2025–26 FC Universitatea Cluj season

Universitatea Cluj
2025–26 season
Owners	Cluj-Napoca Municipality ; Babeș-Bolyai University ; U Cluj Supporters Association
Chairman	Radu Constantea
Manager	Ioan Ovidiu Sabău; (until 18 October); Cristiano Bergodi; (from 23 October)
Stadium	Cluj Arena
Liga I	2nd
Cupa României	Semi-finals
UEFA Conference League	Second qualifying round
Top goalscorer	League: Jovo Lukić (16); All: Jovo Lukić (18)
Home colours	Away colours
	← 2024–25 2026–27 →

The 2025–26 season is the 100th season of competitive football of Universitatea Cluj, and the 4th in Liga I, after being promoted at the end of the 2021–22 Liga II season. Universitatea Cluj will compete in the Liga I and in Cupa României.

Players

First-team squad

As of 26 January 2026^[1]^[2]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	ROU	Ștefan Lefter
2	DF	ROU	Alin Chinteș
4	DF	ROU	Andrei Coubiș (on loan from Sampdoria)
6	DF	ROU	Iulian Cristea
7	MF	GAM	Mouhamadou Drammeh
8	MF	ROU	Dorin Codrea
9	FW	ROU	Atanas Trică
10	MF	ROU	Dan Nistor (Vice-captain)
11	MF	ITA	Alessandro Murgia
13	MF	SVK	Andrej Fábry
14	DF	ROU	Alin Toșca
16	DF	SUI	Jasper van der Werff
17	FW	BIH	Jovo Lukić
19	FW	CIV	Issouf Macalou
20	MF	ROU	Alexandru Bota


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
24	DF	CRO	Dino Mikanović
26	DF	CIV	Jonathan Cissé
27	MF	ROU	Alexandru Chipciu (Captain)
28	DF	POR	Miguel Silva
29	FW	FRA	Oucasse Mendy
30	GK	LTU	Edvinas Gertmonas
31	MF	ROU	Matei Moraru
33	GK	ROU	Iustin Chirilă
77	MF	ROU	Andrei Gheorghiță
80	MF	ROU	Alex Orban
88	MF	ROU	Omar El Sawy (on loan from Rapid București)
93	FW	MDA	Virgiliu Postolachi
94	MF	ROU	Ovidiu Bic (3rd captain)
98	MF	ROU	Gabriel Simion (4th captain)
99	GK	ROU	Tudor Coșa

Transfers

In

Pos.	Player	Transferred from	Fee	Date
FW	Atanas Trică	CSM Slatina	Free	30 May 2025
MF	Mouhamadou Drammeh	FC Sochaux-Montbéliard	Free	30 May 2025
DF	Jonathan Cissé	Oțelul Galați	Free	9 June 2025
FW	Jovo Lukić	Universitatea Craiova	Free	16 June 2025
DF	Ioan Barstan	CFR	Free	23 June 2025
MF	Alessandro Murgia	FC Hermannstadt	Free	24 June 2025
DF	Miguel Silva	Oțelul Galați	Free	30 June 2025
DF	Elio Capradossi	AS Cittadella	Free	3 July 2025
DF	Alin Toșca	Benevento	Free	1 August 2025
DF	Dino Mikanović	HNK Gorica	Free	1 August 2025
FW	Andrei Gheorghiță	FCSB	Free	20 August 2025
DF	Tobias Horn	FC Augsburg II	Free	22 August 2025

Out

Pos.	Player	Transferred to	Fee	Date
DF	Bogdan Mitrea	Retired		1 June 2025
DF	Lucas Masoero	Bruk-Bet Termalica Nieciecza	Free	1 June 2025
DF	Dorinel Oancea	FC Argeș	Free	1 June 2025
DF	Daniel Lasure		Free	1 June 2025
FW	Robert Silaghi	Sepsi Sfântu Gheorghe	Free	1 June 2025
FW	Artur Miranyan		Free	1 June 2025
MF	Vadim Rață	FC Argeș	Free	12 June 2025
DF	Radu Boboc	Bruk-Bet Termalica Nieciecza	Free	18 June 2025
MF	Ovidiu Popescu	UTA Arad	Free	30 June 2025
FW	Adel Bettaieb	FC Argeș	Free	14 July 2025
FW	Albert Hofman	Chindia Târgoviște	Free	19 July 2025
FW	Mamadou Thiam	FCSB	€50,000	20 August 2025

Pre-season and friendlies

Win Draw Loss Fixtures

28 June 2025 Friendly	SKU Amstetten	1–2	Universitatea Cluj	Ardagger, Austria
19:00 CEST (UTC+2)	Hahn 6'		Macalou 39' Bota 71'	Stadium: Sportplatz SCU Ardagger

