CSM Alexandria

Club Sportiv Municipal Alexandria, commonly known as CSM Alexandria or simply as Alexandria, is a Romanian professional football club based in Alexandria, Teleorman County, currently competes in Liga III, the third tier of the Romanian football.

The team that represents the men's football section of multi-sport club CSM Alexandria, which also include a women's football team and a women's basketball team, was founded in 1948 and during over time has had several names such as: ''Unirea, Progresul, Comerțul, Automatica, Rulmentul, FC Alexandria and FCM Alexandria'', being one of the most important football team of Teleorman County.

The best known players are Florea Voicilă (a player who represented the national team while playing in the second division for Alexandria) and Florică Mitroi – both home-grown players. Their best performance was 3rd place in the Romanian second league in 1982, above Rapid București.

The club formed players like Dan Balauru, Valentin Badea and Basarab Panduru. These players played at the top level or even for the Romania national football team.

History

The club was founded in 1948 under the name Unirea Alexandria and played in the Bucharest Regional Championship.

The club was renamed as Progresul Alexandria in the summer of 1961 and promoted to Divizia B at the end of the 1961–62 season winning the Regional Championship and the Series II of the promotion play-off held at Piatra Neamț.

Progresul lasted only one season in the second division, finishing in 12th place and being relegated to the newly formed Divizia C. The team played the following two seasons in the South Series of the third division, finishing 11th in the 1963–64 season and 14th in the 1964–65 season, which led to their relegation to the regional championship.

Renamed as Comerțul Alexandria, the team returned to Divizia C after three seasons in the regional championship, finishing 1st in the West Series of the 1967–68 season.

In the following seasons, Comerțul played in Series IV of the third division, finishing 3rd in the 1968–69 season, 2nd in the 1969–70 season, just four points behind Autobuzul București, 6th in the 1970–71 season, and 8th in Series VI in the 1971–72 season. The team was then renamed Automatica and continued to compete in Series VI of Divizia C, finishing 4th in the 1972–73 season and 1st in the 1973–74 season, which earned them promotion to the second division after eleven years of absence.

In the 1974–75 season, Automatica, coached by former Romanian national football team player Cornel Popa, finished 14th in Series II, tied on points with Flacăra Moreni. The team remained in the second division after winning the relegation tie-breaker match 1–0 held in Oradea, with a goal scored by Florea Voicilă.

The team started the 1975–76 campaign with former Rapid București player Viorel Kraus as head coach, but he left during the winter break for a board official position at Sportul Studențesc. Renamed Unirea Alexandria mid-season, the team finished in 12th place in Series II, with Constantin Marinescu as head coach in the second part of the season.

In the following two seasons, the team finished 4th in 1976–77 under coach I. Ceavdaridis in the first part of the season and Gheorghe Dungu in the second. Dungu was replaced by Virgil Blujdea in January 1978, who led the team to a 9th-place finish in the 1977–78 season.Mihai Ionescu & George Tudoran, Fotbal de la A la Z – Editura Sport-Turism 1984.

In 1978, Întreprinderea Rulmentul () took over the team, renaming it Rulmentul Alexandria. Under the leadership of Petre Gavrilă, the team finished 4th in 1978–79, 5th in 1979–80, and barely avoided relegation in 1980–81, finishing 13th, just one point above the relegation line.

In the 1981–82 season, Rulmentul ranked 3rd in the Series II of Divizia B, behind promoted Petrolul Ploiești and Rapid București. It was the peak moment of Teleorman football until then, the team being coached by former international Nicolae Lupescu. Florea Voicilă shone in the team, a striker with exceptional qualities, who managed the performance of catching two selections for the national team even though he was part of a second division team.

Alexăndrenii finished 6th in the 1982–83 season, 11th in 1983–84 season, and 16th in 1984–85 season, resulting in relegation to the third division after eleven consecutive years in Divizia B.

