Sireți

Football in Sireți, a village in Moldova's Strășeni district, had somewhere to be played long before it had a club to organise it. The Stadionul Sătesc Sireți sits on Independenței Street, holds 1,000 and belongs to the village rather than to any team. What the village lacked was a side registered to enter competition. That arrived in the winter of 2023, when FC Real Sireți was set up and given the village name to carry.

Three seasons in, the club's identity rests on smaller things than silverware. The home shirt is black. The away shirt is pink. There is no nickname.

The name causes confusion beyond the district. A separate FC Siret, from Suruceni in the Chișinău area, played in the Moldovan Cup at the end of the last decade. None of them share anything with the Strășeni side apart from a syllable.

What Real Sireți has not done is win. No Moldovan Super Liga title, no Moldovan Cup, no Divizia A championship — nothing since 2023 that would put the village name onto a trophy or into a record book.