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 breakthrough came in 1986, when they became the first European champions from an Eastern country by winning the European Champions Cup. Since then, they have won the National Championships 21 times, the Romanian Cup 20 times, the Romanian Super Cup four times, the European Champions Cup once and the European Supercup once. Over 60 percent of the population of Romania have named Steaua as their favourite team.

The club's football department was once thought to have separated from CSA Steaua in 1998. This was later found to be incorrect, as Tica Danilescu, a former club employee, revealed in 2017.^[1] According to Danilescu, the nonprofit known as AFC Steaua București never bought the football department, as believed, but was only brought on as an administrator. The nonprofit was allowed to use the Steaua brand and name, but could not sell them. The team now known as FCSB had previously made use of the Steaua brand; however, after the Ministry of National Defense sued FC FCSB in 2011,^[2] claiming that the Romanian Army were the 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". This took place 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.

CSA Steaua București announced they would reactivate their football department in the summer of 2017.^[5] The team started training in July 2017, with Marius Lăcătuș as head coach.^[6] The team was introduced in the Liga IV.^[7] As of 2026, the team play in Liga II.

Active departments of CSA Steaua
Athletics Basketball Boxing Canoe & Kayak Cycling Equestrian Fencing Football Gymnastics Handball Hockey Judo Karate Kenpō Motorcycling Pentathlon Rowing Rugby Sambo Shooting Swimming Taekwondo WTF Table tennis Tennis Volleyball Water Polo Weightlifting Wrestling

Gymnastics

The Gymnastics department at Steaua is one of the largest gymnastics clubs in Romania and has produced gymnasts who have competed at World Championship and Olympic level. Notable gymnasts who were members of the club include Sandra Izbașa, a double Olympic champion at the 2012 Summer Olympics on the Vault and Floor; Alexandra Eremia, who won a gold and bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics; Silvia Stroescu, a gold medallist in the Team event in the 2004 Olympics, and Marian Drăgulescu who won a silver medal and two bronze medals at the 2004 Olympics, as well as eight gold medals at the World Championships and ten gold medals in the European Championships.

Handball (men)

The handball team Steaua MFA București won the European Cup in 1967–68, winning 13–11 against Dukla Praha, and in 1976–77 when they won 21–20 against CSKA Moskva. They also won the European Challenge Cup in 2005–06, with scores of 21–26 and 34–27 against SC Horta. They were also runners-up two times in the European Cup in 1970–71, losing 16–17 against VfL Gummersbach, and 1988–89, with scores of 30–24 and 23–37 against SKA Minsk.

The team has also won the seven-player Romanian Handball Championship 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 and 2000–01), the eleven-player Romanian Handball Championship seven times (1950, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1957 and 1961) and the Romanian Cup seven times (1980–81, 1984–85, 1989–90, 1996–97, 1999–00, 2000–01 and 2006–07).

The team play their home matches at Chiajna Sports Hall. The current head coach is Sandu Iacob. Derby matches against HCM Constanța and Dinamo are highly attended.

Former members of the team include Ștefan Birtalan, Gheorghe Gruia, Cristian Gațu, Radu Voina, Vasile Stângă, Marian Dumitru and Alexandru Dedu.

Ice hockey

Steaua București Hockey was founded 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 world record for ice hockey national championships. They compete in a national competition consisting of 6 teams, with their main rival being SC Miercurea Ciuc. Steaua plays SC Miercurea Ciuc in the final every year in a best-of-seven tournament. 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 team play their home matches at the Allianz-Țiriac Arena Ice Rink. The current coach is Nelu Alexe.^[8]

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 due to value differences between them and leading teams in Europe. Instead, a Romania national rugby union team, consisting mainly of Steaua players, participates every year in the European Challenge Cup as București Rugby.

The team plays its home matches on the rugby fields, inside the Steaua sports complex, and sometimes on the Steaua Stadium. The current coach is Viorel Lucaci.

Basketball (men)

The CSA Steaua basketball team was founded 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 was reaching the semi-finals 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 a few years it went bankrupt, and from then onwards CSA Steaua only operated a youth club for basketball, under the name of Clubul Sportiv Școlar Steaua București (English: School Sports Club Steaua). However, in 2009, BC Targoviste merged with Steaua Turabo and enrolled in 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 known as CSA Steaua București.

Volleyball (men)

The Steaua volleyball team were European Cup runners-up twice: in 1969, against CSKA Sofia, and in 1979, against Cervena Hvezda Bratislava. They were also Cup Winners' Cup runners-up three times, losing to Elektrotechnika Riga in 1977, to Cervena Hvezda Bratislava in 1981, and to Panini Modena in 1986. 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 water polo team has had notable performances, club water polo plays only a minor role 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.