Marked for Florin Balasa
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 60. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match2 Nov 2026
Astra refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 21 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Astra may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Astra
Marius Cicaldau 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Voluntari left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match2 Nov 2026
Fehervar are in real trouble now
Position 10, 15 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
Zsolt Orban 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 Fehervar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Roy Castillo 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Three points for Fehervar, 1‑0 the final word against Debrecen in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.02 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
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 Fehervar, another week without a signature from Tin Plavotić.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Fehervar's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Fehervar has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Tin Plavotić 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 Fehervar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Fehervar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roy Castillo 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Fehervar
8 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
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.
Match24 Oct 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Haladas leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Fehervar
5 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tin Plavotić 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 Fehervar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Fehervar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roy Castillo 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
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tin Plavotić 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 Fehervar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Csaba Spandler 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Fehervar
8 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.73 on the card, and the Fehervar support went home talking about one name.
Match26 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Florin Balasa knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Florin Balasa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
Patrik Kovács breaks a bone — 24 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match29 Aug 2026
The wait goes on for Fehervar
5 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Gergely Nagy 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Fehervar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roland Varga 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
3 matches without a goal for Fehervar
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Fehervar
6 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Márk Dékei
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match29 Aug 2026
Point won or two lost for Fehervar?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Vasas? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Market31 Aug 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Patrik Kovács’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market10 Aug 2026
Legia come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Astra did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.97 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andrei Bancu and Astra agree another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Astra
Florin 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Astra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dragos Man 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Andrei Maxim’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Astra.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Dragos Man gets it from the manager
“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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Astra lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad3 Aug 2026
4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and Dragos Moldovan takes the afternoon — 8.96
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dragos Moldovan provided it, and the 8.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market3 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Astra did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
It finished 7‑6, and it was Florin Balasa’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Astra.
Squad3 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 Astra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 Aug 2026
Florin Balasa among the goals in a wild afternoon
13 goals in one match, Florin Balasa on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Astra and Viitorul.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Florin Balasa at his very best
Marked 9.86. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Astra.