CSA Steaua București

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CSA Steaua București
Full nameClubul Sportiv al Armatei Steaua București
Nickname
  • Militarii (The Military Men)
  • Roș-albaștrii (The Red and Blues)
Short nameSteaua
Founded7 June 1947; 77 years ago (1947-06-07)
LocationGhencea Boulevard 35, sector 6, Bucharest
Colours    Red, Blue
PresidentȘtefan Răzvan Bichir
Websitewww.csasteaua.ro

Clubul Sportiv al Armatei Steaua București, commonly known as CSA Steaua București (Romanian pronunciation:

Ministry of National Defence
. It is one of the most successful clubs in Romania and among the most successful multi-sport clubs in Europe. Founded on 7 June 1947 as Asociația Sportivă a Armatei București (lit. 'Army Sports Association Bucharest'), the club changed its name several times before settling on to Steaua (English: The Star) in 1961.

The club is most known for its

fencing, tennis, cycling, and judo
.

History

On 7 June 1947, at the initiative of several officers of the Romanian Army, the first Romanian sports club of the Army was born through a decree signed by General Mihail Lascăr, High Commander of the Romanian Royal Army. The club was to be called ASA București (Asociația Sportivă a Armatei București – English: Army Sports Association), with seven different sections (football, fencing, volleyball, boxing, shooting, athletics, and tennis), and its leadership was entrusted to General-Major Oreste Alexandrescu. The decision had been adopted on the ground that several officers were already competing for different clubs, premise to a good nucleus for forming future competitive teams. This was also the year of the club's first national title, achieved by Gheorghe Viziru in tennis.

Previous names Period
Asociația Sportivă a Armatei (ASA) București 1947–1948
Clubul Sportiv Central al Armatei (CSCA) București 1948–1950
Casa Centrală a Armatei (CCA) București 1950–1961
Clubul Sportiv al Armatei (CSA) Steaua București 1961–present
The trophy room
Stamp of CSA Steaua, 2007

As the Romanian Royal Army turned into the People's Army following the coup d'état at the end of 1947, which saw

Eastern-European Army team, of a red star (turned yellow now, to symbolize Romania
's tri-colour red, yellow and blue flag) on their badge.

9 April 1974 witnessed the inauguration of the country's most modern sports complex at that time, Complexul Sportiv Steaua (Steaua Sports Complex), comprising a central football-use arena (30,000 capacity Stadionul Ghencea), six other training pitches also used by the rugby team and mini-hotel for the athletes. Today, Complexul Sportiv Steaua has been leased on a 49-year period to the football club, planning for renovation.

Over the years, the club's most successful sections on an international scale have been those of handball (European champions twice), football (European champions once), volleyball, gymnastics, tennis, athletics, shooting, fencing, rowing, and canoeing. Former tennis star Ilie Năstase began his professional career at the club.

Sections

Football

Main article: CSA Steaua București (football)

The football section was one of the seven sections formed at CSA Steaua's foundation, on 7 June 1947. The team's big breakthrough came in 1986, when they managed to become the first ever European champions from an Eastern country by winning the

European Supercup
. Steaua has the large majority of Romanian football fans, over 60% of the population listing Steaua as their favourite team.

The club's football department was once thought to have separated from CSA Steaua in 1998. This information was, however, false, as Tica Danilescu, a former club employee, revealed in 2017.

Romanian Army were the rightful owners of the Steaua logo, colours, honours and name, the executive committee of the Romanian Football Federation approved an application to modify the name of the club from "SC Fotbal Club Steaua București SA", as it was previously known, to "SC Fotbal Club FCSB SA" on 30 March 2017,[3][4] following more judiciary sentences and the decision to pay the CSA Steaua owners 38 million euros for the illegal use of their name.[citation needed
]

CSA Steaua București had previously announced they would reactivate their football department in the summer of the same year.[5] The team started training in July 2017, with Marius Lăcătuș as head coach.[6] The team was introduced in the Liga IV.[7] Currently, Steaua they plays in Liga II.

Active departments of CSA Steaua
Rugby
SamboShooting
SwimmingTaekwondo WTFTable tennisTennis
VolleyballWater PoloWeightliftingWrestling

Gymnastics

The Gymnastics department at Steaua is very strong. They're one of the largest clubs in Romania and have created World and Olympic level gymnasts. Gymnasts that they've created;

Sandra Izbașa – 2× Olympic Champion (London 2012, Vault and Floor) Alexandra Eremia – 2× Olympian Medalist (Athens 2004, Gold and Bronze) Silvia Stroescu – 1× Olympic Champion (Athens 2004, Team) Marian Drăgulescu – 3× Olympian Medalist (Athens 2004, Silver and Bronze twice), including eight gold medals at the World Championships and ten gold medals in the European Championships.

Handball (Men)

Main article: CSA Steaua București (handball)

The

Steaua MFA București won the European Cup
in 1967–68 (13–11 vs Dukla Praha) and 1976–77 (21–20 vs CSKA Moskva) as well as the European Challenge Cup in 2005–06 (21–26 and 34–27 vs SC Horta). They were also runners-up two times in the European Cup in 1970–71 (16–17 vs VfL Gummersbach) and 1988–89 (30–24 and 23–37 vs SKA Minsk).

