FC Dunărea Călărași

History

Celuloza Călărași (1962–1979)

Football made its appearance in the city from the Danube banks in 1919, with the founding of Ialomița Călărași, an amateur club that quickly became the main attraction of Sunday events—a day when the whole community gathered to enjoy their free time. In the following decades, other amateur clubs such as Tricolorul, Venus, FC Călărași, and Energia emerged and contributed to the development of local football. This steady evolution culminated in 1962, with the founding of the city’s first professional club, Celuloza Călărași.

Appearing quite late on the Romanian football scene, Celuloza did not have a rapid rise but grew steadily, year after year. In its first six years of existence, the club competed in the Bucharest Regional Championship. At the end of the 1967–68 season, Celuloza finished 1st in the East Series of the regional championship and was promoted to Divizia C.

In the third division, Celuloza competed in Series III and finished the 1968–69 season in 11th place, ensuring its presence in the following season as well. Over the next two seasons, the team achieved very good results, finishing 5th in 1969–70 and 9th in 1970–71. In 1971–72, Celuloza moved to Series IV and finished 5th once again. Then came a sensational 1972–73 season in Series V, at the end of which Celuloza was promoted for the first time in its history to Divizia B, securing promotion with an eight-point lead over Autobuzul București.

First Divizia B season was a good one for the Vlachs, which ended on the 11th place, result followed by other good rankings in the next seasons: 1974–75 – 8th and 1975–76 – 11th, then a seasons in which the team saved from relegation with some emotions: 1976–77 – 14th and finally Celuloza relegated back to Divizia C at the end of 1977–78, when the club finished only on the 15th place. After relegation Celuloza tried to fight for promotion, but failed, ending only on the 4th place.

Dunărea, an oscillating team (1979–1998)

In August 1979, Celuloza changed its name to Dunărea (lit. 'The Danube'), a name considered more representative and closer to the hearts of the spectators. The change also brought renewed ambition, with the primary goal being a return to the second division.

In its first season under the new name, Dunărea finished only in 3rd place, under the guidance of Ion Merlan. The squad included, among others, Niculescu, Răuță, Andrei, Boțoroagă, Dan Cristea, G. Voicu, Roibu, Alexandru Tănase, Marin Ștefan I, Marian Catană, Gheorghe Alexandru, Vasiluț, Ion Baraitaru, G. Pană, C. Ștefan, I. Dumitru, N. Nicolae, Victor Stelian, Aurel Ivan, N. Duma, and Marin Ștefan II.

Promotion came a year later, when the Vlachs, under the leadership of Ion Păunescu, achieved their goal. The team retained several key players from the previous season and added others such as Tudor, Isacov, Țuțuianu, V. Nicolae, Budac, D. Panciu, Cernica, Constantin, and Mihai. With this group, Dunărea secured promotion with an eight-point lead over Portul Constanța, the same margin as in their previous promotion.

First Divizia B season, after the comeback, was a very good one, Dunărea finishing 7th out of 18, but the team could not keep their form relegating at the end of the 1983–84 season, finishing the last one, with only 22 points.

Returned to Divizia C, Dunărea promoted after a single season. Led by Vlad Marica and with players such as Petrișor Toma, Mocanu — Isacov, Berean, Mihăilă. M. Ștefan, Pană, Voicu, Marin, Vîlcu, Tănase — Virgil Bogatu, Mircea Banu, Valentin Nicolae, Zamfir, Gheorghe Vlase, Savu — Constantin Ștefan, Nelu Farin, S. Farin, Țuțuianu, Marian Catană and Panciu, the yellow and blues finished 1st, with 7 points ahead of Chimia Victoria Buzău.

