[2][3] He worked at The Military Men with coaches Bujor Hălmăgeanu and Lajos Sătmăreanu, being sent in 1988 to play for Steaua Mizil in Divizia B where he was one of the team's top-scorers in his single season spent there.
[1][2][3] At Farul he made his Divizia A debut on 25 October 1989 in a 0–0 against Sportul Studențesc București, spending six seasons and a half with the club and in the first half of the 1995–96 season he scored a personal record of 12 goals which impressed Standard Liège's assistant coach Léon Semmeling who came to Romania to see him play, including witnessing a 7–0 victory against Politehnica Iași in which Butoiu scored a double, afterwards recommending him to Les Rouches.
[1][2][3][4][5] At Standard he was teammate with compatriot Mircea Rednic, but he spent only half of year with the club, being used by head coach Robert Waseige in 13 games, scoring two victory goals against Cercle Brugge and Mechelen.
[1][2][3][4] He also played with The Railway Men four games in the 1996–97 UEFA Cup, scoring one goal from about 40 meters in a 1–0 victory against Lokomotiv Sofia which helped the team advance to the next phase of the competition where they were eliminated by Karlsruhe.
[4][9][10][11] Gheorghe Butoiu started coaching at Farul Constanța's youth center, managing in 2008 to win the national junior championship for the first time after 45 years with the help of players like Denis Alibec, Cosmin Matei or Kehinde Fatai.