A young team is keeping the boss happy
FCSB got their first trophy in five years last July and faces Gigi Becali's fury with wins
Times have been busy at Gigi Becali’s office in the five seasons FCSB hasn’t won the Rumanian League, claiming a national record four second places in a row and ending last year’s competition in a disappointing fifth spot. Coaches come and go. Sometimes the same coaches. All depends on the daily mood of the Big Boss, a former member of both the Rumanian and the European Parliaments, a milk trader turned real-estate millionaire after the demotion of the Ceausescu regime, in the late eighties, a harsh right wing politician that has a painting of the Last Supper picturing him as Christ and the Steaua players and coach as the Apostles. “At Steaua, I am God”, he once said. And this may be the season of the second coming, as the young team he assembled leads the Rumanian League, has been showing no signs of weakness and even expects to regain the use of the legendary club’s name and history, lost in 2017 to the Army, as the matter is once again in court.
In fact, the real Steaua is playing in Series 4 of Rumania’s Liga III, the third tier of competition in the country. They even lead the group, trying to get promotion to Liga II, as they hold a two point margin of FCSB’s second team. It will be funny when both teams face each other, in a duel scheduled to March, when Liga III resumes after the winter break, as both claim to be the legitimate hairs of the club that congregates almost half of the football fans in the country, the only Eastern European club to ever lift the Champions Cup trophy. For the moment, CSA Steaua leads not only the table but the legal affairs too, as a court order decreed in 2017 that they were the rightful owners of Steaua’s legacy. Since that year, Becali’s band changed their name to FCSB, an acronym to Fotbal Club Steaua Bucuresti, while the Ministery of National Defence club kept the right to be called CSA Steaua and had to pick up the pieces from the lower tiers of competition. CSA meaning, off course, Club Sportiv al Armatei, or, if you prefer English, The Army Sports Club.
Keeping up with the Ceausescus
Steaua was created in 1947, after World War II, as the club of the army, like many others in East European communist regimes. It changed its name (Asociatia Sportiva al Armatei) one year later, to Club Sportiv Central Armatei, and again in 1960, to Casa Centrala al Armatei. The star (Steaua, in Rumanian) was introduced only in 1961, as a way of identification with other army clubs in Eastern Bloc countries. And the rivalry with Dinamo – the Police club – was immediate. Between the two, they won almost every League in the 60’s, the 70’s and the 80’s, Dinamo getting the upper hand for most of the time. Steaua had to endure some bad spells, but after conquering the League in 1985, absolutely rampaged football in the country. The club was favoured by the sons of Nicolae Ceausescu, the country’s mighty, cruel and sanguinary dictator, Valentin, the eldest, even being unofficial president, what meant that surprises were not welcome. Steaua won the last five Leagues before the demise of the regime, even establishing a still valid European record of 104 successive League games without a defeat, between June 1986 and September 1989. In the meantime, they had won the 1986 Champions Cup, beating FC Barcelona in the final, at the Camp Nou: goalkeeper Helmut Ducadam was the hero that evening, stopping all four penalties in the shoot-out that followed a rather uninteresting 0-0 draw. “You should have won it in 90 minutes”, “Nicu” Ceausescu, the dictator’s youngest son and also a radical fan of the club, is said to have told the players in a reception, afterwards.
The 1989 December Revolution brought a new life for Steaua. Before that, and unlike Soviets, for instance, Rumanian football players were already allowed to leave the country, but only after a certain age and rendered services to both club and country. Then, with free market, they could go whenever and wherever they wanted to. And so they did, weakening Steaua’s team. Belodedici left to Crvena Zvezda, Lacatus signed with Fiorentina, Petrescu with Foggia, Hagi with Real Madrid. The Barcelona hero, Ducadam, had already put an end to his career, after an aneurism led to the loss of capacity in his right arm and started rumours that “Nicu” Ceausescu had shot him for not folding in demands regarding prizes after the Camp Nou final, as the players had been promised new cars and ended up with used 4x4 the army no longer needed. Ducadam later denied those rumours. Anyway, as the Ceausescu family lost its influence in both the country and Steaua, the club was open to new influencers. And in 1998, almost a decade later, it was separated from the army, changing its name to FC Steaua Bucuresti under the leadership of Viorel Paunescu. Hence the controversy, as no-one questions that the club was the same until 2003.
In comes Becali
So, what happened in 2003? The name you need to remember is Gheorghe Becali, at the time a 40 year old businessman, who started buying club shares in 1998, finally controlling the majority by 2003. Becali, who was born in Eastern Rumania, near the borders with both Moldova and Ukraine, is a cousin to Victor and Ioan, both football agents, and started by trading in milk and cheese, but was turned into a millionaire with an obscure land exchange with the army, after the Revolution. His fortune was used to control Steaua and to open his way in politics: he created and leads a right wing political party, on behalf of which he has been a presidential candidate and a member of both the Rumanian and the European Parliaments. Becali is known for his homophobic and xenophobic views on Rumania, having even once asked for the canonization of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, the founder and historical leader of the Iron Guard, a fascist movement that was aligned with the Nazis during World War II. No wonder he leads the club as his personal feud, frequently manifesting ruthless power over his subordinates.
