Hazem8 June 201831 January 2020 Baniyas27 June 20201 June 2023 Ajman3 October 20231 June 2024 Khor Fakkan25 June 20246 November 2024 Baniyas9 January 202527 May 2025 Baniyas20 September 2025presentTotal
Honours Player FC Brașov Divizia B: 1998–99
Coach Astra Giurgiu Cupa României: 2013–14 Supercupa României: 2014
References
External links