Marked for Daniel Hagi
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Sep 2026
Voluntari sink to position 9
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match5 Sep 2026
7 matches without a win for Voluntari
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Voluntari are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Sep 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 Voluntari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Wages eat 242% of everything Voluntari earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match5 Sep 2026
Viitorul left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Radu Crişan 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Voluntari, another week without a signature from Mihailo Oreščanin.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniel Hagi and Voluntari agree another 3 years.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Business is business: Daniel Hagi goes
Voluntari paid $160.0K and Astra took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Cosmin Ratiu 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 Astra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.30, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Voluntari leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
The one thing Bogdan Tanase could not do
Shots: 10, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rodrigo Cunha, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
The one thing Bogdan Balasa could not do
Shots: 7, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Match29 Aug 2026
The wait goes on for Voluntari
6 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The chase for Daniel Hagi ended with $160.0K changing hands and Astra out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Mihailo Oreščanin 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Whatever happens, Voluntari 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. 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
Crisis
Match22 Aug 2026
Chastening afternoon for Astra
A 0‑3 beating by Universitatea Craiova was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
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 Astra, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market24 Aug 2026
Petrolul 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Astra
Cosmin Ratiu 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bogdan Tanase, and the manager let it.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Doors closed at Astra
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Shots: 8, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
The one thing Bogdan Balasa could not do
Shots: 10, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.