Steaua was still one of the major forces in Rumanian football after Becali’s ascent to power. Even if, in order to solve troubles with fiscal authorities, he sold all is shares to his nephews in 2005. “From today on, I will no longer be a patron or a shareholder but a spiritual parent”, he said. He kept on ruling at his wish, anyway, as players and coaches are signed and sacked in a free flow if he is in a bad mood. That’s what happened, for instance, with Gheorghe Hagi, the former club star, who knows Becali from his days as a dairy salesman and even served as bestman in the president’s wedding - they even shared a dorm room, before the time “Gica” Hagi was a star. Hagi came back to Steaua in 2007, as coach, but after three months said he was enough and resigned. “I’ve had it. Tension was unbelievable. I was tortured at Steaua”, the best Rumanian footballer of all time said when leaving the club. Since signing him, Becali had been a strong critic of Hagi’s decisions, holding him responsible for bad results and publicly threatening to sack him day in-day out if he did not do what he was told to do regarding the team sheet.
Coaches free flow
Champion for the last time in 2015, Becali has since accumulated coaches. Dumitru Dumitriu started 2015/16, but left in November, allowing the return of Laurentiu Reghecampf from Saudi Arabia. Reghecampf ended that season in second spot, five points behind Astra, and made it through the end of 2016/17, claiming another second spot, this time with the same point tally as champions Viitorul. He then left to Abu Dhabi, taking with him his assistants, Anton Petrea and the controversial German physical trainer Thomas Neubert, who hadn’t (and still hasn’t) the necessary habilitations and must be registered as a masseur, in spite of being recognised as one of the most revolutionary characters in Rumanian football in the last few years. Nicolae Dica was next to lead the team and got another second place, one point behind CFR Cluj. He only lasted until December 2018, when he lost to the champions and was replaced by Mihaj Teja, who arrived from Gaz Metan Medias. Teja was himself sacked by Becali just one round from the end of that League, when the championship was unattainable. They were second once again, this time two points behind CFR Cluj, what led to the arrival of Bogdan Andone. Andone, anyway, lasted for only seven games, resigning after a 2-3 defeat at home to Armenian side FC Alashkert, even if it didn’t cost the team an early exit from the Europa League preliminary rounds, as they had won 3-0 away from home.
Andone’s words that night were crystal clear. “I stop here. I am not interested in money”, he said, thanking “the players”. “Do you know what decisions I or my coaches make?”, he asked the reporters. “I like to decide, but it’s the owner’s team…”, he added, implying that Gigi Becali was interfering with his work. The boss brought in Bogdan Vintila and even started by praising him and his work. “Do you see what it means to have a coach”, he said after a win. But Vintila was also sacked in July, with the team already far from League leaders Universitatea Craiova. “The players have too much sex. That is why they are not playing so well”, Becali said during the season. It seems that the boss wanted to bring back Reghecampf from Dubai, but all he accomplished was the signing of his two assistants, Anton Petrea and Thomas Neubert, who had had a row with the team leader due to money on their contracts. Petrea was chosen as main coach, Neubert came in to assist him (as “masseur”), and the pair succeeded in giving FCSB their first trophy since 2015: just one week after their arrival, they beat Sepsi 1-0 in the Rumanian Cup final, thanks to a Dennis Man goal. “I watched Rumanian football while I was in Dubai. We were no longer a team. Only individuals”, Petrea said on the day he was appointed. And that changed.
A team of young guns
In last summer’s market, FCSB only lost one important player on Serbian central defender Bogdan Planic, who left to Maccabi Haifa, in Israel, and was replaced in the team by George Miron, who was already in the squad waiting for his chance. Petrea made two other changes, giving more space to Olimpiu Morutan and Darius Olaru in midfield positions. The team is still much offensive oriented, exploring the quality of captain and major creator Florin Tanase (12 goals this season) and Dennis Man (16 goals in 17 games, all competitions counted) and even surviving a poorer run of form by Florin Coman, their major star until the emergence of Man. Petrea has also a very young team: apart from Man and Coman, both still 22 years old, there are three other Under23 in the most used eleven on goalkeeper Vlad (21) and midfielders Olaru (22) and Morutan (21). And only one of those eleven is above the 30 year mark: right back Valentin Cretu, who is 32.
But FCSB seems to have what it needs to go all the way and reclaim the title. Even if a Covid19 outbreak cost them a streak of bad results at the start of the season, forcing them out of the Europa League, with a 0-2 defeat at home to Slovan Liberec, in the third preliminary round, they lost only once since October and are top of the table, level on points with CFR Cluj but with one game in hand – they play eighth placed Viitorul, in Constanta, tomorrow (19h, CET). And they know they better keep Gigi Becali happy – or no-one rally knows what may come next.