Marked for Adrian Mitrita
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Sergiu Man 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Viitorul sign 4 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Jun 2027
FCSB 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vlad Burca is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Vlad Burca 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2027
Paul Cicaldau breaks a bone — 67 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad3 May 2027
Dragos Balasa 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Viitorul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Răzvan Barstan 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Mar 2027
Paul Chiriches 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Viitorul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Răzvan Barstan 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.
Loan watch1 Mar 2027
“I watch every Viitorul game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kifisia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Sergiu Ratiu out for 35 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viitorul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch28 Dec 2026
“I watch every Viitorul game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Universitatea Craiova runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Sergiu Ratiu out for 65 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viitorul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrei Cicaldau, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Sergiu Ratiu out for 79 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad16 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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viitorul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match14 Nov 2026
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 39. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A brace, and Paul Chiriches takes the afternoon — 8.20
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Paul Chiriches provided it, and the 8.20 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Dragos Balasa 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Paul Chiriches. 2‑0 against Voluntari, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match7 Nov 2026
Viitorul make home a hard place to visit
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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Jonathan Segura
“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.
Loan watch9 Nov 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 2 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad9 Nov 2026
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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Viitorul man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Paul Chiriches was the best thing in any of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
Florin Ştefan breaks a bone — 50 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match5 Oct 2026
Viitorul are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 18 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Claudiu Marin: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Viitorul have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viitorul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Oct 2026
Three points for Viitorul, 1‑0 the final word against Astra in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Paul Chiriches was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Florin Ştefan out for 60 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Paul Chiriches 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
A bad afternoon for Viitorul against FCSB
0‑1 to FCSB, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Both jobs done by George Burca — 6.81
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.81, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Dinamo Bucharest to sit and watch. I want to come back to Viitorul and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Aug 2026
Viitorul through in the cup
A 2‑0 win over Botosani, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Mihai Coman at 17 — 7.63
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mihai Coman did not need any: 7.63, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Nicusor Hagi scored one and made one — 7.93
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.93, and 2 involvements.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viitorul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Andrei Cicaldau 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Petrolul made Viitorul work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.27, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A mark of 7.95, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.