- FC Astra Ploiești
-
Astra Ploieşti 
Full name Fotbal Club Astra Ploieşti Nickname(s) Black Devils Short name Astra Ploieşti Founded 1934 Ground Astra
(Capacity: 10,000)Owner Ioan Niculae Chairman Petre Buduru Manager Tibor Selymes League Liga I 2010–11 Liga I, 11th Website Club home page 
Home colours
Away colours
Current seasonFotbal Club Astra Ploieşti is a Romanian professional football club from Ploieşti, Prahova County, Romania. They were founded in 1934 and spent their vast majority in the lower leagues, but are currently playing in the country's top league, Liga I, after obtaining the promotion in 2009.
The traditional colors of the team are white and black, although they have also used predominantly red, blue or yellow kits. Astra plays its home games on the Astra Stadium.
Contents
History
Origins and background
Clubul Sportiv Astra-Română (Sports Club Astra-Română) was founded on 18 September 1921 by "Astra-Română", an oil-company owned by Henri Deterding and based in Prahova. Initially, the club consisted of several football sides based in cities from the entire county. The players of these teams were workers of the company.
In the summer of 1934, the Club organized the inaugural edition of Cupa societăţilor “Astra”, a trophy open for the Astra teams. At the time, only Astra Română Câmpina was playing a district league. In order to make the cup more attractive, the society created three new football sides for the event: Astra Română Moreni, Astra Română Boldeşti and Astra Română Unirea Hârsa.
After the 1937 edition of the Cup, the society decided to merge all of its teams and thus created Astra Ploieşti. The team was registered in Prahova's district league. Just a few months after the team's foundation, the society changed its name in Columbia and moved it to a ground located near the society's headquarters. The name Columbia was kept until 1945 when the team returned to its original name, Astra, but the stadium on which the team played is called Columbia to this day.
Later history
The club was founded in 1934, but until 1998 it hadn't achieved any notable honours. In the summer of 1998 they were promoted to the Divizia A where they have played for five seasons until 2003, when it merged with Petrolul Ploieşti. Two years of pause passes for Astra, until 2005 when Ioan Niculae founded once again the club. In 2007 the club is renamed FC Ploieşti, but in 2009 after the promotion to the Liga I, it comes back to its traditional name of Astra Ploieşti and the black and white colours, hence the team's old nickname, "The Black Devils".[1]
The club's reserve team will play, starting the 2010/2011 season, in Liga II.[2]Crest and colors
Astra's primary colors are white and black, although the kit design also included red on many occasions, especially on the away outfits.
In the current season, Astra's home kit consists of white and black stripped shirts, white shorts and white socks. The away shirts are decorated with red and black strips, making them similar to those of AC Milan. The shorts and socks are predominantly black, but they also include splashes of white.
The present Astra crest was adopted in July 2009, following the team's promotion from Liga II. The design is based on a classical template, and is characterized by the same black and white stripes which can be found on the team's shirts. The numerous stars which adorn the crest have their origin in the club's name, with Astra (like Steaua) being a Romanian word that translates as "star".
Rivalries
Astra is engaged in a grudge with their cross-town rivals Petrolul Ploieşti. The rivalry however is mostly one-way based, because Astra was never a match for Petrolul's successes and fan involvement. Most Astra fans consider Petrolul as their main rivals, but the Yellow Wolves generally regard Rapid as their arch-enemies.
The enmity has increased mildly of late, as Astra has started to progressively finish on higher places than Petrolul.
Crest history
-
Current design which was adopted in 2009
Honours
-
- Winners (1): 1997–98
- Runners-up (1): 2008–09
-
- Winners (1): 2007–08
-
- Semi-finalists (2): 2001–02, 2002–03
Current squad
As of 2 August 2011[3]
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 
GK Silviu Lung Jr. 2 DF Alexandru Măţel 3 
DF Radek Opršal 4 DF Marius Mihalache 5 
DF Bruno Miguel 6 DF Lucian Goian (Captain) 8 
MF Takayuki Seto 9 MF Alexandru Ologu 10 FW Constantin Budescu 11 MF Marius Tigoianu 12 GK George Gavrilaş 13 
DF Júnior Morais 14 
