Article by Alexandru Barbu – Published Wednesday, December 31, 2025, 4:48 p.m. / Updated Wednesday, December 31, 2025, 4:49 p.m.
Florin Bratu, 45 years old, named, on the GSP podcast “2 to 1”, the favorite for the title in Super League.
Universitatea Craiova is first in the competition halfway through the season, with one point over Rapid. Until the end of the championship, however, Bratu anticipates a reversal at the top of the hierarchy.
VIDEO | Florin Bratu: “Rapid has the first chance for the title, because Rădoi has left”
“I say that Rapid has the first chance for the title. Not FCSB, nor Craiova, because Rădoi left. I think Craiova University will have problems. With Rădoi as coach, Craiova was the favorite, they would have fought for the title with real chances. And now they are in the race, but it will be more difficult for them”declared CS Dinamo's technician, invited to the GSP “2 to 1” podcast.
- The only title that the Bratu footballer has in his CV is the one won with Rapid, in 2003, under the command of Mircea Rednic. Florin then scored 11 goals in 27 championship matches, being one of the main artisans of winning the third title in the history of Giulești.
The University of Craiova is the winter champion. Who takes the title? Two exceptions “break” the rule of the last 10 seasons
The regular season, with the last 9 stages left to play, will resume in mid-January, to find out the composition of the play-offs and play-outs. Regarding the “winter champion”, there is a dominant trend, but also two exceptions.
In the 10 seasons consumed in the current format, 8 times it happened that the team that finished the calendar year in first position was crowned champion a few months later.
There are two exceptions: in the 2020-2021 season, after the pandemic, when FCSB was the “winter champion”, but CFR Cluj won the title, and in the previous championship, when U Cluj wintered first, but FCSB triumphed in the spring.
FULL VIDEO | GSP podcast “2 to 1” with Florin Bratu:
About Florin Bratu:
- now TV analyst and coach at CS Dinamo, which he promoted to the 2nd League;
- played in Romania at Tractorul Brașov, Electromagnetica, Rapid, Dinamo, Gaz Metan and Gloria Bistrița;
- “outside” he performed for Galatasaray (Turkey), Nantes, Valenciennes (France), Litex Loveci (Bulgaria);
- 45 goals in 135 Superliga games;
- the first time he really confirmed at Rapid, where he won a title, a Cup and a SuperCup, between 2000 and 2003;
- at Dinamo he played for 4 seasons (2005-2006, 2007-2010) and won a Romanian SuperCup in red and white, scoring 28 goals in 67 games for the “dogs” in League 1;
- abroad, he won two trophies, both with Litex, a title and a SuperCup;
- wore the national team shirt 13 times, scored twice;
- his transfers totaled 6.5 million euros;
- started coaching in 2014 – trained Dinamo II, CS Tunari, Dinamo U19, Dinamo, Aerostar, Turris, Concordia, Karmiotissa (Cyprus), plus the Romanian national teams U18 and U21;
- with Dinamo's U19 team, technician Bratu triumphed in the Elite League in 2017;
- another achievement as a coach is the play-out won with Dinamo's first team in 2018.
