FC National Ialoveni

Vitalie Sula took charge of a squad that did not exist eighteen months ago, and by the end of the first season he had turned it into champions. FC Național Ialoveni was registered on 23 January 2025, built around a group of players with no top-flight pedigree and a stadium that still smelled of fresh paint. There was no history to draw on, only the target Sula set out from the first training session: promotion at the first attempt.

The forward line did the rest. Adrian Rusu finished the 2025/2026 campaign as Liga 2's top scorer with 13 goals, and in May 2026, with a round still to play, Ialoveni were confirmed champions of Seria Sud, finishing above CS Real Succes. It is the only trophy in the club's short history, and given how recently the club was formed, it could hardly be otherwise. Sula's assistant, Mihail Zmeu, worked alongside him through the run-in, but it was the manager who was credited locally with shaping a squad of largely unknown names into a team that went up in one go.

Home games are played at Stadionul Raional Ialoveni, a ground that underwent a reconstruction costing around €490,000 shortly before the club's rise, with new artificial turf laid and stands rebuilt. It holds 2,000 people, modest even by Liga 2 standards, but adequate for a side that had never before fielded a first team.

Away from the pitch, Ialoveni remains a club still filling in its own outline: no confirmed kit colours in wide circulation, no official website, a Facebook presence but no listed address for it beyond the club's registered office on Alexandru cel Bun street. What is certain is the trajectory — a club that did not exist at the start of 2025 kicks off its first season in Liga 1, Moldova's top division, in 2026.