| Clubname: | Universitatea Cluj |
| Upright: | 0.8 |
| Fullname: | Asociația Sportivă Fotbal Club Universitatea Cluj |
| Founded: | as Societatea Sportivă a Studenților Universitari (refounding) as ACSF Alb-Negru al Studenților Clujeni |
| Short Name: | U Cluj |
| Ground: | Cluj Arena |
| Capacity: | 30,201[1] |
| Owntitle: | Owners |
| Owner: | Cluj-Napoca Municipality Babeș-Bolyai University U Cluj Supporters Association |
| Chairman: | Radu Constantea |
| Mgrtitle: | Head coach |
| Manager: | Ioan Sabău |
| League: | Liga I |
| Season: | 2023–24 |
| Position: | Liga I, 10th of 16 |
| Current: | 2024–25 FC Universitatea Cluj season |
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| Pattern So1: | _3_stripes_white |
| Shorts1: | 000000 |
| Socks1: | 000000 |
| Pattern La2: | _ceske2425h |
| Pattern B2: | _ucluj2425a |
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Asociația Sportivă Fotbal Club Universitatea Cluj (pronounced as /ro/), commonly known as Universitatea Cluj or simply as U Cluj, is a Romanian professional football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I.
Founded in 1919 by doctor Iuliu Hațieganu, Universitatea Cluj has spent more than half of its history in the top flight, but never became national champion. It has played six Cupa României finals under four names, and won the trophy in the 1964–65 season after a 2–1 defeat of Dinamo Pitești. Once considered the most important side in the region of Transylvania, its status has been threatened in the 21st century by the success of CFR Cluj, with whom it contests the Cluj derby.
Universitatea players and fans are nicknamed Șepcile roșii ("the Red Caps") after the red berets worn by students of the Cluj University of Medicine. The team traditionally plays in white and black kits, although variations of red, maroon and gold have been used in the past. Its home ground is Cluj Arena, which was opened in 2011 and can host around 30,000 spectators.
The Universitatea sports club of Cluj was founded on 23 November 1919 by the "Sports Society of University Students" (ro|Societatea Sportivă a Studenților Universitariabbreviated to "U"), the press from Cluj wrote an announcement that day:"With patriotic warmth for every young Romanian university student to hold on to a holy duty to join the sports lists that are at the University's Secretariat".[2] [3] Its first chairman was Professor Iuliu Hațieganu, a physician and politician who in 1932 said:"Our goal is not to create champions, but healthy people. Not record, but harmony, not hate, but camaraderie; not personal victory, but the victory of the nation; don't speculate, but sacrifice".[4] On 16 May 1920, the team played its first game, a 3–1 win over Gloria Arad with goals scored by Crâsnic II, Târla and Vatian, the first 11 being: Mihai Tripa – Aurel Guga, Eugen Metainu – Brutus Ratiu, Ioan Nichin, Petrila Petica, Arcadie Crâsnic I – Sabin Vatianu, Eugen Crâsnic II, Sabin Târla, Nicolae Gruescu.[4] In addition to participating in the first regional championships, "U" stands out as the first Romanian team to perform in an international tournament. It happened in 1923, Cluj playing with some of the most important teams from France, Italy and Yugoslavia: 0–5 Stade Francaise, 4–2 with Lyon, 3–0 with Grenoble Etudiant Club, 0–1 with Politehnica Turin and 1–2 with HAŠK Zagreb.[4]
In the early years of its existence "U" Cluj played in local competitions; at the time there was no national football championship in Romania. The team played against Chinezul Timișoara in the 1923 final of the Mara Cup, losing 0–2. "U" played in the Romania national football championship Divizia A from 1932. In their first season "U" finished first in its group and played the championship final against Ripensia Timișoara (0–0 and 3–5). In the first season of the Romanian Cup, in 1933–34, "U" reached the final, losing against Ripensia Timișoara (0–5).
The first notable captain of "U" Cluj was Mircea Luca who took the captain armband in 1941, in the hardest period of the club's history, as in 1940, the team moved from Cluj-Napoca to Sibiu as a result of the Second Vienna Award, when the northern part of Transylvania was ceded to Hungary.[5] [6] [7] [8] In 1945, after the end of the Second World War and the return of the northern part of Transylvania to Romania, "U" returned to its home in Cluj.[5] [7] [8] During these years some players left to play for Bucharest teams but Luca refused to do so, also the team's biggest performance was the reaching of the 1942 Cupa României final, which however was lost in front of Rapid București.[4] [5] [8] [9] After the war in which some of the club's players died, the team had to earn its right to play in Cluj, by playing against Ferar Cluj who during the war competed in the Hungarian league under the name Kolozsvár AC, finishing on the third place in one season and had more experienced and international footballers.[5] [6] According to historian Gheorghe Bodea who was at the game, the differences between the two teams could be seen since the players entered the field as the ones of Ferar had modern new equipment while the players of "U" appeared in equipment that was five years old.[5] [6] Bodea also claims that the game was dominated at first by Ferar but Universitatea resisted with Luca being the leader of the defense, at one moment in the game he got his arch broken during an aerial duel, teammate Sever Coracu bandaging him in order to continue the game.[5] [6] With Luca taking care of the defense and Coracu of the offense, "U" Cluj won with 4–0, Luca being named "Man of the match".[5] [6] In December 2007 in an interview for the Gazeta Sporturilor newspaper, Luca said:"Only I know how I gathered them for a match with Ferar (...) They had a strong team, as Cluj never had, one like a racing horse. We won that match 4–0, one that I care a lot about and that ended Ferar's hegemony in Transylvania".[10]
In 1946, the name of the club was changed to Știința Cluj (Science Cluj) and in the summer of the same year, the Romanian Football Federation decided that they had to play a play-off against Victoria Cluj in order to earn the right to play in the 1946–47 Divizia A season.[6] The first leg ended 1–1, but The Red Caps won the second leg with 3–1, thus earning their right to play in the first league where they would stay for the following three seasons, relegating in 1949.[6] During this period the team also reached the 1949 Cupa României final for the third time, but it was beaten by CSCA Bucureștinow called Steaua București (1–2).[11]