30 June 2025 Friendly	Sigma Olomouc	3–1	Universitatea Cluj	Ansfelden, Austria
19:00 CEST (UTC+2)				Stadium: HAKA Arena Ansfelden

2 July 2025 Friendly	Universitatea Cluj	2–5	Slavia Prague	Ansfelden, Austria
19:00 CEST (UTC+2)				Stadium: HAKA Arena Ansfelden

4 July 2025 Friendly	Slovan Liberec	4–1	Universitatea Cluj	Ansfelden, Austria
19:00 CEST (UTC+2)				Stadium: HAKA Arena Ansfelden

Competitions

Overall record

Competition	First match	Last match	Starting round	Record
Competition	First match	Last match	Starting round	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
Liga I	11 July 2025		Matchday 1	23	10	6	7	27	20	+7	043.48
Cupa României	29 October 2025		Group Stage	2	1	1	0	4	3	+1	050.00
Total				25	11	7	7	31	23	+8	044.00

Last updated: 30 January 2026
Source: Competitions

Liga I

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Universitatea Craiova	30	17	9	4	53	27	+26	60	Advances to Play-off
2	Rapid București	30	16	8	6	47	30	+17	56
3	Universitatea Cluj	30	16	6	8	48	27	+21	54
4	CFR Cluj	30	15	8	7	49	40	+9	53
5	Dinamo București	30	14	10	6	42	28	+14	52

Source: LPF (in Romanian)
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head goals scored; 5) Goal difference; 6) Goals scored; 7) Play-off.

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification	UCV	UCJ	CFR	DIN	RAP	ARG
1	Universitatea Craiova (C)	10	6	2	2	12	6	+6	50	Qualification to Champions League first qualifying round		5–0	2–0	2–1	1–0	0–1
2	Universitatea Cluj	10	6	1	3	13	11	+2	46	Qualification to Europa League first qualifying round^[a]	4–0		2–1	1–1	1–0	1–0
3	CFR Cluj	10	4	4	2	8	7	+1	43	Qualification to Conference League second qualifying round	0–0	1–0		1–1	1–0	1–1
4	Dinamo București	10	3	4	3	13	12	+1	39	Qualification to European competition play-offs	0–1	2–1	0–0		3–1	2–1
5	Rapid București	10	1	3	6	8	14	−6	34		0–0	1–2	1–2	3–2		0–0
6	Argeș Pitești	10	1	4	5	6	10	−4	32		0–1	0–1	0–1	1–1	2–2

Source: LPF (in Romanian)
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Points without rounding; 3) Points in the regular season; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Head-to-head goal difference; 6) Head-to-head goals scored; 7) Goal difference; 8) Goals scored; 9) Play-off (only if needed to decide champion or teams for UEFA competitions). (Note: only criteria 7 and 8 are applied to establish the classification during the competition.
(C) Champions
Notes:

↑ The winner of the 2025–26 Cupa României (Universitatea Craiova) qualifies for the Europa League first qualifying round. Since the champions won the cup, this berth passed to the second place team.

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation	UTA	FCS	OTE	BOT	CSI	PET	FAR	HER	UNS	MET
7	UTA Arad^[a]	9	5	2	2	14	7	+7	39					3–1	1–0		0–0	3–2		5–1
8	FCSB (O)	9	4	2	3	13	9	+4	37	Qualification to European competition play-offs	1–0		4–0			3–1			0–0	0–0
9	Oțelul Galați^[a]	9	4	2	3	17	15	+2	35		1–0				2–3		3–2	2–0		2–2
10	Botoșani	9	3	3	3	13	17	−4	33^[b]	Qualification to European competition play-offs		3–2	1–1			1–1			3–2	3–2
11	Csíkszereda Miercurea Ciuc	9	5	2	2	11	8	+3	33^[b]			1–0		2–0			1–1		3–2
12	Petrolul Ploiești	9	2	3	4	9	15	−6	25		1–1		1–5		2–0			1–1
13	Farul Constanța (O)	9	1	3	5	8	11	−3	25	Qualification to relegation play-offs		2–3		1–1		2–0			0–1	0–1
14	Hermannstadt (R)	9	3	4	2	13	10	+3	25	Qualification to relegation play-offs		2–0		3–0	0–0		1–0
15	Unirea Slobozia (R)	9	2	3	4	11	13	−2	22	Relegated to Liga II	0–1		2–1			1–2		2–2
16	Metaloglobus București (R)	9	2	4	3	10	14	−4	16	Relegated to Liga II					0–1	1–0		2–2	1–1

Source: LPF (in Romanian)
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Points without rounding; 3) Points in the regular season; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Head-to-head goal difference; 6) Head-to-head goals scored; 7) Goal difference; 8) Goals scored; 9) Play-off (only if needed to decide champion or teams for UEFA competitions). (Note: only criteria 7 and 8 are applied to establish the classification during the competition.
(O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1 2 UTA Arad and Oțelul Galați were ineligible to qualify for the European competition play-offs because they did not obtain a UEFA license.
1 2 Botoșani is ahead of Csíkszereda Miercurea Ciuc on points from the regular season.

