FCSB

1947–1949: Foundation and early years

ASA București (Asociația Sportivă a Armatei București – "Army Sports Association") was founded on 7 June 1947 at the initiative of several officers of the Romanian Royal House. The establishment took place following a decree signed by General Mihail Lascăr, High Commander of the Romanian Royal Army. It was formed as a sports society with seven initial sections, including football, coached by Coloman Braun-Bogdan. The decision had been adopted on the ground that several officers were already playing for different teams, which was premise to a good nucleus for forming a future competitive team.

With this squad, Coloman Braun-Bogdan, the first coach in the club's history, went to a sustained training camp in the mountain resort of Sinaia. Although shirts, boots and balls were missing, atmosphere inside the team was rather optimistic. Thanks to sustained efforts, in the shortest time possible, the club soon acquired the first training suits, navy green, duck material of, and the first shirts, blue. The big surprise, however, were the 40 pairs of boots the club had purchased for the 20 selected players. ASA was renamed CSCA (Clubul Sportiv Central al Armatei – "Central Sports Club of the Army") in 1948 and CCA (Casa Centrală a Armatei – "Central House of the Army") in 1950.

1949–1984: CCA Golden Team

In 1949, CSCA won its first trophy, the Cupa României, defeating CSU Cluj 2–1 in the final. Under the name of CCA, the club managed to win three Championship titles in a row in 1951, 1952 and 1953, along with its first Championship–Cup double in 1951. During the 1950s, the so-called "CCA Golden Team" became nationally famous. In 1956, the Romania national team (composed exclusively of CCA players) played Yugoslavia in Belgrade and won 1–0. In the same year, CCA, coached by Ilie Savu, became the first Romanian team to participate in a tournament in England, where it achieved noteworthy results against the likes of Luton Town, Arsenal, Sheffield Wednesday and Wolverhampton Wanderers. After CCA won the 1959–60 title, they were supposed to play in the 1960–61 European Cup against Spartak Hradec Králové who was the champion of Czechoslovakia, but as Romania's national team lost with 5–0 on aggregate against Czechoslovakia in the 1960 European Nations' Cup quarter-finals, when the communist authorities saw that Steaua had to play with the champion of Czechoslovakia in the European Cup, they withdrew the team from the competition, fearing a shameful elimination in front of the Czechoslovakians.

At the end of 1961, CCA changed its name once again to CSA Steaua București (Clubul Sportiv al Armatei Steaua – "Army Sports Club Steaua"). The club's new name translated to The Star and was adopted because of the presence of a red star, a symbol of most East European Army clubs, on its crest. A poor period of almost two decades followed in which the club claimed only three championships (1967–68, 1975–76, 1977–78). Instead, the team won nine national cup trophies, for which matter it gained the nickname of "cup specialists". Also during this period, on 9 April 1974 Steaua's ground, Stadionul Ghencea, was inaugurated with a friendly match against OFK Belgrade. Internally, fierce rivalry with teams like Dinamo București, Petrolul Ploiești and UTA Arad made it more and more difficult for the military team to reach the title, the 1970s and 1980s seeing them win the title only three times under their new name (1967–68, 1975–76, 1977–78). However, during that same period, Steaua won eight National Cups (1961–62, 1965–66, 1966–67, 1968–69, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1975–76 and 1978–79), ultimately being nicknamed the cup specialists.

The first half of the 1980s was a very poor period for the club, as no trophies were won for six years. However, several prodigies were transferred, such as Helmuth Duckadam, Ștefan Iovan, Miodrag Belodedici, Marius Lăcătuș, Victor Pițurcă, Mihail Majearu, Gavril Balint and Adrian Bumbescu, who would set the basis for the future team. However, these years of search and frustration did no less than to foretell the amazing performances of the 1980s and 1990s.

1984–1990: Champions of Europe

Under the leadership of coaches Emerich Jenei and Anghel Iordănescu, Steaua had an impressive Championship run in the 1984–85 season, which they eventually won after a six-year break. What followed was an absolutely astonishing European Cup season. After eliminating Vejle, Honvéd, Kuusysi Lahti and Anderlecht, they were the first ever Romanian team to make it to a European Cup final. At the final, played on 7 May 1986 at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium in Seville, Spanish champions Barcelona were clear favourites, but after a goalless draw, legendary goalkeeper Helmuth Duckadam saved all four penalties taken by the Spaniards being the first ever Romanian to reach the Guinness Book for that matter, while Gavril Balint and Marius Lăcătuș converted theirs to make Steaua the first Eastern-European team to conquer the supreme continental trophy.

