Clubul Sportiv Universitatea Alba Iulia, also known as CS Universitatea Alba Iulia, or simply as CSU Alba Iulia, is a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-st ...

based in

Alba Iulia Alba Iulia (; or ''Carlsburg'', formerly ''Weißenburg''; ; ) is a city that serves as the seat of Alba County in the west-central part of Romania. Located on the river Mureș (river), Mureș in the historical region of Transylvania, it has a ...

Alba County Alba County () is a county (județ) of Romania located in the historic region of Transylvania. Its capital is Alba Iulia, a city with a population of 63,536. Name "Alba", meaning "white" in Latin and Romanian, is derived from the name of the ...

, which currently plays in

Liga III The Liga 3, most often spelled as Liga III, is the third level of the Romanian football league system. It was founded in 1936 and was called Divizia C until 2006. An exception was the seasons 1992–93 to 1996–97, in which the league was call ...

, the third tier of

Romanian football Football is the most popular sport in Romania.. The Romanian Football Federation ( or FRF), a member of UEFA, is the sport's national governing body. History The pre-war period The Bucharest architect Gheorghe Radu Stănculescu discovered i ...

, following their promotion at the end of the 2021–22 season. The team represents the football section of the

multi-sport club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

CSU Alba Iulia, which also include

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

women's basketball Women's basketball is the team sport of basketball played by women. It was first played in 1892, one year after men's basketball, at Smith College in Massachusetts. It spread across the United States, in large parts via women's college compet ...

, men's rugby and

powerlifting Powerlifting is a competitive strength athletics, strength sport that consists of three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts: Squat (exercise), squat, bench press, and deadlift. As in the sport of Olympic weightlifting, it involves the athle ...

sections.

History

CSU Alba Iulia was established in 2009, with the support of

University of Alba Iulia University of Alba Iulia is a public higher education and research institution founded in 1991 in Alba Iulia, Romania. It is a state institution, integrated into the national higher education system, which functions based on the Constitution o ...

, having three sport sections (athletics, basketball and rugby). The football team was founded in 2018 and enrolled in

Liga V Liga V is the fifth level of the Romanian football league system. Current format Liga V has 42 divisions. The divisions are regionalised and are organised by every county association. Each team plays in their own county. The county associatio ...

–

, the fifth tier of the

Romanian football league system The Romanian football league system, also known as the football pyramid, refers to the system in Romanian club football that consists of several football leagues bound together hierarchically by promotion and relegation. The first three leagues ar ...

. Under the leadership of Vasile Ursu and with experienced players such as

Ioan Neag Ioan Neag (born 18 February 1994) is a Romanian footballer who plays as a centre back for Unirea Alba Iulia. Club career Neag started playing football at CSȘ Sebeș. In 2008, he was spotted by Ardealul Cluj's trainer, Mihai Georgescu, at a co ...

and

Fabian Himcinschi Fabian Adrian Himcinschi (born 12 May 1994) is a Romanian former footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American fo ...

, CSU finished 1st in Series II at the end of the 2018–19 season, promoting to fourth league. The 2019–20 season was suspended in March 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, with the university team in 2nd place, involved in the promotion battle, 5 points behind

Ocna Mureș Ocna Mureș (; , , ) is a town in Alba County, Romania, located in the north-eastern corner of the county, near the Mureș River. The town administers five villages: Cisteiu de Mureș (''Magyarcsesztve''), Micoșlaca (''Miklóslaka''), Războien ...

. The next season was also canceled in Alba County due to the numerous teams that did not meet the conditions of the medical protocol imposed by the

Romanian Football Federation The Romanian Football Federation (; FRF) is the governing body of football in Romania. They are headquartered in the capital city of Bucharest and affiliated with FIFA and UEFA since 1923 and 1955 respectively. The Federation organizes the men's ...

. In the 2021–22 season, with Mihai Manea as head coach, the team finished 1st and won the

promotion play-offs Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

against CSO Baraolt, the Covasna County champions, thrashing them 18–3 on aggregate (11–2 at home and 7–1 away). In the first season in

, led by Manea, CSU managed to climb on 5th place in the play-out of Series IX after was finish 7th in the regular season. The next season was better for the Students as managed to qualify for the play-off of Series IX, after a strong battle with

Unirea Ungheni Club Sportiv Unirea Ungheni 2018, also known as Unirea Ungheni, or simply as Ungheni, is a Romanian football club based in Ungheni, Mureș County, which currently competes in Liga II, the second tier of Romanian football. Unirea Ungheni's tradi ...

and fellow citizens from

Unirea Alba Iulia Clubul Sportiv Municipal Unirea Alba Iulia, commonly known as Unirea Alba Iulia (), is a Romanian professional football club based in Alba Iulia, Alba County, founded in 1924 and currently playing in the Liga III. Among the greatest achievements ...

Grounds

Initially the team of the University Sports Club from Alba Iulia played its home matches at the

Cetate Stadium The Cetate Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Alba Iulia, Romania. It is currently used mostly for football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a ...

, but since the spring of 2024 the team moved its home matches at Pielarul Sports Base in

Sebeș Sebeș (; German: ''Mühlbach''; Hungarian: ''Szászsebes''; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Melnbach'') is a city in Alba County, central Romania, southwestern Transylvania. Geography The city lies in the Mureș River valley and straddles the river ...

Honours

Liga IV – Alba County *Winners (1): 2021–22 *Runners-up (1): 2019–20

–

*Winners (1): 2018–19

Players

First team squad

Out on loan

Club Officials

Board of directors

Current technical staff

League history

References

External links

* * {{Liga III Liga III clubs Liga IV clubs 2018 establishments in Romania Alba Iulia Association football clubs established in 2018 Football clubs in Alba County University and college association football clubs in Romania