March 21, 2025. Sports news round-up / last 24 hours

Football dominates the media agenda, with Nations League clashes, unexpected transfers and debates ahead of the "tricolor"'s debut in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. Tennis also remains in the spotlight, with matches at the Miami Open, and the appointment of a woman as head of the IOC marks a first for the world of world sport.

FOTBALL Domestic

• Louis Munteanu/Mircea Lucescu: Head coach Mircea Lucescu has given his reason for not calling up Louis Munteanu. The coach believes that Munteanu needs matches and preferred to leave him in the youth team to play against the Netherlands and Belgium, rather than being a reserve or playing 10 minutes for the senior national team.
• Radu Drăgușin: Despite being injured, Radu Drăgușin decided to fly from London to Bucharest to be with his national team colleagues. Romania will make their debut on Friday against Bosnia in Group H of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
• Valentin Ceaușescu: Valentin Ceaușescu has become the talk of the media after being invited to attend the Romanian Sports Gala.
• FCU Craiova: After missing the play-off of the second league, FCU Craiova owner Adrian Mititelu has decided to "clean house" in the squad of the team he is patronizing. Mititelu has terminated the contracts of two players, Radu Negru and Andrei Dragu leaving the team before the end of the season.

FOTBALL INTERNATIONAL

• Romania: Romania are gearing up for the debut of their 2026 World Cup qualifiers. The Tricolor will take on Bosnia-Herzegovina this evening, with the match having a special emotional charge as it is the first match in the qualifying group.
• Nations League: The Nations League quarter-finals kicked off with fierce duels between the competitors. Italy were beaten 1-2 by Germany, the Netherlands drew 2-2 with Spain, and Denmark pulled off a surprise 1-0 win over Portugal.
• Japan: Japan is the first team to qualify for the 2026 World Cup. In addition to host teams Canada, USA and Mexico, the Japanese qualified after a 2-0 win over Bahrain.

Transfers

• Rapid/Dinu Moldovan: After Aioanei's injury, Rapid rushed the transfer of a new goalkeeper. The Giuleștenii have signed Dinu Moldova (34), who is out of contract after his January split with Sepsi.
• Rapid Bucharest: Dan Șucu convinced Claudiu Micovschi (25) and Claudiu Petrila (24) to extend their contracts with Rapid.

TENIS

• Gabriela Ruse/Aryna Sabalenka: Gabriela Ruse has qualified for the third round of the WTA 1000 tournament in Miami where she will meet world number one Aryna Sabalenka.

FORMULA 1

• Eddie Jordan: Formula 1 mourning. Eddie Jordan, former owner of the Jordan Grand Prix team, passed away on Thursday. His great regret was that Michael Schumacher's wife, Corina, did not let him see the great F1 driver two years ago.

CIO

• Kirsty Coventry: Kirsty Coventry, a former swimmer from Zimbabwe, is the first woman to be voted president of the International Olympic Committee.

Top Athletes and Teams

1. Romania
2. Rapid Bucharest
3. Mircea Lucescu/Louis Munteanu
4. Gabriela Ruse
5. CIO/Kirsty Coventry

***** 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.