Popești-Leordeni

Popești-Leordeni open this season in Liga II, a rung they earned rather than inherited.

The club, run by the town's municipality in Ilfov County, was founded in 2011. The step up has come slowly, three near-misses before the breakthrough, which is why the promotion reads less like an arrival and more like a habit finally paying off.

Nicolae Leafu has been the fixed point through the climb — captain, centre-back, the player supporters point to when asked who Popești-Leordeni is. Robert Mustacă, whose father Cristian also played the game, arrived with a résumé that took in Farul, UTA, Voluntari and Concordia, and chose to stay on for the Liga II campaign rather than move again. That decision alone says something about where the club believes it's headed.

Home games are played at Stadionul Inter Gaz, in front of crowds that fill a ground of around 2,000 without ever needing to stretch it. The alb-roșii, white and red, carry their name from the shirts rather than any story attached to them.

A place in Liga II lands them among clubs from across Ilfov and the wider south, and it is Concordia Chiajna, the county's other established name, that supporters have already marked out as the one to measure themselves against.