Clubul Sportiv al Armatei Steaua București, commonly known as CSA Steaua București () or simply Steaua, is a major multi-sports club based in Bucharest and run by the

Ministry of National Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in stat ...

. 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'' (''Army Sports Association Bucharest''), the club changed its name several times before settling on to ''Steaua'' ( en, The Star) in 1961. The club is probably most known for its

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team, also called CSA Steaua București. Other sections belonging to the club are rugby, ice hockey (autonomous – ''Hochei Club Steaua Suki București''),

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

, water polo, basketball, volleyball, athletics, swimming, gymnastics, boxing, rowing,

canoeing Canoeing is an activity which involves paddling a canoe with a single-bladed paddle. Common meanings of the term are limited to when the canoeing is the central purpose of the activity. Broader meanings include when it is combined with other acti ...

, shooting, weightlifting, 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 (

, 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. Stamps of Romania, 2007-047

As the Romanian Royal Army turned into the People's Army following the coup d'état at the end of 1947, which saw Romania transformed from a monarchy to a Communist inspired people's republic, several name changes carried on. On June 5, 1948, by Order 289 the Ministry of National Defence, ASA became CSCA (''Clubul Sportiv Central al Armatei'' – English: ''Central Sports Club of the Army''), together with the society's first crest (an A-labeled red star, symbol of the Red Army, on a blue disc). In March 1950, CSCA changed its name to CCA (''Casa Centrală a Armatei'', English: "Central House of the Army"). In 1961, CCA changed its names for the final time to CSA Steaua București (''Clubul Sportiv al Armatei Steaua'' – English: ''Army Sports Club Steaua''). The name Steaua is Romanian for ''The Star'' and was adopted because of the presence, just like in any other Eastern-European Army team, of a

red star A red star, five-pointed and filled, is a symbol that has often historically been associated with communist ideology, particularly in combination with the hammer and sickle, but is also used as a purely socialist symbol in the 21st century. I ...

(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

(European champions twice),

(European champions once), volleyball, gymnastics, tennis, athletics, shooting, fencing, rowing, and

. Former tennis star Ilie Năstase began his professional career at the club.

Sections

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 Champions Cup. Ever since, they became the most successful football team in the country, with an impressive roll of 21

National Championships A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best team, i ...

, 20 Romanian Cups, 4 Romanian Super Cups, 1 European Champions Cup and 1 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. According to Danilescu, the nonprofit known as AFC Steaua București never bought the football department, as believed. It was just brought on as an administrator. It was allowed to use the Steaua brand and name, but it could not sell them. The team now known as Fotbal Club Fcsb pretended to be Steaua. However, it was not. And, after the Ministry of National Defense sued FC Fcsb in 2011, claiming that the Romanian Army were the rightful owners of the Steaua logo, colours, honours and name, the executive committee of the

Romanian Football Federation Romanian Football Federation (), also known by its acronym FRF, is the sports governing body, governing body of association football, football in Romania. They are headquartered in the capital city of Bucharest and affiliated to FIFA and UEFA sinc ...

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, following more judiciary sentences and the decision to pay the CSA Steaua owners 38 million euros for the illegal use of their name. CSA Steaua București had previously announced they would reactivate their football department in the summer of the same year. The team started training in July 2017, with Marius Lăcătuș as head coach. The team was introduced in the Liga IV.

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 Alexandra Georgiana Eremia (born 19 February 1987) is a Romanian former artistic gymnast.

– 2× Olympian Medalist (Athens 2004, Gold and Bronze)

Silvia Stroescu Silvia Alexandra Stroescu (born 8 May 1985 in Bucharest, Romania) is a Romanian artistic gymnast. She is an Olympic, world, and European gold medalist with the team. Early life and career She was one of the most successful junior gymnast of he ...

– 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)

The

team Steaua MFA București won the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

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 Ștefan Birtalan,

Gheorghe Gruia Gheorghe Gruia Marinescu (October 2, 1940 – December 9, 2015) was a Romanian handball player, coach and sports official. Born in Bucharest, Gruia won the gold medal in the 1964 World Handball Championship and the 1970 World Championship. In t ...

, Cristian Gațu, Radu Voina,

Vasile Stângă The male name Vasile is of Greek origin and means "King". Vasile is a male Romanian given name or a surname. It is equivalent to the English name Basil. As a given name As a surname *Cristian Vasile (1908–1985), Romanian tango-romance sing ...

Marian Dumitru Marian Dumitru (born 18 March 1960) is a retired Romanian handball player. Between 1980 and 1996 he played 231 matches for the national team and scored 754 goals. He competed at the 1980, 1984 and 1992 Olympics and 1982, 1986 and 1990 world cham ...

and

Alexandru Dedu Alexandru Mihai Dedu (born 15 September 1971 in Ploiești) is a retired Romanian handballer who played for the Romanian national team in line player position. He was part of the Romanian team which ranked eight at the 1992 Summer Olympic Game ...

Ice hockey

Steaua București Hockey Steaua Rangers Are a Romanian ice hockey team that currently plays in the Romanian Hockey League. They play their home games at Mihai Flamaropol. History The hockey team was founded in 1951 as CCA București and existed alongside other sections ...

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 Mihail Flamaropol Ice Rink. The current coach is

Cam Severson Cam Severson (born August 15, 1978) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre. Draft Severson was drafted in the eighth round, 192nd overall, by the San Jose Sharks in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft. Career After playing five full season ...

Rugby Union

The Steaua București rugby team has won the domestic league 24 times since 1947. Romanian rugby club teams do not participate in major European competitions because of the obvious value difference between them and the ones from the leading continental countries. Instead, a Romanian national rugby union team, consisting mainly of Steaua players, participates every year in the

European Challenge Cup The EPCR Challenge Cup is an annual rugby union competition organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the second-tier competition for clubs based in European leagues behind the European Rugby Champions Cup. From its inception i ...

as București Rugby. The team plays its home matches at Ghencea II Field, inside the Steaua Sports Complex, right next to the

Ghencea Stadium. The current coach is Costică Florea.

Basketball (Men)

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 Romanian Revolution, Baschet Club Steaua București was the first basketball club in Romania to turn private. However, after only few years it went bankrupt, and CSA Steaua operated only a youth club for basketball, under the name of ''Clubul Sportiv Școlar Steaua București'' ( en, School Sports Club Steaua). However, this summer,

BC Steaua București BC most often refers to: * Before Christ, a calendar era based on the traditionally reckoned year of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth * British Columbia, the westernmost province of Canada * Baja California, a state of Mexico BC may also refer to: ...

merged with

BC Târgoviște BC most often refers to: * Before Christ, a calendar era based on the traditionally reckoned year of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth * British Columbia, the westernmost province of Canada * Baja California, a state of Mexico BC may also refer to: ...

and will play again in the first division, under the name ''BC Steaua Turabo București''.

Volleyball (Men)

Steaua were

runners-up twice in 1969 ''(against CSKA Sofia)'' and 1979 ''(against Cervena Hvezda Bratislava)'' and Cup Winners' Cup runners-up three times in 1977 ''(against Elektrotechnika Riga)'', 1981 ''(against Cervena Hvezda Bratislava)'' and 1986 ''(against Panini Modena)''. They 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.