Marked for Răzvan Gligor
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Apr 2027
CFR Cluj up to position 3
49 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at CFR Cluj
Karim Konaté 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
19 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” CFR Cluj may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market12 Apr 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market12 Apr 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at CFR Cluj is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Loan watch12 Apr 2027
The goals keep arriving from Moussa Samaké’s exile
11 goals in 31 games at Concordia Chiajna — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at CFR Cluj updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at CFR Cluj
Jovan Marković 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.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Karim Konaté has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at CFR Cluj will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Renato Pantalon's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Market12 Apr 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Loan watch12 Apr 2027
8 shut-outs in 34 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Adrian Frănculescu has been having a lot of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market8 Mar 2027
CFR Cluj say no — this time
The offer from Helsingborg for Jovan Marković 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Remi Walter and CFR Cluj agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Karim Konaté in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CFR Cluj this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Alexandru Radu is a better footballer than he was
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.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market8 Mar 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market8 Mar 2027
Marc Filip returns from a loan that taught him nothing
1 appearances and 1 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Loan watch8 Mar 2027
7 shut-outs in 30 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Adrian Frănculescu has been having a lot of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market16 Nov 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Christopher Braun 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Ilija Mašić in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CFR Cluj this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Francisco Barrios has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at CFR Cluj will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Renato Pantalon trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Andrei Cordea’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and CFR Cluj needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market16 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CFR Cluj know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
The goals keep arriving from Moussa Samaké’s exile
3 goals in 10 games at Concordia Chiajna — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at CFR Cluj updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Oct 2026
CFR Cluj throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Unirea Slobozia the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that CFR Cluj will enjoy reviewing.
Match5 Oct 2026
CFR Cluj up to position 3
18 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market5 Oct 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A falling-out at CFR Cluj
Sheriff Sinyan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Răzvan Gligor is a better footballer than he was
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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, CFR Cluj do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Christopher Braun 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
Sheriff Sinyan 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over UTA Arad, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.08 — 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Barrios 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Florin Chiriches could afford to be generous.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stefan Dražić, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Răzvan Gligor's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Karim Konaté named player of the week
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Karim Konaté has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Market21 Sep 2026
The name of Karim Konaté keeps appearing in other people's back pages. CFR Cluj say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match22 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑2 against FC Argeș, and it could have been more.
Squad24 Aug 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Islam Slimani, 38, rolls back the years — 9.66
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.66 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Alin Fică scores twice — 7.98
Two goals and a mark of 7.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market24 Aug 2026
Karim Konaté arrives at CFR Cluj in a $4.2M statement of intent
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. CFR Cluj have paid $4.2M for Karim Konaté, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Răzvan Gligor had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 CFR Cluj, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.