Marked for Juan Ignacio Blanco
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Feb 2027
Astra come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Viitorul did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Viitorul may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Viitorul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Duţu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Orlando Osorio, and the manager let it.
Loan watch1 Feb 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Viitorul, and 0 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Marius Moldovan asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Miguel Muñoz out for 61 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Viitorul will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match12 Sep 2026
The wait goes on for Viitorul
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market14 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Andrei Puscas to Astra has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Viitorul with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Juan Ignacio Blanco has just signed for Viitorul, and for once the answer mattered.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Bogdan Vătăjelu
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad14 Sep 2026
7 new faces, and Viitorul are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Viitorul, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Market14 Sep 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.