Ex-Romania legionnaire:

“Was it the manure of cows or that of pigs?”

Romanian champions FCSB Bucharest are an unknown quantity for LASK in the Europa League play-off on Thursday! "It's one of the few clubs that are run professionally there," says former Admira and current Ried keeper Andreas Leitner. Who knows the Romanian SuperLiga.  

"Krone": Mr. Leitner, the Swiss Ivan Martic played exactly 83 first league games for Craiova and Cluj in Romania and once said about the "Super League" there: "Welcome to the jungle!" Before joining Ried in the 2022/23 season, you also spent almost a year with Petrolul Ploiești and were therefore a professional in Romania. Is it really that bad there?

Andreas Leitner: Well, you have to differentiate: If you see the great stadiums on TV, no one would believe where we had to train.

Where?

Well, somewhere different every day for a start. Petrolul Ploiesti didn't have its own training ground, for example. That's why we met at the stadium every day and then always went somewhere by bus. Depending on the traffic, sometimes 30 and sometimes 40 minutes. And on the pitches where you trained, you didn't know whether there was pig manure, cow manure or dirt from the many stray dogs.

Where was Ploiești in the table at the time?

We were playing around the bottom. Of course, there are three or four clubs in Romania that have really professional conditions.

Do you think LASK's opponents FCSB Bucharest are one of them?

Of course! This club is already professional. But also curious! Because the president is always going over the top in public.

How do you see the sporting comparison between LASK and FCSB Bucharest?

A Romanian journalist asked me the same question when he called me recently . . .

. . . and what was your answer?

That it could be tight if Bucharest manage to play with discipline. But that even then LASK will win in the end.

Why?

Because there are good individual players in Romanian soccer, but less attention is paid to tactics - and that will have an effect over two games.