CSM Targu Mures

Ask people in Târgu Mureș who Goran Martinic is and the answer comes without hesitation: the scorer and leader who carried the club through its recent history, still spoken of as the most beloved player the city has had. He arrived at a team that did not exist in any continuous sense before 2018.

The new club started again from the Liga Națională in the 2018–19 season. Peter Faragó has run the team from the bench since taking over from George Trif, guiding a squad still built largely around Mureș County players.

Alongside Martinic, captain Szabolcs Santa has stood for the other half of the club's identity — a local centre who stayed rather than moved on, which counts for something at a club built to keep talent in the city rather than export it.

The Sala Sporturilor holds 2,000, modest by national standards, and the club still measures itself in cup runs rather than titles — a Final Eight and a semi-final appearance in the Romanian Cup over the past two seasons, without yet going further. For now, staying competitive in the Liga Națională and pushing past those semi-final exits is the target in front of them.