Marked for Grigory Kuznetsov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Feb 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market21 Feb 2028
Facundo Romeo hands in a written request
“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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Andrei Vlad 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 Voluntari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Jan 2028
Florin Haită breaks a bone — 38 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market10 Jan 2028
Pandurii come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Voluntari did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Andrei Vlad 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 Voluntari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Cheikh Mbacke Diop 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Grigory Kuznetsov and Voluntari agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market10 Jan 2028
Guti told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Guti has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Voluntari.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Dec 2027
Florin Haită 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Ştefan Văleanu damages knee ligaments — 34 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Market13 Dec 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Cheikh Mbacke Diop did not need any: 8.65, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Mihael Onişa: 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.” Voluntari have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Mihai Roman, 35, rolls back the years — 7.94
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.94 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Andrei Vlad 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 Voluntari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Grigory Kuznetsov is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Cheikh Mbacke Diop 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.
Match28 Aug 2027
FCSB made Voluntari work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces30 Aug 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Cheikh Mbacke Diop 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.
Market30 Aug 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.