Article by Alexandru Barbu – Published on Thursday, 07 May 2026, 15:02 / Updated on Thursday, 07 May 2026 15:02
We return every May 7 to the gate of the pastmiss, maybe we find Duckadam on the line, leaning towards Alexanko. We open it, become melancholy and break a magical team of context. Why is it bad?
The Red-Blues were the true Golden Generation of Romanian football, they went all the way and conquered the world. It is true that Ienei's footballers were top-class, that Stela's coach has an unlimited subscription to the rank of legend. How to die last November? Nonsense! Emeric, Duckadam, Bărbulescu, Bălan live as long as they are told. I mean forever.
Even if the scratched CDs with the final in Sevilla, received from the neighbors of the grandparents during the summer holidays, are no longer useful, where to insert them?, you find on YouTube, on Facebook recordings of Stella's football from the 80s and you realize that Pițurcă's memory is not alteredSteaua really played like Guardiola's teams today!
The beasts Iovan and Bumbescu, the elegant Belodedici, Boloni's brain, Majearu's ankle, Lăcătuș's hustle, Iordănescu's experience, all remain unique landmarks and icons of our sport. They deserve what they asked for, what they didn't always get: statues, annuities, recognition, respect.
The '86 star had no luck meeting Vejle, Honved and Kuusysi. Steaua '86 beat Anderlecht and Barcelona. It was a huge team, not a lucky one.
The Time Flaw: The '86 Star out of context
Every May 7th we add another year to the only Champions Cup won by ours. As usual, time, the more doldora, the more it removes the heavy, oppressive memories and brings to the surface the commercial ones from the end of American movies.
That's how we forget that Steaua '86 was the product of a sick and rotten system from the foundation to the attic.
For Ceaușescu, sport was a priority not to make the nation healthier and happier, but to legitimize the dictatorship. The day of May 8, 1986 mainly celebrated the founding of the Romanian Communist Party and secondarily the Steaua-Barcelona final decided on penalty kicks. The success of the men trained by Ienei went on to other, to other wonderful accomplishments signed by PCR.
The '86 Star was celebrated yesterday in the Chamber of Deputies
Steaua, Dinamo, Craiova did not go out in the mercato to convince the players to play for them. They coerced the athletes, forced them. At 22 years old, as he was after the triumph on the “Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan”, the striker Lăcătuș would have played at any club in the world, only that the Army and the Security ruled with fear and prudence, protected his comrades from the sharp claws of the decadent West and harshly punished the disobedient, rebellious, dreamers.
There are dozens, hundreds of testimonies about the misfortunes committed by the communist teams before the Revolution – performances, records, cups lifted with tops and terror, not just by value and talent.
Let's remember, not reproduce
Once history turned the page, sports in Romania stopped operating, producing performances and idols. On our own in a free and so imperfect world, we have hit all the walls of capitalism and still haven't gotten up.
Steaua, like most teams in Romania, lost its identity and split into two. A team plays in League 1, it's not called Steaua anymore, and it's run like a country boutique with croissants yellowed by the sun. The other one, which won in the courts a track record, the name and the coat of arms, lies in the lower leagues and depends on the MApN budget, if the new Miruță will want to purchase a tank or extend Chipirliu's deal on an advantageous salary.
Today, 40 years after winning the European Champions Cup, the star players are soldiers again, the club belongs to the Army again, it's anachronistic. And he ended up settling the trips: to represent Steaua, each elite junior must pay 150 lei in exchange for accommodation in Botoșani.
In the rush for charming memories, for viral posts and with the subtext “How good it was before!”, we tend to live in the past and suffocate the air of 2026.
We idolize, bundled with a magical team, a miserable erawe still beg for money from the state in professional sports to excuse our private incompetence and return the football teams to the ministries.
The '86 star is a golden memory. But we fell into the trap, we miss the formula from '86, and we apply it, even though the world is no longer black and white.
