FC Braşov
Fc brasov.png
Full name Fotbal Club Braşov
Nickname(s) The Flaggers
Short name FC Braşov
Founded 1936
Ground Silviu Ploeşteanu
(Capacity: 8,800)
Owner Ioan Neculaie
Chairman Iosif Kovacs
Manager Daniel Isăilă
League Liga I
2010–11 Liga I, 12th
Website Club home page

Home colours
Away colours
Current season

Fotbal Club Braşov is a professional football club based in the city of Braşov, Romania. They were founded in 1936, and since then they have spent 41 season in the top-flight. Braşov kits are yellow-black, and they play their home matches on the Silviu Ploeşteanu stadium.


 History

Early modern football in Braşov

"Prehistoric" football in Braşov started between 1912 and 1914. In 1927, the unrelated Colţea Braşov won a major title. In the second edition of Division C (1937–1938), the team Braşovia had given way to the new team "Astra" Braşov, founded a year earlier in 1936, which developed through the years to the current team from the foot of the mountain Tâmpa, FC Braşov. Players from this precursor of FC's in '37 may be considered the first generation in the team history. Ten of them are mentioned by the press: Năftănăilă (no relation to Lulu Năftănăilă from the later history of the club), Aurel Stroe, Pitu, Chicomban (a known family of multiathletes), Danciu, Pedra, Chirică, Dumitrescu, A. Iftimie, Dănăilă.

The generation of Silviu Ploeşteanu

The Second World War paralyzed the world of football, although there were a few competitions like "The Cup of Bessarabia" or "The Heroes Cup". Immediately after the armistice, various teams began to emerge throughout Romania, for the most part related to industrial establishments, universities or the military.

Yet one more time we find the Braşov team in Division C - series XII, as "UAB". This constellation is the starting point of the team that manager Silviu Ploeşteanu, with firm hands and professionalism, will bring to the second place in the first division and to winning the first Balkan Interclub Cup. We consider this to be the second generation, the generation that finally succeeded to break into Division B, in 1950.

This is the generation that Silviu Ploeşteanu managed to become a great team, winners of "The Balkan Cup" and players on the front stage among Romanian clubs. In 1960 the team places itself as number two on the front stage. This is the generation of Nicolae Proca, Gheorghe Fusulan, Gheorghe Ciripoi, Tică Constantinescu, Gheorghe Percea, Octavian Zaharia and Gheorghe Raicu; later supplemented by Stephen Hidişan (who continued as coach, a discoverer of talent), Nicolae Campo, Ioan Szigeti, Alexandru Meszaroşi, Vasile Szeredai, Dorin Gane, Valer Târnăveanu and Necula Dorin.

The generation of the Mexican trio

The following generation is the one of the trio Nicolae Pescaru - Stere Adamache - Mihai Ivăncescu, the generation that provided three players to the Romanian national team at the World Cup in Mexico 1970. For a province team this was an extraordinary achievement, especially as they then played in Division B, even if the demotion (starting in 1968) was due to factors unrelated to the playing proficiency of the team.

The death of Iuliu Năftănăilă on August 28, 1967 gave the club a terrible shock from which it did not recover. Not only had Braşov lost one of its greatest talents, there was also the obtuseness of the federation, which did not agree to postpone the match with U Cluj just 48 hours after the funeral. Still under psychological pressure, the team gave up and could not recover fast enough. This demotion resulted in the replacement of Silviu Ploeşteanu as the coach of the team. After only eight stages on the bench in the next edition of "B", Valentin Stănescu was assigned his position. The shock of being dismissed from the team that he had managed for 21 years led to his death in the following spring, on April 13, 1969.

This generation links to the names of Csaba Gyorffy, Iuliu Jenei, Călin Gane, Marcel Goran, Pete Cadar, Caesar Ardeleanu, Adrian Hârlab and Virgil Grecea – a generation consisting of some of the most long term team members.

