The most successful football team in the history of Romania is Steaua București, today known as FCSB. They have had prolific success on the domestic front and stand head and shoulders above their big rivals Dinamo București.
But the league titles have dried up for both of the Bucharest clubs in recent times, with CFR Cluj having risen to prominence on the domestic front. But Steaua has achieved something that Cluj nor any other Romanian club has yet to manage – that is being crowned European Champions.
Surprisingly, both CFR Cluj and Steaua București saw their Liga 1 odds at online betting sites get heavily upset last season, as Farul Constanța won their first title in a stunning result.
CFR Cluj Making Up Ground
The big breakthrough for CFR Cluj came in the 2007/08 season, when they secured their first Liga 1 title. They beat Steaua Bucharest to the punch by a single point to book their place in the history books.
The bonus from that meant that they also booked automatic qualification to the UEFA Champions League group stage. The title for CFR Cluj also meant that for the first time in 17 years, a club from Bucharest had not won the domestic title.
CFR Cluj has made up a lot of ground in the chart for the most Liga 1 titles. Their most recent 2021/22 title was their fifth consecutive title at the time, and their eighth overall. It also put them alone in third place in the charts for the most Romanian top-flight titles.
Steaua București
Since 2017, Steaua București has been known as FCSB. All their titles on this page reflect both their time prior to and since their forced name change. Steaua is head and shoulders ahead of everyone in the number of Liga 1 titles.
It’s been 26 domestic league titles for the club, who are the only team in the country to have surpassed 20. The first of those happened in 1951 and they have won at least one title in every decade since then.
But the last time they topped the table was in the 2014/15 season, having recently caved under the pressure of CFR Cluj. FCSB only managed a third-place finish last season in the regular standings. But their title record is not going to be touched anytime soon.
Dinamo București
Dinamo București have eighteen titles and it’s been almost two decades since their last one. Their last domestic success was in the 2006/07 campaign, and the club have gone through tough times since their glory days.
In 2014 and again at the start of the 2021/22 season, they faced insolvency. Dinamo București were relegated from the top flight that season.
It was the first time the club had ever fallen from the top flight and it was the bitter culmination of a couple of decades of decline. They made it back to the top flight for the 2023/24 season, winning promotion, but are again one of the main relegation candidates.
Romania Cup
FCSB also lead the way in Romanian Cup titles with 24 under their belt. Dinamo and Rapid București are the joint-second most successful teams in the tournament, each winning the title 13 times. No other team has reached double figures in Romanian Cup titles.
All Silverware
Tallying things up, the amount of silverware that has been won both on the domestic and European fronts is perhaps the biggest marker of success. Here is how things stand:
● Steaua București/FC FCSB: 60
● Dinamo București: 34
● Rapid București: 27
● CFR Cluj: 16
● CS Universitatea Craiova: 12
Most Successful Team in Europe
This is a race which is also led by Steaua București. They created history in 1986 when they became the first team from an Eastern European country to win the UEFA European Cup.
Steaua București met Barcelona in the 1986 European Final. After a 0-0 draw, won the match on a penalty shoot-out 2-0 for the biggest success in Romanian club history.
Steaua backed up the win by also landing the European Super came, a lone goal by the great Gheorghe Hagi settling the match. Today they are the only Romanian team to win a European title.