FC Astra Giurgiu

Astra Giurgiu

Full name	Fotbal Club Astra Giurgiu
Nickname(s)	Black Devils
Short name	Astra Giurgiu
Founded	1921;93 years ago as Astra-Română Sports Club [1]
Ground	Stadionul Marin Anastasovici
Capacity	8,500[2]
Owner	Ioan Niculae
Chairman	Dinu Gheorghe
Manager	Daniel Isăilă
League	Liga I
2013–14	Liga I, 2nd
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours Third colours
Current season

Fotbal Club Astra Giurgiu is a Romanian professional football club from Giurgiu, Romania. They were founded in 1921, in Ploie?ti and spent their vast majority in the lower leagues. Only after 1990, when the club was taken under the ownership of Ioan Niculae, it began to achieve some performances, starting with the first season of Liga I in 1998-99. They are currently playing in the country's top league, Liga I.

It qualified for the very first time in history to the UEFA Europa League at the end of the 2012–13 Liga I season, after it finished 4th in the table.

Astra Giurgiu was known as Astra Ploie?ti until September 2012 when it was moved from Ploie?ti to Giurgiu, by owner Ioan Niculae.

The traditional colours of the team are white and black.

History

Early years

Clubul Sportiv Astra-Română (Astra-Română Sports Club) was founded on 18 September 1921 by the "Astra-Română" Society, an oil-company owned by Henri Deterding and based in Prahova. Initially, the club consisted of several football sides based in towns from the entire county. The players of these teams were workers of the company.^[3]

In the summer of 1934, the inaugural edition of the "Astra" Societies Cup” was organised by the rafinery, a trophy open for all the Astra teams. The matches were played in the town of Moreni. At the time, the rafinery had only one team, Astra Română Câmpina, that was playing in the district championship. In order to make the cup more attractive, the society created three new football sides for the event: Astra Română Moreni, Astra Română Bolde?ti and Astra Română Unirea Hârsa.

After the 1937 edition of the Cup, the society decided to merge all of its Prahova teams and thus created Astra Română Ploie?ti on 29 May 1937. The team was registered in the district championship. Just a few months after the team's foundation, the society changed its name to Columbia and moved it to a ground located near the society's headquarters, in Câmpina.

In May 1945, Astra Română Ploie?ti was refounded and played its home matches on the old Columbia Stadium, a stadium that still exists today in Ploie?ti.

Recent history

In the summer of 1992, Astra promoted for the very first time in history to the Divizia C. The following seasons it finished 6, 12, 3 and 14 in the championship.

In the summer of 1996, it merged with Danubiana Bucure?ti, it changed its name to Danubiana Ploie?ti, and played for the first time in the Divizia B. After one season the club changed its name back to Astra.

In the summer of 1998, Astra promoted to the Divizia A for the very first time in history. They played at this level for five consecutive seasons, until 2003, when it merged with Petrolul Ploie?ti.^[4]

Two years of pause passes for Astra, until 2005, when Ioan Niculae founded once again the club directly in the Liga II. It relegated to the Liga III after only one season. In the summer of 2007, the club is renamed FC Ploie?ti and promotes at the end of the season back to the Liga II.

In the summer of 2009, after 6 years, it played once again in the Liga I, after the promotion achieved at the end of the 2008–09 season. It changed its name back to the traditional Astra Ploie?ti and the black and white colours were brought back, hence the team's old nickname, "The Black Devils".^[5]

After 91 years in Ploie?ti, in September 2012, the club moved to Giurgiu.^[6] The last match played in the Astra Stadium was on 2 September 2012, against Bucharest giants Dinamo Bucure?ti, won by Astra 1–0. The first game played on the Marin Anastasovici Stadium was on 23 September 2012, against Gaz Metan Media?, won by Astra with 4–0.

It qualified for the very first time in history to the UEFA Europa League at the end of the 2012–13 Liga I season, after it finished 4th in the table.

The 2013/14 season was the most prolific season in the club's history, reaching the 2nd place of the Liga I, losing the title for only 5 points to Steaua Bucure?ti and winning the Romanian Cup on penalties against, the same, Steaua Bucure?ti. After one month they defeated again Steaua Bucure?ti on penalties and winning the Romanian Supercup.