Results summary


Overall								Home						Away
Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
23	10	6	7	27	20	+7	36	4	5	3	12	10	+2	6	1	4	15	10	+5

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Results by round

Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Ground	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A
Result	W	D	L	D	D	W	L	W	D	L	D	L	L	W	L	W	W	D	W	W	W	L	W
Position	1	1	6	6	8	6	9	8	8	9	9	10	10	9	11	9	8	8	7	6	6	7	6

Updated to match(es) played on 30 January 2026. Source: worldfootball
A = Away; H = Home; W = Win; D = Draw; L = Loss

Matches

The league fixtures were unveiled on 23 June 2025.

11 July 2025 1	Metaloglobus	1–4	Universitatea Cluj	Clinceni
19:00 EEST (UTC+3)				Stadium: Clinceni Stadium

19 July 2025 2	Universitatea Cluj	1–1	UTA	Cluj-Napoca
19:00 EEST (UTC+3)				Stadium: Cluj Arena

28 July 2025 3	Universitatea Craiova	2–1	Universitatea Cluj	Craiova
18:30 EEST (UTC+3)				Stadium: Ion Oblemenco Stadium

3 August 2025 4	Hermannstadt	2–2	Universitatea Cluj	Sibiu
18:30 EEST (UTC+3)				Stadium: Municipal

9 August 2025 5	Universitatea Cluj	1–1	Petrolul	Sibiu
21:30 EEST (UTC+3)				Stadium: Municipal

18 August 2025 6	Farul Constanța	0–1	Universitatea Cluj	Constanța
21:30 EEST (UTC+3)			Mikanović 4'	Stadium: Municipal

23 August 2025 7	Universitatea Cluj	0–1	Dinamo	Cluj-Napoca
20:30 EEST (UTC+3)				Stadium: Cluj Arena Attendance: 13 354 Referee: George Găman

30 August 2025 8	Unirea Slobozia	0–1	Universitatea Cluj	Clinceni
17:45 EEST (UTC+3)			Nistor 54'	Stadium: Clinceni Stadium Attendance: 570 Referee: George Roman

12 September 2025 9	Universitatea Cluj	0–0	Rapid	Cluj-Napoca
20:30 EEST (UTC+3)				Stadium: Cluj Arena Attendance: 8 732 Referee: Florin Andrei

20 September 2025 10	FC Argeș	1–0	Universitatea Cluj	Mioveni
17:45 EEST (UTC+3)	Bettaieb 66'			Stadium: Stadionul Orășenesc Mioveni

Cupa României

References

↑ "Echipa" [Squad] (in Romanian). fcuniversitateacluj.ro. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
↑ "FC UNIVERSITATEA CLUJ" (in Romanian). Liga Profesionistă de Fotbal. Retrieved 26 August 2023.

[table_note_res_EL1Q0.58719287048429-3] The winner of the 2025–26 Cupa României (Universitatea Craiova) qualifies for the Europa League first qualifying round. Since the champions won the cup, this berth passed to the second place team.

[table_note_UTA0.010120946918671-4] 1 2 UTA Arad and Oțelul Galați were ineligible to qualify for the European competition play-offs because they did not obtain a UEFA license.

[table_hth_BOT0.010120946918671-5] 1 2 Botoșani is ahead of Csíkszereda Miercurea Ciuc on points from the regular season.

[1] "Echipa" [Squad] (in Romanian). fcuniversitateacluj.ro. Retrieved 10 August 2023.

[FC_UNIVERSITATEA_CLUJ-2] "FC UNIVERSITATEA CLUJ" (in Romanian). Liga Profesionistă de Fotbal. Retrieved 26 August 2023.

[1]

[2]

[a]

[a]

[b]

Overall								Home						Away
Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
23	10	6	7	27	20	+7	36	4	5	3	12	10	+2	6	1	4	15	10	+5

Overall								Home						Away
Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
23	10	6	7	27	20	+7	36	4	5	3	12	10	+2	6	1	4	15	10	+5

Overall								Home						Away
Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
23	10	6	7	27	20	+7	36	4	5	3	12	10	+2	6	1	4	15	10	+5