In 1928, Colțea Brasov won the national championship title, ending the record six consecutive titles of the Chinese. Colțea was a subsidiary club of Colțea Bucharest and existed for only a few years, being a local rival of Brasov. In 2015 a club, CS Colțea 1920, was founded and named after him.

FC Brasov was founded in 1936 as UAB. It went through several names until, in 1958, it adopted the one that would become famous: the Red Flag. The team finished second in the first division in 1960, and the following year became the first Romanian team to win an official international trophy, the Balkan Cup!

In the 1965/66 season of the European Cup of Nations (later UEFA Cup) they eliminated NK Zagreb, and in the “spring” of the competition they were eliminated, only in a play-off, by Espanol Barcelona. A memorable match was in 1974 in the UEFA Cup. They lost in the away leg 0-2 to Beșiktaș. In the return leg they came back, qualifying after a 3-0, all goals scored between the 86th and 89th minutes!!!

The last two goals of that game were scored by Șerbănoiu, who, like two other “stegari”, Păltinișanu and St. Anghel, would later be part of the legendary Politehnica Timișoara team.

Meanwhile, in the 1950s, Brasov (called Stalin City) had a team in the elite, Dinamo (formerly Dinamo B Bucharest and later Dinamo Cluj and then Dinamo Galati!).

For the 1970 World Cup final tournament, the Red Flag gave Romania’s national team three players (Adamache, Ivăncescu, Pescaru).

In 1980, the name would be changed to FCM , and in 1990, to FC. For many years, Ioan Neculaie was the owner of the club. In 2001, FC Brasov met Internazionale in the UEFA Cup (with Brazilian Ronaldo in the line-up). In 2017, when it was in League II, the club disbanded.

In the summer of this year, Corona Brasov (which also spent one season, 2013/14, in D1) was promoted to the second tier, but was absorbed by the re-established FC Brasov.

The “stegari” supporters (how beautiful is that banner with “Resistance in the mountains”!) continue to support, however, SR Brasov, from the 3rd League, a club founded by them in 2017.

It was at this club that Lăcătuș, who would become a legend for Stele and the national team, was launched.

In Brasov there was a stadium of large capacity for Romania (30,000 seats), the Municipal Stadium, which hosted the Romanian Cup final in 1989 (Steaua – Dinamo 1-0, goal Gh. Hagi) and a national team match in 1991. This arena has only been used sporadically (FC Brasov traditionally played at the Silviu Ploeșteanu stadium, formerly the Tineretului) and was demolished in 2008.

Article written by Octavian Stăncioiu, Politehnica Timișoara spokesman