European participations

2013-14 Europa League campaign

Astra Giurgiu played it's first european match ever in first qualification round of UEFA Europa League against Domžale, winning 1-0 in the first leg. In the second leg in Bucharest, Astra won 2-0 and qualified. In the second qualification round, Astra draw 1-1 with Omonia in the first leg in Bucharest and beat 2-1 in the second leg in Nicosia to advance. Seeded team after eliminationg Omonia, Astra was drawn in third qualification round with Trenčín and qualified after winning 3-1 the first leg in Dubnica nad Váhom and drawing 2-2 in the second leg in Bucharest. In play-off, Astra faced the very first european defeat in a 0-2 against Maccabi Haifa in the first leg in Haifa, thus beign eliminated after drawing 1-1 in the second leg in Bucharest.

2014-15 Europa League campaign

Astra qualified directly in the third qualifying round after winning the Romanian Cup and met Slovan Liberec, winning both legs 3-0 in Giurgiu and 3-2 in Liberec, this time beign the first european match to take place in Giurgiu. In play-off, they will met French giants Olympique Lyon.

Club world ranking

These are the IFFHS club's points as of May 2014:^[7]

P	Club	Points
36	Celtic F.C.	179,0
37	FC Zenit Saint Petersburg	171,0
38	Club Nacional	169,5
39	Astra Giurgiu	169,0
40	Club Libertad	166,5
41	Guangzhou Evergrande F.C.	166,0
42	Panathinaikos F.C.	166,0

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.

Astra's home kit consists of white and black stripped shirts, white shorts and white socks, making them similar to those of Juventus Torino. 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

After Astra's premiere promotion to the Divizia A in the summer of 1998, its few fans engaged in a grudge with their cross-town rivals Petrolul Ploie?ti. Often, the matches between Astra and Petrolul ended with violent clashes between the supporters of both teams. Most Astra fans consider Petrolul as their main rivals, but the Yellow Wolves regard Rapid Bucure?ti as their main arch-enemies. Even after the moving of the team to Giurgiu, the rivalry is kept, because between Giurgiu and Petrolul, there's an old rivalry kept from the time when Petrolul was playing in the Romanian 2nd league.

Honours

Domestic

Liga I:

• Runners-up (1): 2013–14

Cupa României

• Winners (1): 2013–14

Supercupa României

• Winners (1): 2014

Liga II

• Winners (1): 1997–98
• Runners-up (1): 2008–09

Liga III

• Winners (1): 2007–08

Friendly

Copa del Sol:

• Runners-up (1): 2014

Players

First team squad

As of 30 July 2014

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.   Position Player 1 GK Silviu Lung Jr. 5 DF Syam Ben Youssef 6 MF Seidu Yahaya 7 FW Denis Alibec 8 MF Takayuki Seto 9 MF Gabriel Enache 10 MF Constantin Budescu 11 MF Alexandru Ioni?ă 12 GK George Gavrila? 13 DF Júnior Morais 14 MF Vincent Laban 15 DF Cristian Oro? 16 MF Elliot Grandin

No.   Position Player 18 MF Marian Cristescu 19 FW Sadat Bukari 21 FW Kehinde Fatai 22 DF Vasileios Pliatsikas 25 DF Valerică Găman 26 DF Lauren?iu Rus 33 GK Dănu? Coman 60 MF Alexandru ?igăna?u 77 DF Alexandru Mă?el 91 MF William 99 GK Giannis Arabatzis   FW Aurelian Chi?u

Shirt sponsor and supplier

Kit supplier	Shirt sponsor
Puma	InterAgro

League history

Cup history

European record

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2013–14	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Domžale	2–0	1–0	3–0
		2Q	Omonia	1–1	2–1	3–2
		3Q	AS Trenčín	2–2	3–1	5–3
		PO	Maccabi Haifa	1–1	0–2	1–3
2014–15	UEFA Europa League	3Q	Slovan Liberec	3–0	3–2	6–2
		PO	Lyon	0–1	2–1	2–2 (a)
		Group D	Red Bull Salzburg	–	–
			Celtic	–	–
			Dinamo Zagreb	–	–

Notes

• 1Q: First qualifying round
• 2Q: Second qualifying round
• 3Q: Third qualifying round
• PO: Play-off round

Notable former players

Former managers

References

External links

Romanian football portal

• (Romanian) Official site
• (Romanian) Club profile on RomanianSoccer
• (Romanian) Club profile on Liga1.ro
• (English) Club profile on UEFA.com