Viorel Sima was born on 30 April 1950 in Sebeș, Romania and started to play football at the junior squads of UTA Arad, his first coach being Dan Alexandru, later working with József Pecsovszky and Andrei Mercea, managing to win a national junior championship.[1][2] In 1968 he started to play for UTA's senior team under coach Nicolae Dumitrescu, making his Divizia A debut on 24 August in a 1–0 away victory against Steaua București, gaining a total of 7 appearances by the end of the season as the club won the title.[1][2][3][4] He won another title with the club the following season, Dumitrescu using him in 17 matches in which he scored two goals.[1][3][2][4] He also made some European performances with The Old Lady as eliminating Feyenoord in the 1970–71 European Cup who were European champions at that time and playing 8 games in which he scored one goal in a 3–0 victory against Vitória Setúbal from the 1971–72 UEFA Cup when they reached the quarter-finals where they were eliminated by Tottenham Hotspur who would eventually win the competition.[1][2][3][5] He spent 9 seasons at UTA, his last Divizia A match being a 5–0 away loss against Steaua, having a total of 189 appearances and 18 goals scored in the competition, also making 15 appearances with one goal scored in European competitions.[1] Sima retired after he spent a few seasons in the Romanian lower leagues at Strungul Arad.[1]
