Ionel Ganea was born on 10 August 1973 in Făgăraș, Romania, starting to play senior level football in 1992 at Divizia B side, ICIM Brașov.

[2][3] Two years later, coach Ioan Nagy brought him to FC Brașov, giving him his Divizia A debut on 20 August 1994 in a 3–1 away loss in front of Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț.

[2][3] In the middle of the 1995–96 season he was transferred to Universitatea Craiova with whom he reached the 1998 Cupa României final, being used by coach José Ramón Alexanko in all the minutes of the 1–0 loss in front of Rapid București.

[2][12][18] He scored a brace in a win with 1860 Munich and a hat-trick in another victory against VfL Bochum, contributing with a total of nine goals as the team finished on the second place in Bundesliga.

[2][20][21][22] Ganea claimed that his toughest opponents during his years spent in Germany were Lothar Matthäus and Jürgen Kohler, also he cherished a shirt he received from Oliver Kahn.

[20] In the summer of 2003, being free of contract he signed with Turkish top flight club Bursaspor which was coached by fellow Romanian Gheorghe Hagi, being teammate with compatriots Bogdan Vintilă, Iulian Miu and Cornel Frăsineanu.

[2][22][39][40] He returned briefly on the pitch as a professional player only for one game on 22 September 2011 in a Cupa României match against Steaua București which ended with a 4–0 loss.

[43] He was used by coach Emerich Jenei in three games at the Euro 2000 final tournament, in all of them being sent on the field as a substitute, in the one with England he scored in the last minutes of the game from a penalty the decisive goal of the 3–2 victory which helped Romania pass the group stage and reach the quarter-finals where he entered the field in the 54th minute to replace Viorel Moldovan in the eventual 2–0 loss in front of Italy.

[45][46][47] In July 2024, British tabloid newspaper, The Sun listed Ganea's penalty goal in England's top 18 disappointments suffered after the winning of the 1966 World Cup.

[43][49] Ganea last appearance for the national team took part on 6 September 2006 when coach Pițurcă sent him on the field in the 78th minute to replace Ciprian Marica in a 2–0 away win over Albania at the Euro 2008 qualifiers.

[53][61] In September 2014 after a 3–0 loss in front of Dinamo București and the team being on a relegation position, the club owner Valerii Moraru replaced him with Marian Rada.

[63][65][66][67][68] After one year and a half without an appointment, in April 2017, Ganea took charge of ASA Târgu Mureș but the spell was unsuccessful as the team relegated to the second division.

[72][73] In September 2020 he made a comeback at Dunărea Călărași, this time working as a technical director, head coach being Cristian Pustai but he left the club in the summer of the following year as the team had financial problems and did not pay him for several months.

[75][94] Steven Gerrard's autobiography contains an episode about an incident between him and Ionel Ganea in a Wolverhampton – Liverpool game played in January 2004: "He tore my leg from the knee to the ankle.

[103][104][105] During his coaching period at FC Voluntari after a 1–0 victory against CSMS Iași he had a conflict with a female journalist named Alina Iosub in which he offended and cussed her, she also threatened him by saying that if he comes to Botoșani, he won't leave there alive.

[80][106][107] His wife, Dana, with which he was married for over 24 years accused him of physical and verbal domestic violence and filled for divorce several times, also asking for a restraining order against him.