Farul Constanța

Gheorghe Hagi came through the academy here, and he was back on the touchline in 2022/23, by then owner, president and coach at once, when the team he built finally won Liga I — the first championship the club has lifted under its current name. Founded on 12 November 1920 as SPM Constanța, the club went bankrupt in 2016 and was thrown out of the league system altogether. Its supporters did not let it end there: they started again from the fourth division as Suporter Spirit Club Farul Constanța. Two years later, former striker Ciprian Marica bought the rights to the historic name from the liquidator and handed it back to them. The current club, FCV Farul Constanța, took shape in 2021, when that fan-run side merged with Hagi's Viitorul Constanța while keeping the 1920 lineage. The team plays at Stadionul Viitorul, in the town of Ovidiu just outside Constanța, a ground opened in 2015 that holds 4,554 and became the home venue once the merger went through. Supporters call the side Marinarii — the Sailors — a nod to the port city they represent, worn in the club's white and blue. Further back, before any of the upheaval, Marin Țufan scored 62 goals through the 1960s, still the club's leading marksman, in years when Farul reached a European campaign under Virgil Mărdărescu and finished fourth in the table under Iosif Lengherer. A Cupa României has eluded the club throughout. It reached the final once, in 1988, and lost to Steaua București, and no other run has come as close since.