The generation of the '80s

FC Braşov's crest during the 1980s

The generation of the '80s brought the team back on the first stage, after five years of penance in the second division. This was the generation of Vasile Papuc, Vasile Gherghe, Marian Paraschivescu, Valer Șulea, Costel Spirea, Vasile Bențea, Gherasim Chioreanu, Adrian Furnică, Constantin Manciu, Nicolae Bucur, Nicolae Adami, Mihai Panache and Petre Marinescu.

Others incorporated along the way were Marius Lăcătuş, Ion Batacliu, Nistor Văidean, Ion Mandoca and Dumitru Stângaciu, a generation that demoted the team into "B" for a season, but that also brought it back. They did not reach the foremost positions, as had the earlier generations, but still for a long time they maintained the flag of Braşov on mast-head. The generation of the '80s continued and merged with the generation of the end of the decade, when new stars appeared on the Braşov sky: Marin Barbu, Alexandru Csaba Andraşi, Marian Mărgărit, Eugen Moldovan, Petre Lucian, Andrei Șanta and Ștefan Bălan.

A leap in the line of time and the World Cup of '94

Club logo during the 90's

After the events of December '89, we reach the generation that sent Marian Ivan to the '94 World Cup in the USA. This is the generation of Tibor Selymes, Ionel Pârvu, Laszlo Polgar, Emil Spirea, Sandu Andraşi, Iulian Chiriță, Dorel Purdea, and Marius Todericiu, a generation that still had some of the most worthy players of previous generations. This is the generation which, as previously said, sent Marian Ivan to the World Cup, 24 years after the Mexican trio.

The new generation, an indigenous one

Some of the players of previous generations came to the foot of Tâmpa from elsewhere, adapted and remained faithful to these lands, along with those that were born and formed here. In recent years, the junior teams of "the flagmen" have begun to produce young talents one after the other. The best of the best have been incorporated into the "big" group, others have been lent to teams in the lower categories, to grind. Traian Alexandru Marc, Marius Constantin, Romeo Surdu, Ioan Coman, Silviu Pintea, Ionuț Vasiliu and Dragoş Luca – the generation formed by "Municipal" or "ICIM", the generation that brought the titles of champions or vice-champions back to Braşov after a very long time. This generation was thrown into battle together with others that committed themselves to the fields of Braşov: Aurel Ghindaru, Vasile Ghindaru, Mugurel Buga,Laszlo Balint, Emerich Vascko, Cosmin Bodea, Daniel Isăilă, Octavian Cocan,Marcel Şandor, Mihai Stere, Robert Dani, Florin Stângâ and the list could go on and on. A list that is sure to be filled with other names coming from the juniors, carefully prepared within the framework of the "center".

At the end of the 2008–09 season, the team finished 9th in the Liga I.

2009/10 season

The club started the 2009/10 season very well, ranking 1st in the championship at the end of the first 10 matches, with 7 points behind the 2nd placed team. In the Romanian Cup, they managed to reach the semi-finals, after eliminating one by one, CS Otopeni, Unirea Urziceni and Gloria Bistriţa. By doing this, they managed to equalize their all time best performance in this competition, after the ones achieved in the 1951, 1957–58, 1961–62, 1969–70, 1978–79 and the 1986–87 seasons. They were drawn against FC Vaslui. Neither team had ever reached the final before.

Honours

Domestic

Liga I:

  • Winners (0):
  • Runners-up (1): 1959–60

Liga II:

  • Winners (6): 1956, 1967–68, 1979–80, 1983–84, 1998–99, 2007–08
  • Runners-up (2): 1976–77, 1978–79

European

Balkans Cup:

  • Winners (1): 1960–61

Current squad

As of July 20, 2011

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.
Position Player
1 Romania GK Alexandru Marc
2 Spain DF Javier Velayos
4 Portugal DF Hugo Sousa
5 Romania DF Horia Crişan
6 Slovakia DF Peter Majerník
7 Romania FW Adrian Voiculeţ
8 Romania MF Alexandru Mateiu
9 Romania FW Attila Hadnagy
10 Romania MF Alexandru Chipciu
11 Argentina MF David Distéfano
12 Romania DF Cristian Ionescu
13 Portugal GK Mário Felgueiras
14 Chile MF Sebastián Páez

