Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Costel Avram has, at Steaua Bucharest, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Steaua Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The shirt still fits. Costel Avram is back at Steaua Bucharest, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and CSC Dumbrăvița were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
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.
Florin Borţa 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diogo Ramalho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Gabriel Cîrstean has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Steaua Bucharest have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Steaua Bucharest asked and Universitatea Craiova said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Gabriel David and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Diogo Ramalho 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Steaua Bucharest can tell you which week it ends in.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Andrei Ratiu after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Steaua Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Nedelea 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.
“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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against FC Bihor Oradea? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dragoş Nedelcu and Steaua Bucharest agree another 4 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diogo Ramalho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Steaua Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Andrei Ratiu after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lisandru Olmeta signs something — a contract at Steaua Bucharest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Two goals and a mark of 9.15 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Steaua Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” András Huszti and Steaua Bucharest agree another 4 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diogo Ramalho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Gabriel David 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Narek Grigoryan has come out of that comparison in the side, and Steaua Bucharest have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Andrei Ratiu could afford to be generous.
Florin Borţa 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.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Nedelea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Andrei Ratiu kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Steaua Bucharest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diogo Ramalho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Steaua Bucharest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Steaua Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Diogo Ramalho 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lisandru Olmeta signs something — a contract at Steaua Bucharest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
In brief
The dugoutAndrei Lascu knocks on the manager’s door
Looking aheadLooking ahead: the trip to Metalul Buzău
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Steaua Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Nedelea 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Steaua Bucharest know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Diogo Ramalho 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
A point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Florin Răsdan 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.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diogo Ramalho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Steaua Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Level with 88 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Steaua Bucharest had all but put away. Chindia Târgoviște will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Andrei Ratiu after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 87th, and Sepsi OSK spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Gabriel David 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.
“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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Franck Tchassem was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.48. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Florin Borţa 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.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Diogo Ramalho 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.
Everybody at Steaua Bucharest saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Sepsi OSK next, and one man in the Steaua Bucharest dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Florin Borţa 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Steaua Bucharest now.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Álex Gualda 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Andrei Ratiu was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Steaua Bucharest dressing room was either.
Two goals and a mark of 8.92 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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 manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Gabriel David 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Diogo Ramalho 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.
9 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Andrei Ratiu after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Marked 8.14 — 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Steaua Bucharest, another week without a signature from Florin Borţa.
Florin Răsdan 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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Steaua Bucharest will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Andrei Ratiu kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
SquadÁlex Gualda falls out with a teammate over standards
The dugoutGabriel David knocks on the manager’s door
Steaua Bucharest close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Dragoş Nedelcu reports back to Steaua Bucharest with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ianis Doană is the division's best young player this month
At 18 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Steaua Bucharest will try very hard not to make too much of it.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Steaua Bucharest know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Steaua Bucharest, another week without a signature from Narek Grigoryan.
Bogdan Chipirliu 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gabriel David trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Rubio signs something — a contract at Steaua Bucharest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
He is going to UTA Arad, the club has $1.0M 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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Steaua Bucharest have paid $1.3M for Diogo Ramalho, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Gabriel David 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.
Dinamo Bucharest wanted more than $15.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Diogo Ramalho was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $1.3M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
There were 87 minutes on the clock and FC Bacău had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Steaua Bucharest did not stop to explain themselves.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Steaua Bucharest have paid $1.6M for Alexandru Pop, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Steaua Bucharest have gone to Farul Constanța with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $16.1K — a club that wants Mihnea Toader enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Steaua Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $1.6M for Alexandru Pop, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
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.
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Alexandru Pop
Squad8 new faces, and Steaua Bucharest are still learning each other
3Edition
The Steaua Bucharest Herald
17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondentTriumph
Match15 Aug 2026
Ianis Doană wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Ianis Doană found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and CS Tunari went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Lisandru Olmeta has, at Steaua Bucharest, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Ianis Doană, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.75
A mark of 7.75 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
$1.6M on the table at Dinamo Bucharest. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer from CS Tunari for Rubio was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.8M — a club that wants Alexandru Pop enough to be asked twice.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Florin Borţa 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.
$1.6M was the most the club would pay and Rapid Bucharest were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.7M — a club that wants Tobias Christensen enough to be asked twice.
The deal with FC Argeș is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Andrei Iancu has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The offer went to Rapid Bucharest 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.
Steaua Bucharest asked and Corvinul Hunedoara said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A 3‑2 win over CSC Dumbrăvița, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Ianis Doană 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Steaua Bucharest know it, and so does everybody who watches him.