[2][3] His talent was noticed by coach Constantin Rădulescu who brought him to Politehnica Timișoara where he made his Divizia A debut on 23 August 1989 in a 2–1 home loss in front of Bihor Oradea.
[8][9][10] He would go on to score in the following round in a 5–0 over União Torreense, then in January 1992 he managed a brace in another 5–0 win, this time against Estoril and also by the end of the season he scored the decisive goal with his right-foot even do he was a lefty in a 3–2 O Clássico away victory against Benfica which helped his side gain an important seven points advantage over them in the fight for the title which The Dragons eventually won, Timofte contributing with a total of nine goals in 31 appearances.
[2][4][6][8][11][18] He ended the season by winning another trophy, being used as a starter by coach Bobby Robson in both matches with Sporting Lisbon from the 1994 Taça de Portugal final.
[2][3] He also begun dealing extensively with injuries, however, retiring in 2000 at the age of 32 after making his last Primeira Liga appearance on 13 May in a 2–2 with Braga, having a total of 215 matches with 61 goals scored in the competition.
[4][26] Ion Timofte played 10 matches in which he scored once for Romania, making his debut on 3 April 1991 when coach Mircea Rădulescu sent him on the field in the 89th minute in order to replace Ioan Lupescu in a 0–0 away draw with Switzerland at the Euro 1992 qualifiers.
[27][28] In his following game he opened the score in a friendly which ended with a 2–0 win against Spain after receiving a cross from Ioan Sabău and striking the ball with a volley that defeated goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta.
[27] Then he played in a 5–1 home win over Wales at the successful 1994 World Cup qualifiers, however he was surprisingly omitted by coach Anghel Iordănescu from the squad that went at the final tournament.