June 17, 2025. Sports news round-up / last 24 hours

The last few hours in the sporting landscape have been marked by spectacular events in soccer and tennis. Transfers, surprise coaching appointments and administrative decisions have kept football in the spotlight in the run-up to the start of the new season. Tennis, meanwhile, is bringing to the fore the performances of Romanian women players who are performing well at tournaments this season.

FOTBALL Domestic

• Dan Șucu/Rapid Bucharest: Rapid Bucharest has officially presented the team's new sporting director, Mauro Pederzoli. During a press conference, majority shareholder Dan Șucu spoke about the disappointments of the recently concluded season and told his subordinates that he wants Rapid to be an "overly serious" club.
• FCSB/CFR Cluj: FCSB and CFR Cluj will find out their opponents in the first round of the European Cups. FCSB will be in the UEFA Champions League first preliminary round seeded group, while CFR will be in the main draw of the Europa League. The draw will take place on Tuesday in Nyon, Switzerland.
• Paul Iacob: Paul Iacob has turned down a loan move to Polish side Katowice and is causing another scandal at Rapid. The player, who was on loan last season at FC Botoșani, has returned to Giuleșteni in the hope that he will be part of the plans of the new coach, Costel Gâlcă. In response, the club management did not include Iacob on the list of players who will make the trip to Slovenia, and the defender is forced to train alone at the base in Bucharest.

FOTBAL International

• Romania U19: The U19 national team lost 1-3 to Spain in the second group stage of UEFA EURO U19 2025. Romania played a good game against the reigning champions, but in the end they were beaten by the experience of the Iberians. Romania's U19 coach Florin Marin praised the play of his players and blamed the refereeing, who made wrong decisions in key moments of the game.
• Club World Cup: Chelsea secured an emotionless victory on their 2025 Club World Cup debut. The Londoners overcame Americans Los Angeles FC 2-0.

Transfers

• Denis Drăguș: Trabzonspor have officially announced that they will no longer be relying on the services of Romanian international Denis Drăguș. The Romanian striker has not lived up to expectations and the Turkish coach has said that the player may leave, either as a transfer or on loan.
• Mircea Rednic: Mircea Rednic is officially the new coach of Belgian side Standard Liege. The Romanian coach parted last month from UTA Arad and returns "home" to the team he coached between October 2012 and June 2013.
• Dragoș Albu: Adrian Mititelu made a surprising decision and gave Dragoș Albu to FC Hermannstadt for free. Following the deal, the FCU Craiova boss will keep a 50% share of any eventual transfer of the player.

TENIS

• Anca Todoni: Anca Todoni had a very good match against Czech Linda Noskova, but was knocked out in the first round at the WTA Nottingham. The Romanian lost in three sets, 4-6, 6-3, 6-7.

Top Athletes and Teams

1. Rapid Bucharest
2. FCSB
3. Romania U19
4. Anca Todoni
5. Mircea Rednic

***** Synthesis made with the help of a monitoring feed provided by NewsVibe Romania. The top sports topics are identified from automated topic monitoring of mainstream media sources. The analysis, data and images presented have been enhanced using Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence tools.