Dunărea relegated then after only one season in Divizia B, finishing only on 16th place. After these seasons Dunărea started to be considered a team, somewhere between Divizia B and Divizia C, a reputation that followed the club throughout its existence. For the 1986–87 season the club name was changed to Oțelul and the team finished on 3rd place, then from 1987 the club has returned to the old name, Dunărea, auspicious change, the team promoting back into the second league at the end of the 1987–88 season. After only one season in Divizia B, Dunărea relegated again to Divizia C.

Liga III years (1998–2015)

After relegation, Dunărea struggled to come back, but without much success, following the darkest period in the history of the club with 17 years in the Liga III without any season in the Liga II and with some financial problems also, around 2005.

Between 1998 and 2005, due to poor financial situation Dunărea began to blaze somewhere in the middle of the third league rankings: 1998–99 – 13th, 1999–2000 – 7th, 2000–01 – 8th, 2001–02 – 6th, 2002–03 – 7th and 2003–04 – 8th. In 2005 there has been a restructuring of the club from a legal and even financial point of view and the results have begun to appear: 2004–05 – 3rd and 2005–06 – 2nd. But after this short period in which the club showed that it can fight for promotion, followed a new period of contrasting results: 2006–07 – 8th, 2007–08 – 13th, 2008–09 – 6th, 2009–10 – 8th, 2010–11 – 4th, 2011–12 – 12th. In this period Dunărea did not seem to have a serious goal, except to stay somewhere in the upper part of the Liga III and even the bringing of Ion Moldovan, an experienced coach, in 2007 didn't resolve too much.

From 2012 the yellow and blues started to look again as a team that is capable to promote with 2 4th place in the 2012–13 and 2013–14 seasons. In 2015 the ex-international player Ionel Ganea was hired as the new manager of the team and with important players for this level, like: Constantin Bumbac and Valentin Alexandru the team achieved, at the end of the season, the promotion to Liga II after 17 years of waiting.

Golden Age of Dunărea (2015–present)

After the promotion Dunărea made an exceptional first Liga II season and finished on the 2nd place, at only three points from the leader, Rapid București and qualified for the promotion play-off where it played against 2nd place from the second series of Liga II, UTA Arad. In the first match, played at Călărași Dunărea won 3-1 and the dream of Liga I was more present than ever, on the banks of the Danube, but the second match of the play-off was a nightmare, the Vlachs lost 1–4 at Arad and remained in the Liga II for another season. Also during this season Ionel Ganea was changed with another ex-international player, Adrian Mihalcea.

The 2016–17 Liga II season introduced a new single-series format. In that campaign, Dunărea Călărași finished seventh out of 20 teams. During the summer of 2017, Adrian Mihalcea was replaced as manager by Adrian Iencsi, who in turn was succeeded after one round by Dan Alexa. Following Alexa’s appointment, the club improved significantly, moving from the lower part of the table to first place by the winter break, one point ahead of FC Hermannstadt and seven ahead of Chindia Târgoviște. The team then went on an extended unbeaten run that placed promotion into contention. The second half of the season continued that form, with Dunărea recording a 32-match unbeaten streak, including 13 consecutive victories. Despite competition from FC Hermannstadt, which also remained unbeaten for an extended period and reached the 2017–18 Cupa României final, Dunărea finished first in Liga II and secured promotion to Liga I for the first time in the club’s history, as well as the first top-flight promotion for a club from Călărași County.

Ground

Dunărea plays its home matches on Stadionul Ion Comșa from Călărași, with a capacity of 10,400 seats. In the late spring of 2018 when the promotion to Liga I was safe, it was announced that the stadium will be renovated and modernized. The works have begun in the first half of June and included a completely change of the pitch, a partial change of the stands structure and a potential acquisition of a floodlight installation.

Honours

Domestic

Liga II

Winners (1): 2017–18

Runners-up (1): 2015–16

Liga III

Winners (6): 1972–73, 1980–81, 1984–85, 1987–88, 1991–92, 2014–15

Runners-up (4): 1993–94, 1994–95, 2005–06, 2023–24

Players

First-team squad

As of 8 January 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.

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.