The team has also won the Romanian Handball Championship (in seven players) 27 times (1962–63, 1966–67, 1967–68, 1968–69, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1971–72, 1972–73, 1973–74, 1974–75, 1975–76, 1976–77, 1978–79, 1979–80, 1980–81, 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1984–85, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89, 1989–90, 1993–94, 1995–96, 1999–00, 2000–01), the Romanian Handball Championship (in eleven players) 7 times (1950, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1961) and the Romanian Cup 7 times (1980–81, 1984–85, 1989–90, 1996–97, 1999–00, 2000–01, 2006–07).

They play their home matches at Chiajna Sports Hall. The current head coach is Sandu Iacob. The handball and ice-hockey teams are the fans' second favourite teams after the football one, and derby matches against HCM Constanța and especially Dinamo are highly attended.

Former players include such big names in the history of handball, as

Vasile Stângă, Marian Dumitru and Alexandru Dedu
.

Ice hockey

Main article: Steaua Rangers

Steaua București Hockey founded an Ice Hockey section in 1951. Hochei Club Steaua Suki București has been an autonomous club since 2004, but still belongs to CSA Steaua. It is the most successful club in Romania, having won the domestic league 40 times, a standing world record for ice hockey
national championships. They compete inside a national competition of only 6 teams and in which, besides them, only SC Miercurea Ciuc are especially relevant. Steaua plays SC Miercurea Ciuc in the final every year over a "best of 7" encounter. The derby match between Steaua and SC Miercurea Ciuc is the biggest ice hockey match in the country and one of an immense rivalry, as Steaua fans are mainly of Romanian nationality while Miercurea Ciuc's are mainly Hungarian.

The ice-hockey team, along with the handball one, are the fans' second favourite teams after the football one. They play their home matches at the Allianz-Țiriac Arena Ice Rink. The current coach is Nelu Alexe.[8]

Rugby Union

Main article: CSA Steaua București (rugby union)

The

București Rugby
.

The team plays its home matches on the rugby fields, inside the

Steaua Stadium. The current coach is Viorel Lucaci
.

Basketball (Men)

Main article: CSA Steaua București (basketball)

CSA Steaua founded the basketball team in 1952. The club won the

Romanian Basketball Championship 21 times in 1955–56, 1957–58, 1958–59, 1959–60, 1960–61, 1961–62, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1965–66, 1969–70, 1977–78, 1979–80, 1980–81, 1981–82, 1983–84, 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87, 1988–89, 1989–90 and 1990–91. The team's most notable achievement is a semifinal run at the 1960–61 FIBA European Champions Cup
.

After the

first division
, under the name BC Steaua Turabo București. In 2013 CS Municipal Bucuresti merged with CSA Steaua Bucuresti under the name Steaua CSM EximBank Bucuresti. As of 2025, the team is only known as CSA Steaua București

Volleyball (Men)

Main article: CSA Steaua București (volleyball)

Steaua were

Divizia A1
champions in 1951, 1952, 1954, 1957, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1960, 1971, 1978, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1991.

Water polo

Even though the Romanian national team has had some outstanding performances lately, club water polo has only a minor word to say in international competitions. Steaua are one of the leading teams inside a national league with only four professional clubs, the rest being amateur. The team's official name is CSA Steaua Stirom București named after their sponsors.

Club records

Source.[9]

Competitions Gold Gold Silver Silver Bronze Bronze Total
Summer Olympic Games 30 35 36 101
World Championships 190 203 255 687
European Championships 359 399 467 1225
World University Championships
 58 41 47 146
World Cup and European Cups 79 85 91 255
CISM and Spartakiad 94 129 161 384
Balkan Games
 1311 960 603 2874
Romanian Championships 12768 — — 12768
Romanian Cups 1386 — — 1386

References

  1. ^ "Trofeele Stelei rămân în ceață. Dănilescu: "Aveam aceeași emblemă și dreptul de a folosi palmaresul și marca"".
  2. ^ "Steaua Bucharest change name to FC FCSB". Special Broadcasting Service. 31 March 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  3. ^ "Deciziile Comitetului Executiv din 30 martie 2017" [The Executive Committee's decisions on March 30, 2017] (in Romanian). Romanian Football Federation. 30 March 2017. Archived from the original on 2017-03-31. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  4. ^ "Becali a dezvăluit, în direct la Digi Sport, motivul pentru care de mâine echipa sa îşi va schimba numele" [Becali unveiled the reason why his team will change its name tomorrow] (in Romanian). Digi Sport. 29 March 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  5. Pro Sport
    . 29 March 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  6. Dolce Sport. 14 July 2017. Archived from the original
    on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  7. ^ "AMFB a publicat programul primei etape din Liga 4! Adversarele steliștilor și rapidiștilor". Gazeta Sporturilor (in Romanian). 25 August 2017.
  8. ^ "Hochei pe gheata CSA Steaua".
  9. ^ "Palmares general CSA Steaua București 1947–2019". csasteaua.ro. Retrieved 1 August 2019.

Further reading

  • Mihai Ionescu, Ion Cupen, Constelația valorilor sportive, Editura Militară, 1972.
  • Marin Ciuperceanu, Steliştii, Editura Militară, 1984.
  • Cristian Țopescu, Octavian Vintilă, Steaua performanţă şi prestigiu, Editura Militară, 1988.
  • CSA Steaua, Clubul Sportiv al Armatei 1947–2017 istoria continuă, CSA Steaua București, 2017.
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