Gheorghe Hagi, Romanian all-time best footballer, joined the club a few months later, scoring the only goal of the match against Dynamo Kyiv which brought Steaua an additional European Super Cup on 24 February 1987 in Monaco, just two months after having lost the Intercontinental Cup 1–0 to Argentinians River Plate in Tokyo. However, that match was marred with a questionable decision by referee José Martínez when he disallowed a clear goal scored by Miodrag Belodedici.

Surprisingly for those who thought of these performances as an isolated phenomenon, Steaua remained at the top of European football for the rest of the decade, managing one more European Cup semi-final against Benfica (1987–88) and one more European Cup final in 1989, which was lost 4–0 in front of Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard's Milan. This happened next to their four additional national titles (1985–86, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89) and four national cups (1984–85, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89). In addition, from June 1986 to September 1989, Steaua ran a record 104-match undefeated streak in the championship, setting a world record for that time and a European one still standing.

During these last years of the Communist regime in Romania, dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu's son Valentin was involved in the life of the team. Valentin Ceaușescu admitted in a recent interview that he had done nothing else than to protect his favourite team from Dinamo's sphere of influence, ensured by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Though contested by some, their five-year winning streak in the championship between 1984–85 and 1988–89 corroborates the notion that the team was really the best during this period.

1990–2002: Post-Revolution era

The Romanian Revolution led the country towards a free open market and, subsequently, several players of the 1980s team left for other clubs in the West. After a short pull-back, a quick recovery followed and Steaua managed a six consecutive championship streak between 1992–93 and 1997–98 to equalize the 1920s performance of Chinezul Timișoara and also three more cups in 1995–96, 1996–97 and 1998–99. At an international level, the club also managed to reach the UEFA Champions League group stage three years in a row between 1994–95 and 1996–97. Other records highly regarded by the fans were the eight-year and six-month long undefeated streak in front of arch-rivals Dinamo București, which counted 19 matches in both the championship and the Romanian Cup, and the 17-year and 7-month long undefeated league run at Ghencea against the same Dinamo. At international level, the club managed to reach the Cup Winners' Cup quarter-finals in 1993, when they lost on away goals to Royal Antwerp, and also to make it to the Champions League group stage three years in a row between 1994 and 1995 and 1996–97. In 1998, the football club separated from CSA Steaua and changed its name to FC Steaua București, being led by Romanian businessman Viorel Păunescu. Păunescu performed poorly as a president and soon the club was plunged into debt. George Becali, another businessman, was offered the position of vice-president in the hope that Becali would invest money in the club.

2002–present: Gigi Becali takeover

In 2003, Becali managed to gain control over the club by turning it from non-profit to a public share company. Because of his controversial character, he has been challenged by the majority of Steaua fans. The team qualified for the UEFA Cup group stage in the 2004–05 season and became the first Romanian team to make it to the European football spring since 1993 (also Steaua's performance). The next season, Steaua reached the UEFA Cup semi-finals in 2005–06, where it was eliminated by Middlesbrough thanks to a last-minute goal. Steaua thereafter qualified for the following Champions League seasons after a ten-year break, and in 2007–08 Steaua again reached the group stage of the Champions League. Nationally, the club won two titles—in 2004–05 and 2005–06—and the Supercupa României in 2006, the latter being the club's 50th trophy in its 59-year history. In 2013, Steaua won its 24th national title, and also subsequently reached the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League group stage. It repeated the former performance in each of the next two years, being awarded the championship in 2014 and 2015.

After the Ministry of National Defense sued the club, claiming that the Romanian Army were the rightful owners of the Steaua logo, colours, honours and name, the Executive Committee of the Romanian Football Federation approved an application to modify the name of the club from "FC Steaua București" to "FC FCSB" on 30 March 2017, following more judiciary sentences. CSA Steaua București had previously announced they would refound their football department as CSA Steaua București in the summer of the same year. However, owner Becali announced that his team would retain the original honours and UEFA coefficient, and was also hopeful of recovering the name in the near future.

Between 2016 and 2019, FCSB finished each time as runners-up in the league, thus becoming the first club in Romania to do so for four consecutive years. On 5 July 2019, yet another unfavorable ruling was handed out against the team. According to it, CSA Steaua would be the rightful entity to assert the honors up until 2003, however, the decision is not definitive.