Marked for Andrei Moldovan
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicolás Carreño
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Astra lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match17 May 2027
Every point is an argument now for Astra
Position 9 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad17 May 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 Astra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Apr 2027
Claudiu Mihaila damages knee ligaments — 89 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 89 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Tempers go at Astra
Andrei Moldovan 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nicolás Carreño commits to Astra for another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 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 The request is on a desk at Astra, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Andrei Moldovan 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.
Loan watch18 Jan 2027
“I did not go to FCSB to sit and watch. I want to come back to Astra and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 22 matches say the rest.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Nicusor Deac 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Cosmin Ratiu has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Astra will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Loan watch18 Jan 2027
The goals keep arriving from Cosmin Mitrita’s exile
2 goals in 21 games at TSC — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Astra updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Dec 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 Astra can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Astra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrei Stanciu 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.
Squad21 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 Astra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Nov 2026
Astra are in real trouble now
Position 9, 10 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Ionut Chiriches out for 14 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Astra will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Andrei Stanciu 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 36. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match2 Nov 2026
Every point is an argument now for Astra
Position 9 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Ionut Chiriches out for 16 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Astra will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Florin Moldovan 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Astra
Andrei Moldovan 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
A 1‑0 win over Voluntari, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Astra's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Astra has to find a result from somewhere.
Match17 Oct 2026
Astra taken apart
2‑6 to Petrolul, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.21, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad19 Oct 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Astra and Petrolul, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Andrei Stanciu 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Astra
Andrei Moldovan 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.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Astra dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Astra's wait for a win
11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Astra has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Astra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Florin Moldovan 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.
Squad12 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 Astra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Astra's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Astra has to find a result from somewhere.
Market28 Sep 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 Astra can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Sep 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Astra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrei Stanciu 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.
Squad28 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 Astra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 40. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
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 Astra, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $160.0K sale of Cosmin Balasa
He is going to Petrolul, the club has $160.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market31 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
The wait goes on for Astra
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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Petrolul 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Astra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Florin Moldovan 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.
Squad31 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 8.08 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market10 Aug 2026
Mihai Maxim has left for Zenit in a $16.8M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Andrei Stanciu commits to Astra for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Astra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Florin Moldovan 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.
Squad10 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Cosmin Moldovan
“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.