Vlad Pop and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Kiki was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Voluntari, and 5 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Voluntari will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Voluntari would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Răzvan Neag trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Andrei Zaharia is on it.
A side in position 9 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
A brace, and Albert Jarcă takes the afternoon — 8.52
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Albert Jarcă provided it, and the 8.52 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Vlad Pop and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Piast have kept their man, and Voluntari go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A 2‑1 win over Metalul Buzău, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Albert Jarcă has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Voluntari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergiu Hanca 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.
“I did not go to Universitatea Craiova to sit and watch. I want to come back to Voluntari and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Kiki was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Voluntari asked and Sokol said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Áron Girsik was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dragos Chiriches and Voluntari agree another 4 years.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Voluntari are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Sergiu Chiriches was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Voluntari dressing room was either.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. CSM Slatina defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
David Kiki falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Voluntari can tell you which week it ends in.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Odra Opole have kept their man, and Voluntari go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Voluntari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandru Gîţ, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Sergiu Chiriches left the room before anybody could ask which.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Voluntari are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Steven N'Guessan has his answer from Voluntari; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Olimpia Satu Mare waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Voluntari is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from CSC Șelimbăr for Doru Andrei was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Voluntari, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dragos Chiriches will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Voluntari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Owen Hampson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Voluntari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marvin Schieb 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.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Câmpulung Muscel waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Voluntari is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Botosani for Matko Babić was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Voluntari can pretend not to have heard.
Remus Guţea has gone, the accounts have $340.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Dinamo Bucharest paid $340.0K and Voluntari took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Voluntari asked and Oțelul Galați said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
A brace, and Ion Gheorghe takes the afternoon — 8.24
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ion Gheorghe provided it, and the 8.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Vlad Pop was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Vlad Pop at his very best
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Daniel Toma
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Marked 8.16 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Voluntari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Dávid Sigér falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
15 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“I watch every Voluntari game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Petrolul Ploiești runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sergiu Chiriches after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Matko Babić wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Matko Babić found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and CS Tunari went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Two goals and a mark of 8.73 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Up for the corner, and Radu Crişan delivers — 7.76
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Radu Crişan scored, was marked 7.76, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ivan Čurković has, at Voluntari, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Radu Crişan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.