FW Osvaldo Miranda 16 DF Alexandru Ţigănaşu No. Position Player 17 FW Bogdan Rusu 18 MF Sorin Strătilă 19 
MF Ben Teekloh 20 MF Alexandru Stan 21 
FW Kehinde Fatai 24 
DF Salif Nogo 25 DF Valerică Găman 30 MF Liviu Băjenaru 33 GK Cezar Lungu 77 GK Cătălin Grigore 78 
MF Ousmane N'Doye 88 
MF Chigozie Udoji 91 MF Cosmin Matei Shirt sponsor and supplier
Kit supplier Shirt sponsor 
Adidas InterAgroLeague history
Season League Pos. M W D L GS GA Pts. Notes 1992/93 Liga III 6 38 19 4 15 57 51 42 1993/94 Liga III 12 36 14 6 16 40 47 34 1994/95 Liga III 3 36 21 3 12 68 35 66 1995/96 Liga III 14 36 15 3 18 51 52 48 1996/97 Liga II 8 34 14 9 11 42 31 51 1997/98 Liga II 1 34 28 4 2 80 20 88 1998/99 Liga I 10 34 13 7 14 40 38 46 1999/00 Liga I 10 34 13 8 13 43 41 47 2000/01 Liga I 10 30 11 7 12 41 36 40 2001/02 Liga I 12 30 9 10 11 29 28 37 2002/03 Liga I 9 30 13 3 14 42 42 42 Best positioning 2005/06 Liga II 10 30 12 4 14 45 50 40 Relegated 2006/07 Liga III 5 32 15 7 10 48 40 52 2007/08 Liga III 1 34 31 2 1 83 18 95 2008/09 Liga II 2 30 21 4 5 62 32 67 Promoted 2009/10 Liga I 14 34 8 12 14 33 45 36 2010/11 Liga I 11 34 10 15 9 36 30 45 Cup history
Season Opponent 1st Leg 2nd Leg Cup Round Notes 1996/97 Farul Constanţa 1–2 1/32 1998/99 UM Timişoara 0–2 1/32 1999/00 Oţelul Galaţi 1–2 (ET) 1/16 2000/01 Metrom Braşov 1–2 (ET) 1/32 2001/02 Rapid Bucureşti 2–2 0–0 Semi-finals Best performance 2002/03 Dinamo Bucureşti 2–1 1–3 (ET) Semi-finals Best performance 2005/06 Chimia Brazi 1–2 5th Round 2006/07 Petrolistul Boldeşti 0–3 3rd Round 2007/08 FCM Câmpina 3–4 4th Round 2008/09 Universitatea Craiova 1–3 1/32 2009/10 Dinamo Bucureşti 1–2 Quarter-finals 2010/11 Rapid Bucureşti 0–2 1/16 2011/12 Petrolul Ploieşti 0–1 1/16 Notable players
- Marius Alexe
- Marius Bratu
- Mircea Ciorea
- Daniel Costescu
- Cristian Crăciun
- Mihai Dăscălescu
- Cornel Dobre
- Lucian Dobre
- Florentin Dumitru
- Marin Dună
- Liviu Ganea
- Alexandru Iatan
- Robert Ilyeş
- Dan Lăcustă
- Dragoş Mihalache
- Cornel Mihart
- Daniel Movilă
- Cătălin Mulţescu
- Liviu Negoiţă
- Bogdan Nicolae
- Adrian Pătulea
- Georgian Păun
- Daniel Petroesc
- Ştefan Preda
- Florin Prunea
- Gheorghe Rohat
- Pompiliu Stoica
- Ovidiu Tâlvan
- Dinu Todoran
- Ştefan Vrăbioru
Former managers
- Gabriel Stan (1996–99), (2001)
- Valentin Sinescu (1999)
- Vasile Simionaş (1999)
- Costică Ştefănescu (1999-00)
- Marin Ion (2000–01)
- Constantin Stancu (2001)
- Gheorghe Mulţescu (2001–02)
- Marian Bondrea (2002)
- Florin Marin (2002–03)
- Marin Dună (2005)
- Petre Gigiu (2006)
- Vasile Cosarek (2006)
- Dennis Şerban (2007)
- Valeriu Răchită (2007–08)
- Marius Şumudică (2009)
- Ion Moldovan (2009)
Nicolò Napoli (2009–10)- Marin Barbu (2010)
- Mihai Stoichiţă (2010)
- Tibor Selymes (2011)
- Marius Şumudică (2011)
References
- ^ "A reînviat Astra!". liga2.ro. 2009-06-13. http://www.liga2.ro/seria-1/exclusiv-a-reinviat-astra-4543310. Retrieved 2009-04-15.
- ^ "FC Astra will have a team in Liga II !". Ziarul Prahova. http://www.ziarulprahova.ro/stiri/stiri-de-ultima-ora/74511/fc-astra-are-echipa-si-in-liga-secunda. Retrieved 2010-07-30.
- ^ Fotbal Club Astra - Echipa - FC Astra
External links
- (Romanian) Official site
- (Romanian) Club profile on RomanianSoccer
- (Romanian) Club profile on Liga1.ro
- (English) Club profile on UEFA.com
- (English) (German) (Italian) Club profile on Transfermarkt
General information Players · ManagersStadiums Rivalry 2011–12 Liga I Liga I seasons 1909–10 · 1910–11 · 1911–12 · 1912–13 · 1913–14 · 1914–15 · 1915–16 · 1916–19 · 1919–20 · 1920–21 · 1921–22 · 1922–23 · 1923–24 · 1924–25 · 1925–26 · 1926–27 · 1927–28 · 1928–29 · 1929–30 · 1930–31 · 1931–32 · 1932–33 · 1933–34 · 1934–35 · 1935–36 · 1936–37 · 1937–38 · 1938–39 · 1939–40 · 1940–41 · 1941–46 · 1946–47 · 1947–48 · 1948–49 · 1950 · 1951 · 1952 · 1953 · 1954 · 1955 · 1956 · 1957–58 · 1958–59 · 1959–60 · 1960–61 · 1961–62 · 1962–63 · 1963–64 · 1964–65 · 1965–66 · 1966–67 · 1967–68 · 1968–69 · 1969–70 · 1970–71 · 1971–72 · 1972–73 · 1973–74 · 1974–75 · 1975–76 · 1976–77 · 1977–78 · 1978–79 · 1979–80 · 1980–81 · 1981–82 · 1982–83 · 1983–84 · 1984–85 · 1985–86 · 1986–87 · 1987–88 · 1988–89 · 1989–90 · 1990–91 · 1991–92 · 1992–93 · 1993–94 · 1994–95 · 1995–96 · 1996–97 · 1997–98 · 1998–99 · 1999–2000 · 2000–01 · 2001–02 · 2002–03 · 2003–04 · 2004–05 · 2005–06 · 2006–07 · 2007–08 · 2008–09 · 2009–10 · 2010–11 · 2011–12Categories:- Ploieşti
- Romanian football clubs
- Association football clubs established in 1934
- Liga I clubs
-
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