In the 2004–05 season of Divizia B, Rulmentul Alexandria was relegated to the third division after finishing last in Series II and slid into the fourth division at the end of the following season, finishing last in its series once again.

In the 2008–09 season, the club won the Liga IV – Teleorman County, but lost the promotion play-off for Liga III losing 1–2 against Comprest București. In spite of losing the play-off, the club managed to promote by an administrative decision; the Romanian Football Association announced that FCM Alexandria would play in the Series IV of 2009–10 Liga III season, FCM finished at the middle of the table in 8th place.

The following season, Alexandria finished 14th out of 16 in Series III and was spared from relegation due to the withdrawal of other teams from the competition. The 2011–12 season saw the team from Alexandria finished in 8th place.

Led by three coaches during the season, Alexandru Gheorghe, Marian Botea and Sorin Albeanu, the club was relegated to the fourth division at the end of the 2012–13 season.

Following the relegation, Mircea Cristescu was appointed as the new head coach. Cristescu guided the team to finish 2nd in the Liga IV – Teleorman County, 10 points behind Sporting Roșiori.

The failure of promotion led to the dismissal of Cristescu to be replaced by Gabriel Lungu for 2014–15 season, but Lungu was sacked after the defeat from 8th round, 0–1 against Sporting Turnu Măgurele, the main contender for promotion, and Romulus Ciobanu was announced as the next head coach. “Alexăndrenii” finishing eventually as runners-up, 8th points behind its rival from Turnu Măgurele.

With Ciobanu in charge, FCM Alexandria made the comeback to third league, winning the 2015–16 Liga IV –Teleorman County season and the promotion play-off against Andrias Andrășești (3–1 at home and 1–1 away), the winner of Liga IV – Ialomița County.

In June 2023 it returned to second league after 18 years of absence – beating CSO Plopeni and Viitorul Dăești over two legs in the promotion play-offs.

Honours

Liga III
*Winners (4): 1973–74, 1997–98, 2001–02, 2022–23
*Runners-up (6): 1969–70, 1985–86, 1987–88, 1988–89, 1990–91, 2017–18
Liga IV – Teleorman County
*Winners (3): 1996–97, 2008–09, 2015–16
*Runners-up (2): 2013–14, 2014–15
Bucharest Regional Championship:
*Winners (2): 1961–62, 1967–68

Other performances

*Appearances in Liga II: 16
*Best finish in Liga II: 3rd place in 1981–82

Players

First team squad

Out on loan

Club officials

Board of directors

Current technical staff

Notable former players

;Romania

* Eugen Anghel
* Valentin Badea
* Dan Balauru
* Valentin Bădoi
* Cosmin Ciocoteală
* Gigel Ene
* Viorel Ion
* Gheorghe Mihăiță
* Cosmin Neagu
* Florin Olteanu
* Constantin Pană
* Ilie Radu
* Constantin Stănici
* Bogdan Vișan
* Dănuț Voicilă
* Florea Voicilă
* Ionuț Voicu

Former managers

* Gheorghe Dungu (1963–1964)
* Cornel Popa (1974–1975)
* Viorel Kraus (1975)
* Constantin Marinescu (1976)
* I. Ceavdaridis (1976)
* Gheorghe Dungu (1976–1977)
* Virgil Blujdea (1978)
* Petre Gavrilă (1978–1981)
* Viorel Ion (2003–2004)
* Romulus Ciobanu (2008–2009)
* Emil Ursu (2011)
* Romulus Ciobanu (2014–2017)
* Alin Chița (2018)
* Alin Pânzaru (2019)
* Laurențiu Diniță (2020)
* Eugen Trică (2023–2024)
* Nicolae Lupescu
* Gabriel Raksi
* Florea Voicilă

League history

References

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexandria
Football clubs in Teleorman County
Alexandria, Romania
Association football clubs established in 1948
Liga II clubs
Liga III clubs
Liga IV clubs
1948 establishments in Romania