A complicated history | OneFootball

TSG Hoffenheim will host FCSB from Bucharest on Thursday (18:45 CET / Live Ticker at tsg-hoffenheim.de). SPIELFELD has all the lowdown on the sixth opponent of the UEFA Europa League campaign.

Bucharest-based FCSB might be Romania's record champions but the last decades have brought about major changes. Known historically as Steaua Bucharest and winners of the European Cup in 1986, the club have been operating under their current name since 2017. The club was originally founded as a branch of the military association, before being privatised in 1998. However, the Ministry of Defence filed a lawsuit in 2017 and demanded back the rights to both the club's name and its crest. The ministry's team now competes in the second division under the name 'Steaua'. However, FCSB are still allowed to call their historical successes their own.

The club has enjoyed successes on numerous occasions in the past. 27 league titles, 24 cup triumphs and victory in the European Cup. In the final against heavy favourites Barcelona, Steaua goalkeeper Helmuth Duckadam, who died at the beginning of December, saved all four spot-kicks from the Catalans. Duckadam, a so-called Banat Swabian who was part of the German-speaking minority, is regarded to this day as the "Hero of Seville" (his eventful life story was also published as an extremely readable novel entitled "The Goalkeeper").

That made Steaua the first club from Eastern Europe to win the title. The 1980s were certainly the Bucharest outfit's most successful decade, in which they also reached the semi-finals of the top club international competition in 1988 and lost to AC Milan in the final in 1989.

But the club are currently a long way off those past triumphs. In Europe, they have tended to be eliminated at the group stage in recent decades, with their continental campaigns coming to an end at the qualifying stage in some years. The Romanian capital club has not been represented in the UEFA Champions League since the 2013/14 season. They are also no longer untouchable on the domestic scene, with FCSB having only been crowned champions twice in the past 10 years. Last season at least ended an eight-year drought. during which CFR Cluj in particular dominated the division.

After that long-awaited title triumph, the club now wants to make headlines in Europe once again. The victories in their two opening games against RFS (4-1) and away to PAOK (1-0) were followed by a heavy 4-0 defeat to Rangers. FCSB won 2-0 against Midtjylland on Matchday 4, before playing out a 0-0 stalemate against Olympiacos. Perhaps the tradition-steeped will manage to return to the knockout stages in Europe this season. The last time they managed that was seven years ago.