# CS Unirea Ungheni

Club Sportiv Unirea Ungheni 2018, also known as Unirea Ungheni, or simply as Ungheni, is a Romanian football club based in Ungheni, Mureș County, which currently competes in the Liga II, the second tier of the Romanian football.
Unirea promoted in the second division at the end of the 2023–24 season after beating Gloria Bistrița-Năsăud in the promotion play-off.
Unirea Ungheni plays its home matches at the Central Stadium in Ungheni, which has a seating capacity of 2,000. The club's traditional colors are red and blue.

## History

Unirea Ungheni was founded in 1947 and played mostly in district, regional, and county championships.
Unirea won the Mureș County Championship for the first time in the 1992–93 season, but the team, coached by Carol Erős, failed to secure promotion to the third division. The club finished below the top sixteen teams with the best aggregate results after matches against Industria Sârmei Câmpia Turzii (0–3 away and 4–0 at home). The squad consisted of the following players: Ioan Bordaș, Zoltán Gyulai, Emil Olteanu, Emil Dobozi, Ștefan Szabó, Sorin Grama, Nicolae Bertea, Gheorghe Neagoe, Sorin Nistor, Gheorghe Botez, Marcel Țânțărean, Carol Erős, Vasile Blaga II, Ioan Nyárádi, Eugen Popa, Gheorghe Vasiu, Florin Dima, István Osváth, and Ioan Costea.
Over the next seven seasons, Unirea continued to compete in the County Championship, achieving the following rankings: 3rd in the 1993–94, 5th in the 1994–95, 4th in the 1995–96, 7th in the 1996–97, 6th in 1997–98, 7th in 1998–99 and 5th in 1999–2000.
Unirea Ungheni achieved its first-ever promotion to Divizia C at the end of the 2000–01 season. Coached by Arpád Fazakas, the team won the Divizia D – Mureș County title and secured promotion by defeating Eco Forest Telciu, winners of Divizia D – Bistrița-Năsăud County, 4–t2 in a decisive play-off match at the Ion Moina Stadium in Cluj-Napoca. The squad included players such as Gyulai Zoltán, Adrian Profir, Claudiu Popescu, Marius Florea, Cosmin Boitoș, Mihai Laurențiu, Augustin Ținteșan, Ioan Feșteu, Nicolae Bokor, Florin Suciu, Cornel Șerban, József Szávuly, and Ioan Ötvös.
In the first season in the third tier, Nireștenii, led by Fazakas in the first half of the campaign and Eduard Bota in the second, finished 9th in Series VII. The following season saw Unirea again finish 9th, three and six points ahead of county rivals Avântul Reghin and ASA Târgu Mureș, respectively.
In the 2003–04 season, Bota was replaced during the winter break by Lucian Popa, but Unirea still managed to achieve the best result of this period, finishing 2nd in Series IX, twenty-seven points behind FC Sibiu.
In the next season, the Reds and Blues finished 10th, narrowly avoiding relegation by two points. However, the following season ended in disaster as Unirea finished last out of 14 in Series VIII with only one win secured throughout the entire campaign and just seven points, resulting in relegation to the fourth division. The club was subsequently dissolved after the season.
In 2007, Maris Târgu Mureș moved their base from Târgu Mureș, to Ungheni, renaming to ASA Unirea Ungheni.
In their seasons since their reformation the club finished in the following rankings: 11th 2007–08, 6th 2008–09, 10th 2009–10, 7th 2010–11, 9th 2011–12.
In 2012, the club withdrew from the third tier due to financial problems and was dissolved for the second time in their history.
In the 2019–20 the season was suspended in March 2020, because of the COVID-19, and the club finished 1st place and finished 1st place in the third region ahead of Măgura Cisnădie and Sepsi OSK's second team.
In the 2023–24 Liga III season, under the command of Florentin Petre, with experienced players such as István Fülöp, Victoraș Astafei, Amancio Fortes, Cătălin Savin together with Ovidiu Horșia, Paul Ganea, Yvan Ndiesse, Abel Popa, Silviu Boar, Cristian Gherasim, Ioan Bârstan among others, the club finished in 3rd place during the regular season, but finished 2nd in the Play-off round of Series IX, overtaking ACS Mediaș and qualifying for the promotion play-offs. Unirea won in the first round against SCM Zalău (3–0 at home and 1–1 at Zalău), and in the second round against Gloria Bistrița-Năsăud (2–2 at Bistrița and 2–1 at Ungheni) promoted for first time in Liga II.

## Honours

Divizia C / Liga III
* Runners-up (3): 2003–04, 2022–23, 2023–24
Divizia D / Liga IV - Mureș County
* Winners (3): 1992–93, 2000–01, 2019–20

## Players
### First-team squad

    As of 26 February 2025
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 | Paul Ganea |
| 2 | DF | ROU | Alin Chinteș (on loan from Universitatea Cluj) |
| 3 | DF | ROU | Abel Popa |
| 4 | MF | ROU | Eric Vînău (on loan from Universitatea Cluj) |
| 5 | MF | ROU | Davide Blidărean |
| 6 | DF | ROU | Daniel Pop |
| 7 | MF | ROU | Ovidiu Horșia |
| 8 | MF | ROU | George Gogescu |
| 9 | MF | ROU | Rareș Trif (on loan from FCSB) |
| 10 | MF | ROU | Andrei Șerban |
| 11 | MF | ROU | Szilárd Magyari |
| 12 | GK | ROU | Robert Geantă (Vice-captain) |
| 13 | DF | ROU | Kevin Ciubotaru (on loan from Hermannstadt) |
| 15 | DF | ROU | Dominik Șoptirean (on loan from CFR Cluj) |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 17 | MF | ROU | Cosmin Bîrnoi |
| 19 | FW | SRB | Miloš Zukanović |
| 20 | MF | FRA | Romain Oller |
| 23 | MF | ROU | Antonio Cruceru |
| 26 | DF | RSA | Marko Veselinović |
| 27 | DF | ROU | Alin Techereș (on loan from Universitatea Cluj) |
| 30 | MF | ROU | Cătălin Savin (Captain) |
| 33 | GK | ROU | Mark Lupu |
| 80 | FW | ROU | Vlad Bogdan |
| 90 | DF | MDA | Cristin Jalbă |
| 97 | FW | ROU | Raul Haiduc (on loan from CFR Cluj) |
| — | DF | ROU | Paul Coza |
| — | MF | CMR | Moses Yuh (on loan from Sănătatea Cluj) |

### Out on loan

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 |
| — | MF | ROU | Dragoș Gheorghe (at Vedița Colonești) |

## League history

| Season | Tier | Division | Place | Notes | Cupa României |
| 2024–25 | 2 | Liga II | TBD | | Group stage |
| 2023–24 | 3 | Liga III (Seria IX) | 2nd | Promoted | Third round |
| 2022–23 | 3 | Liga III (Seria IX) | 2nd | | Third round |
| Season | Tier | Division | Place | Notes | Cupa României |
| 2021–22 | 3 | Liga III (Seria IX) | 3rd | | Third round |
| 2020–21 | 3 | Liga III (Seria IX) | 5th | | Second round |
| 2019–20 | 4 | Liga IV (MS) | 1st (C) | Promoted | Third round |

## Notable former players

The footballers enlisted below have had international cap(s) for their respective countries at junior and/or senior level and/or significant caps for CS Unirea Ungheni.

### Romania

* Victoraș Astafei
* István Fülöp

## Former managers

* Arpád Fazakas (2000–2001)
* Eduard Bota (2002–2003)
* Florentin Petre (2023–2024)