Marked for Mario Din Licaciu
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Apr 2027
Raul Opruţ 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 Dinamo Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cristian Ganea, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 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.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Bucharest, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Loan watch12 Apr 2027
27 appearances at Budafoki MTE and the goals keep coming. Dinamo Bucharest are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Market12 Apr 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Bucharest know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad12 Apr 2027
George Puşcaş has started doing his badges
“I watch sessions differently now. I catch myself thinking about why we are doing the drill.” At 31 that is how nearly every man in a dugout started.
Squad12 Apr 2027
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Raul Opruţ 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 Dinamo Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A move Gleidson Lima would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Gleidson Lima is living that version at Dinamo Bucharest, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Dinamo Bucharest know it.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gleidson Lima and Dinamo Bucharest agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market15 Mar 2027
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout15 Mar 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.
Loan watch15 Mar 2027
The goals keep arriving from Cristian Mihai’s exile
8 goals in 27 games at Budafoki MTE — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Dinamo Bucharest updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Loan watch15 Mar 2027
The goals keep arriving from Adrian Caragea’s exile
7 goals in 28 games at CS Dinamo Bucharest — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Dinamo Bucharest updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Devis Epassy and Dinamo Bucharest agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Bucharest can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad8 Mar 2027
The medical room confirms 18 days on the sidelines for Wilson Eduardo, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Loan watch8 Mar 2027
13 clean sheets on loan for Codruţ Sandu
29 appearances at Corvinul Hunedoara and the goals have stopped going in. Dinamo Bucharest lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Amadu Baldé 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.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Cristian Ganea
“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.
Market8 Mar 2027
Mario Din Licaciu returns from a loan that taught him nothing
0 appearances and 0 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
Wilson Eduardo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Dinamo Bucharest 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.
Market8 Mar 2027
The Raul Opruţ story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Raul Opruţ signs something — a contract at Dinamo Bucharest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Pressure builds in the Dinamo Bucharest boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Dinamo Bucharest are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match27 Feb 2027
Cătălin Cîrjan scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to FC Argeș, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Devis Epassy
“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.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Ninety minutes of Cătălin Cîrjan at his very best
Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dinamo Bucharest.
Market1 Mar 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Dinamo Bucharest, another week without a signature from Enzo López.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Amadu Baldé 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 Dinamo Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout1 Mar 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 1‑2 Daniel Chiriches left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Feb 2027
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Match6 Feb 2027
CFR Cluj go through and Dinamo Bucharest go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Adrian Rus and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotiv Sofia have kept their man, and Dinamo Bucharest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Loan watch8 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 Dinamo Bucharest, and 0 appearances in 23 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout8 Feb 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.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Ninety minutes of Daniel Armstrong at his very best
Marked 8.45. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dinamo Bucharest.
Loan watch8 Feb 2027
Codruţ Sandu’s loan is measured in nothing happening
13 clean sheets from 25 appearances at Corvinul Hunedoara. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Match3 Feb 2027
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Dinamo Bucharest had all but put away. CFR Cluj will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Jan 2027
Como come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Dinamo Bucharest did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Nikita Stoinov is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with Viktoria Plzen, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
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.
Match9 Jan 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was George Puşcaş’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Dinamo Bucharest.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Bucharest can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
George Puşcaş was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Loan watch11 Jan 2027
Codruţ Sandu’s loan is measured in nothing happening
11 clean sheets from 21 appearances at Corvinul Hunedoara. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
Matthias Verreth damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Dinamo Bucharest — 7.73
1 for Andrei Mărginean, marked 7.73, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Raul Opruţ 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Cristian Ganea and Dinamo Bucharest agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“I watch every Dinamo Bucharest game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at FC Bihor Oradea runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Nov 2026
Matthias Verreth damages knee ligaments — 62 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 62 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match31 Oct 2026
Losing 0‑2 is one thing; losing to FCSB in a derby is a wound that takes months to close.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Cristian Ganea out for 42 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Bucharest will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
Anger at Dinamo Bucharest spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match2 Nov 2026
Position 15, 9 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Dinamo Bucharest, another week without a signature from Enzo López.
Squad2 Nov 2026
7 new faces, and Dinamo Bucharest 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
94 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Bucharest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match5 Oct 2026
Position 14, 8 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Matteo Duţu is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Cristian Ganea and Dinamo Bucharest agree another 1 years.
Loan watch5 Oct 2026
“I did not go to FC Bihor Oradea to sit and watch. I want to come back to Dinamo Bucharest and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Match3 Oct 2026
It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.06 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
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 FC Bihor Oradea, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market24 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and FC Bihor Oradea did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Dinamo Bucharest, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at FC Bihor Oradea training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Maftei 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.
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tommi Jyry 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
CS Dinamo Bucharest left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market24 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Albert Stahl again, and this time the name on the line is CFR Cluj. FC Bihor Oradea are listening politely and promising nothing.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Cosmin Chiriches to a room that had heard them before.