Romania CSC

We continue our introductions into Celtic Supporters Clubs. This issue, we hear from the Romania CSC.

Origins

In some ways, the story of the Romania Celtic Supporters Club is the story of Celtic itself: a story of passion and pride, immigration and identity, and most of all, a home away from home.

In other ways, it’s the story of pure chance. It just so happened that, when Marius Codrea caught a glimpse of Celtic supporters on local TV in 1997, something clicked. A good deal of cumbersome research on the dial-up later, he was hooked –by a club with a founding date that only beat our own nation state’s emergence by a few years. So much unbroken history, and Marius found himself living it in that season of all seasons. It won’t be lost on any fan how much emotion that campaign inspired, and that emotion was powerful enough to transcend the physical distance. In internet cafes and rare newspaper reports, through highlight shows and good old Ceefax, a Bhoy was born in the Transylvanian city of Cluj.

Years went by and for all the world, it looked like it would always be that way: a Bhoy, singular. Stopping the 10, rediscovering glory in the Martin O’Neill era, European adventures that brought increased exposure on Romanian television –highs and lows experienced in relative solitude. But chance had yet more in store.

Further down south in Romania, in the city of Brașov, Danny Coposescu’s childhood passion for Scotland and Ireland was meeting his newfound love of football. And again, one look at those famous green and white hoops were enough to spark love at first sight. It was 2003, another year that means so much in Celtic’s rich legend. By then, technological change was rushing in at the speed of Didier Agathe. Dial-up was still very much the norm, turning every desperate search for results into a family row over phone bills. Ceefax was still a staple of following the team, which made 2005’s Black Sunday a special kind of agony. But with message boards, chatrooms, and forums cropping up, it was only a matter of time until Romania’s two Bhoys chanced across each other.

Planting the Romania flag....

Together or separately, we chased Celtic wherever we could. Away trips in Europe offered unique possibilities, and the occasional visit to Paradise was always an event to plan your year around. Then came the 2014 Europa League group stage draw, and suddenly – finally –Celtic were coming to us. Giurgiu, a tiny town meant only for driving through on the way to Bulgaria, suddenly became the centre of our universe.

Seeing thousands of fans paint Bucharest green and white in the run-up to the game was like some sort of fever dream. The voices, the songs, the sights and sounds we’d been experiencing virtually and oh so rarely in person were suddenly all over the streets of Romania, two worlds colliding in an explosion of colour. That magic may not have been matched by the 90 minutes down in Giurgiu, where a blanket of fog mercifully hid most of a drab 1-1 draw with Astra. But it still left a permanent mark, when one of the many friends we made that night asked a fateful question: “So where can we find you?”

All this time, we had brushed off any suggestion of forming a supporters club. We didn’t think we had the numbers. That night set us right and taught us something we really should have known. It wasn’t just two of us. We were already part of the Celtic family. All that was needed was for us to speak our name.

So on December 1, 2014 ¬– as chance would have it, our country’s national day – we formed the Romania Celtic Supporters Club.

Home, away, and home againI

Life’s twists and turns made gave our CSC a somewhat unique shape.

Marius quickly set up a base at the Old Shepherd’s Pub in Cluj, where anyone visiting can always count on a place to see the Hoops. Vlad, another Romanian who fell for Celtic, found the pull so irresistible that he moved to Scotland just to be closer to Paradise. Danny, meanwhile, has always been more of a wanderer, and he’s flown the Romania CSC flag everywhere from Vienna to Edinburgh, Dresden to New York City. Along the way, the good people at the HWEUCSC, Dresden CSC, and New York Fenian Bhoys were there to extend a warm welcome and a cold pint.

European away trips have also been plentiful since our formation. There was Milan in 2015, where Celtic fans were clapped out of the San Siro by the Inter support. City fans were far less friendly in 2016, but Munich’s Marienplatz will never forget the Stuart Armstrong song being belted out for an entire sunny afternoon. Leipzig, Prague, Copenhagen, they all hold special memories. But two away games in 2019 made our dreams come true.

That’s when we came full circle, as Celtic returned to Romania to face CFR Cluj. The first encounter remains overshadowed by what happened at Parkhead in the return leg of the Champions League qualifier, but the second gave the Romania CSC something priceless: it allowed to do our bit to fulfil the ethos of Celtic Football Club. On December 11 in the Old Shepherd, with tunes playing and drinks flowing, we organized a collection for the Missionaries of Padre Pio, a local charity helping to feed and clothe the poor and the homeless. The generosity of Celtic fans was on full display that night, and delivering trolleys-full of essential foodstuffs was the culmination of everything we love about this football club.

It’s part of the reason why this is classed as an “away trip,” even though it took place in our country. The Romania CSC is an expression of a simple truth: our true home is Celtic.

The future’s bright, the future’s green and white

Some things never change. We wait with bated breath for European draws, in the hope that we might be able to travel to a couple of games. Trips to Celtic Park are still planned months in advance, and the list of friends to visit while we’re there is ever growing.

But so is the Romania CSC. Marius’ wife Alida is a convert to the cause, Danny’s girlfriend Linda is also a signed up member, friends and family are taking an interest in the club’s fortunes, and in 2018, a significant milestone was reached: wee Danny Codrea became the first-ever Romanian to be born into Celtic.

So maybe after all that, the story of the Romania CSC is actually a love story.