No.
Position Player
18 Romania MF Marian Cristescu
20 Romania DF Emanuel Creţulescu
21 Romania MF Florin Stângă
22 Argentina FW Jonathan Domínguez
23 Portugal DF Ricardo Machado
25 Chile MF Juan Toloza
26 Portugal MF Bruno Madeira
28 Romania DF Cristian Munteanu
29 Romania FW Mugurel Buga
30 Romania GK Florin Iacob
34 Portugal GK Hélder Godinho
70 Brazil FW Renato Kanu

Managerial history

This section shows only the managers in charge of FC Braşov since 2007–08 season.
Season Name League Final position
2007–08 Romania Răzvan Lucescu Liga II  1st 
2008–09 Liga I 9th
2009–10 Romania Viorel Moldovan Liga I 9th
2010–11 Romania Daniel Isăilă  Liga I  Day 1 to Day 18 12th
Portugal António Conceição  Rest of the season 

European record

Season Competition Round Club Home Away
1960–61 Balkans Cup Group stage1 Greece AEK Athens 3–0 4–2
Albania Partizani Tirana 1–0 0–0
Turkey Fenerbahçe 3–0 1–1
Bulgaria Levski Sofia 2–2 4–2
1965–66 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup First round Bulgaria Lokomotiv Plovdiv 1–3 1–2
1963–64 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Second round Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Zagreb 1–0 2–2
Third round Spain Espanyol 4–2 1–3
1971 Balkans Cup Group stage Turkey Altay 3–0 0–0
Greece Panionios 1–1 0–2
1972 Balkans Cup Group stage Bulgaria Trakia Plovdiv 2–3 1–1
Turkey Göztepe 0–1 1–5
1974–75 UEFA Cup First round Turkey Beşiktaş 3–0 0–2
Second round Germany Hamburg 1–2 0–8
2001–02 UEFA Cup Qualifying round Armenia Mika 5–1 2–0
First round Italy Internazionale Milano 0–3 0–3

1The competition was played in a group of 5 teams. FC Braşov finished first and won the cup.

Notable players

Romania
  • Romania Mihai Ivăncescu
  • Romania Stere Adamache
  • Romania Nicolae Pescaru
  • Romania Dumitru Stângaciu
  • Romania Marius Lăcătuş
  • Romania Ionel Ganea
  • Romania Sabin Ilie
  • Romania Marian Ivan
  • Romania Tibor Selymes
  • Romania Gabriel Tamaş
  • Romania Tiberiu Ghioane
  • Romania Răzvan Lucescu
  • Romania Florin Prunea
  • Romania Bogdan Nicolae
  • Romania Cornel Buta
 
  • Romania Mircea Stan
  • Romania Mihai Baicu†
  • Romania Marius Onofraş
  • Romania Cosmin Bodea
  • Romania Marius Constantin
  • Romania Flavius Moldovan
  • Romania Mugurel Buga
  • Romania Eugen Nae
  • Romania Bogdan Stelea
  • Romania Robert Ilyeş
  • Romania Marius Măldărăşanu
  • Romania Dănuţ Coman
  • Romania Adrian Senin
  • Romania Attila Hadnagy
  • Romania Nicolae Constantin
  • Romania Cătălin Munteanu
  • Romania Gheorghe Cornea
 
  • Romania Mihai Roman
  • Romania Romeo Surdu
  • Romania Nicolae Grigore
  • Romania Marian Cristescu
  • Romania Cristian Oroş
  • Romania Octavian Abrudan
  • Romania Sabrin Sburlea
  • Romania Dorel Zaharia
Europe
  • Armenia Arman Karamyan
  • Portugal Paulo Adriano
  • Portugal Rui Duarte
  • Portugal Nuno Diogo
South America
  • Brazil Ezequias
 
Africa
  • Ghana Ibrahim Dossey†
 

External links

  • (Romanian) Official Website
  • (Romanian) FC Braşov Fansite
  • (Romanian) BrasovFANS Website
  • (Romanian) FC Braşov Supporters' League
  • (Romanian) La Stegaru'
  • (Romanian) Steagu.ro
  • (Romanian) Kronsport