Ioan Andone, nicknamed "Fălcosul" was born on 15 March 1960 in Șpălnaca and when he was 14 years old he played basketball and football simultaneously, Carol Gal being his first football coach at Școala Sportivă Hunedoara, after which at 16 he decided to concentrate exclusively on his football career when he went at Corvinul Hunedoara's youth center where he was coached by Dumitru Pătrașcu. On 7 March 1979, Andone made his Divizia A debut for Corvinul when coach Mircea Lucescu sent him on the field in order to replace Radu Nunweiller in the last 20 minutes of a 2–0 away loss against Sportul Studențesc București. At the end of his first season spent at Corvinul, the club relegated to Divizia B, but Andone stayed with the club, promoting back to the first division after one year, helping the club finish 3rd in the 1981–82 Divizia A, also appearing in four games in which he scored two goals in the 1982–83 UEFA Cup. In the summer of 1983 Andone and teammate Mircea Rednic were transferred from Corvinul to Dinamo București in exchange for five players which included Nicușor Vlad, Teofil Stredie and Florea Văetuș. Andone spent a total of 7 seasons with The Red Dogs, winning the title in his first season with 3 goals scored in 27 appearances and in his last season with 20 appearances and two goals scored. During the same period, Andone also won three Cupa României and played 25 games in which he scored one goal in European competitions, appearing in 6 games in the 1983–84 European Cup season when the team reached the semi-finals and in 8 games in the 1989–90 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup campaign when the team also reached the semi-finals with his former Corvinul coach, Mircea Lucescu. Andone was in the center of a big scandal in the derby against Steaua from March 1989 which was lost with 2–1 after Gheorghe Hagi opened the score, Andone equalized for Dinamo and Gabi Balint scored the winning goal for Steaua in the last minute of the game, also referee Ion Crăciunescu eliminated Rodion Cămătaru and Claudiu Vaișcovici from Dinamo. Feeling that they were disadvantaged by the referee, right after the game Andone and Rednic showed some obscene gestures in front of the official tribune where Valentin Ceaușescu, the son of dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and unofficial president of Steaua was staying. Initially, the Romanian Football Federation suspended Andone for one year, but after his friend from Steaua, Marius Lăcătuș talked to Valentin Ceaușescu and convinced him to forgive Andone, his suspension was reduced to three months, Rednic also got away with it after a friend of his from Steaua, László Bölöni talked to Valentin Ceaușescu. After the 1989 Romanian Revolution, he was bought by Spanish side Elche for 125.000$ where he was teammate with Santiago Cañizares and played 34 matches in which he scored scored 3 goals in the 1990–91 Segunda División season. Andone then went on to play for the last two seasons of his career in the Netherlands under head coach Fritz Korbach at Heerenveen in the Eerste Divisie, where he was also teammate with Rodion Cămătaru, appearing in 39 league games in which he scored 4 goals. Andone gained throughout his career a total of 255 Divizia A appearances with 35 goals scored and a total of 29 matches with 3 goals scored in European competitions.
