[1] Ilie Bărbulescu, nicknamed "Balamuc" (Madhouse) was born on 24 June 1957 in Pitești, Romania, starting to play junior level football in 1971 at local club, Argeș where he worked with coach Leonte Ianovschi.

[1][5] In the following season they passed AEK Athens in the first round of the 1979–80 European Cup, the team being eliminated in the following one by title holders and eventual winners, Nottingham Forest against whom Bărbulescu scored once.

[11] He started the 1986–87 season by playing all the minutes in the 1–0 win over Dynamo Kyiv from the European Super Cup and in the loss from the Intercontinental Cup with the same score in front of River Plate, by the end of it helping Steaua win another Double, coaches Jenei and Anghel Iordănescu giving him 14 league appearances in which he scored once, also appearing the full 90 minutes in the 1–0 victory from the Cupa României final over Dinamo București.

[9] In 1987 he made a comeback to Petrolul Ploiești but after half of year he went for a second spell at Argeș Pitești where on 19 March 1988 he made his last Divizia A appearance in a 1–0 home loss in front of Universitatea Craiova, having a total of 357 matches with 22 goals scored in the competition, also playing a total of 23 games with three goals in European competitions.

[1][2][14] Ilie Bărbulescu played five games at international level for Romania, making his debut on 13 May 1979 under coach Florin Halagian in a 1–1 with Cyprus at the Euro 1980 qualifiers.