The Astra Chronicle
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Nobody could get near Ronaldinho
Successful dribbles: 51. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match7 Sep 2026
Astra up to position 1
14 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match5 Sep 2026
Astra win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 94th minute. Botosani will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Market7 Sep 2026
Adrian Coman puts it in writing
“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 The request is on a desk at Astra, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Sep 2026
Adrian Coman attracts admirers
The name of Adrian Coman has come up in conversations Astra were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match5 Sep 2026
6 unbeaten for Astra
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Astra did not have in the autumn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Alexandru Ratiu 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.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
The crowd has taken to Gabriel David
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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Astra find a way past Botosani
Botosani made Astra work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
In brief
- Squad Bogdan Maxim out for 38 days
- Squad A month that belonged to Ronaldinho
- Player ratings Dorin Burca takes the honours