Marked for Moonga Simba
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match5 Dec 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” László Kleinheisler and Hermannstadt agree another 2 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Hermannstadt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mamadou Thiam 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
László Kleinheisler and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Marked 7.96 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Hermannstadt had the best player on the pitch.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Kevin Ciubotaru
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Kevin Ciubotaru has come out of that comparison in the side, and Hermannstadt have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Match5 Dec 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hermannstadt, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces30 Nov 2026
Anger at Hermannstadt spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Marko Gjorgjievski and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Hermannstadt are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Christ Afalna 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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match30 Nov 2026
Position 11, 15 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Half-satisfied: Sergiu Man on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Sergiu Buş 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
Aviel Zargari damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 25 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. 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
David Lazar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
At 22 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christ Afalna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andreas Karo and Hermannstadt agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Sep 2026
8 matches without a win for Hermannstadt
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Hermannstadt are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Sep 2026
David Lazar 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
FC Argeș left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christ Afalna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad28 Sep 2026
11 new faces, and Hermannstadt are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sergiu Man after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Andreas Karo
“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.
Market28 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mamadou Thiam’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
No footballer has ever cost this club more, and the number will be read out every time he misplaces a pass for the next two years.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Politehnica Iași; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
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 Hermannstadt can pretend not to have heard.
Match29 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Moonga Simba beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Mamadou Thiam from FCSB for $1.9M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ludogorets have kept their man, and Hermannstadt go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match29 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Metaloglobus Bucharest, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mamadou Thiam was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings10 Aug 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to Aris Thessaloniki this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FCSB have kept their man, and Hermannstadt go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marko Gjorgjievski and Hermannstadt agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
David Lazar 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Ionuţ Pop has left for CS Tunari in a $230.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Florin Mihaila has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Stefan Cicaldau has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.