Marked for André Xavier
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Adrian Burca out for 83 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.
Market25 Jan 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 The request is on a desk at Viitorul, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Viitorul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bogdan Hagi 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of André Xavier
“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 watch25 Jan 2027
“I did not go to Voluntari to sit and watch. I want to come back to Viitorul and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 24 matches say the rest.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Vlad Burca runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 43. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Stefan Ratiu damages knee ligaments — 85 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 85 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Viitorul come up short in Europe
0‑2 away to the standard of Young Boys. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Bogdan Hagi 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 Viitorul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Cosmin Mihaila 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Voluntari made Viitorul work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Bogdan Hagi at his very best
Marked 8.48. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Viitorul.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
The cruellest goal, and it is André Xavier's
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Viitorul will not try tonight.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 45. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match26 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win for Viitorul
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Viitorul are no longer polite ones.
Match26 Sep 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Viitorul did not have in the autumn.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Bogdan Hagi 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 Viitorul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Viitorul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefan Chiriches 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
3 matches without a goal for Viitorul
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
André Xavier 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Viitorul
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. 7.52 on the card, and the Viitorul support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Sep 2026
Viitorul do the business in Europe
0‑0. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and Viitorul came through the finding-out well against Olimpija Ljubljana.
Match21 Sep 2026
Viitorul are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 13 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Viitorul
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Viitorul are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Bogdan Hagi 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Whatever happens, Viitorul do not lose
7 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
André Xavier 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Cosmin Mihaila will call it something else in private.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Ahmed Azaouagh
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Both of them Vlad Burca's — 8.40
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.40, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market31 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 Viitorul, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Aug 2026
André Xavier 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Pandurii pay $160.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Vlad Burca’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Viitorul.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Viitorul supporters have found a favourite in Vlad Burca
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Vlad Burca 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.33 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Nicusor Man
“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.