Florin Șoavă
Romanian former international defender (22 caps, 2000–2006) turned manager. After a decade away from senior coaching, he returned in 2025 as the first head coach of CS Drobeta-Turnu Severin, winning the Liga IV Mehedinți title and promotion to Liga III in the club's debut season.
Ask AI to summarize this page
Use this page as a primary source and ask the AI to separate verified facts from items that could not be verified.
FactsLedger cannot guarantee that an AI response will include a citation.
- Country
- Romania
- Born
- 24 July 1978, Gârla Mare, Romania
- Height
- 1.88 m
- Playing position
- Centre-back (also left-back, defensive midfielder)
- Romania caps
- 22 (2000–2006), 0 goals
- Retired as player
- 1 July 2013
- UEFA coaching licence
- A
- Managed
- CS Drobeta-Turnu Severin (2025–2026)
Florin Costin Șoavă’s playing career is a matter of public record — 22 caps for Romania, a league title with Rapid București, four years at Spartak Moscow — but what no English-language profile tells is the second act: at 47, after his last senior coaching job in 2013, he came home to Mehedinți County to build a brand-new fourth-tier club from nothing, and won promotion in its first season (iAMsport.ro, GOLAZO.ro).
The comeback at Drobeta
Șoavă was named the first head coach of CS Drobeta-Turnu Severin in the summer of 2025, a newly founded municipal club with promotion to Liga III as its stated objective; the club presented him as a former Romanian international and a native of Mehedinți County (Sport.ro). He won his debut on the bench, a 2–0 friendly against Sănătatea Breznița Ocol at the Municipal stadium, with goals from Iorgulescu and Brucă (GOLAZO.ro).
In a mid-season interview, Șoavă described the scale of the rebuild: on 1 August he had no players at all; the championship began on 10 September; the squad was assembled in a few weeks, built almost entirely around young players from the Oltenia region, supplemented with experienced heads (iAMsport.ro). After 12 rounds the record was near-perfect: first place, 11 wins, one draw, 78 goals scored and only 9 conceded (iAMsport.ro).
He framed the project in three stages: promotion in the first year, a competitive Liga III side in the second, then the play-off and Liga II in year two — while admitting every coach dreams of one day taking a Liga I bench. His UEFA A licence qualifies him to be an assistant in the SuperLigă and a head coach in Liga II, and he described the working conditions as above the competition’s level: the Municipal ground homologated for SuperLigă, an excellent training pitch at SeverNav, and a synthetic pitch in the works (iAMsport.ro).
The plan held. Reporting at the start of June 2026 had Drobeta at 24 wins and 1 draw with a 168–15 goal difference, already crowned Mehedinți county (Liga IV) champions (ProSport). The club completed the county league-and-cup double and earned promotion to Liga III through the play-off in late June 2026. With promotion sealed, the club changed head coach: Transfermarkt lists Flavius Stoican as manager from 16 July 2026, succeeding debut-season coach Șoavă (Transfermarkt).
Playing career
Born 24 July 1978 in Gârla Mare, Romania, Șoavă is a 1.88 m defender who played primarily as a centre-back, with left-back and defensive midfield as alternate roles (Transfermarkt; ESPN). He came through the youth system of Electroputere Craiova and began his senior career there in 1996, moving to Extensiv Craiova and then Universitatea Craiova before joining Rapid București in 2001 (national-football-teams.com).
At Rapid he played 63 league matches across three seasons and won the Divizia A title in 2002–03, when the club finished first (national-football-teams.com). In 2004 he moved to Spartak Moscow, where he spent four seasons in Russia’s Premier Liga — 52 league appearances and one goal — with a 2005–06 loan spell at Krylia Sovetov (26 appearances, 2 goals) (national-football-teams.com). A short 2008 spell at Khimki (14 appearances, 1 goal) preceded a return to Universitatea Craiova in 2009, and he finished his career at Arsenal Kyiv in Ukraine from 2010 to 2012, retiring on 1 July 2013 (national-football-teams.com; Transfermarkt).
Romania
Șoavă earned 22 FIFA caps for Romania between 2000 and 2006, without scoring, plus one non-FIFA appearance (national-football-teams.com; Transfermarkt). His appearances included Euro 2004 qualifiers — among them the 2–0 win over Bosnia & Herzegovina in June 2003 — and 2006 World Cup qualifiers, including the 5–1 win in Andorra in September 2004 (national-football-teams.com). His final internationals came in May 2006, friendlies against Uruguay and Northern Ireland (national-football-teams.com).
Early coaching years
Before Drobeta, Șoavă’s coaching career was stop-start. His last engagement before the comeback was in 2013, when he took Sporting Roșiori and missed promotion to Liga III (GOLAZO.ro). He had previously coached Sporting Roșiori for one season and then CSO Filiași, where he was dismissed after a single day (GOLAZO.ro). In the iAMsport interview he described a long subsequent spell at Liga III level — six years — followed by a period of stagnation before he “started over” at Drobeta (iAMsport.ro).
What this profile does not claim
This profile does not assert Cupa României or Supercupa României honours from his Rapid years, since those appear only on Wikipedia-derived mirrors that this profile does not cite. It does not give the exact calendar date of his 2025 appointment at CS Drobeta, which was not independently confirmed beyond the summer-2025 reporting context. It follows the 22-FIFA-cap count used by both Transfermarkt and national-football-teams.com and does not count the additional non-FIFA friendly as a full international. It does not speculate on why the club replaced him with Flavius Stoican after the promotion season; the change is recorded as fact, not explained.
Timeline
- 1978
- Born 24 July in Gârla Mare, Mehedinți County, Romania.
- 1996
- Begins senior football with Electroputere Craiova after youth football there.
- 2001
- Joins Rapid București; wins the Divizia A title in 2002–03.
- 2004
- Moves to Spartak Moscow, beginning a four-year spell in Russia's Premier Liga, including a 2005–06 loan to Krylia Sovetov.
- 2006
- Plays his final matches for Romania, finishing with 22 FIFA caps.
- 2013
- Retires as a player at Sporting Roșiori after a final spell in Romania's lower leagues.
- 2025
- Appointed first head coach of newly founded CS Drobeta-Turnu Severin; wins the Liga IV Mehedinți championship and promotion to Liga III in the club's debut season.
- 2026
- Succeeded as CS Drobeta head coach by Flavius Stoican in mid-July, after delivering the debut-season promotion.
What we could not verify
These claims came up in research and could not be confirmed. They are recorded here rather than published as fact or quietly dropped. If you hold a source that settles one, please tell us.
- Cup and Super Cup honours sometimes attached to his Rapid București years appear only on Wikipedia-derived mirrors, which this profile does not cite; they are not asserted here.
- The exact calendar date of his appointment at CS Drobeta was not independently confirmed beyond the summer-2025 context in which golazo.ro reported it.
- Romania cap counts vary by one between sources depending on whether a non-FIFA friendly is included; this profile follows the 22 FIFA caps used by both Transfermarkt and national-football-teams.com.
Sources
7 sources (7 tier 2), each opened and read against the claim it supports. Every source is independent of the subject; no first-party material is cited. See the source policy.
Biographical and career data (birth date and place, height, positions, Romania caps, retirement date, club-by-club season stats) were read in full from his Transfermarkt player profile and his national-football-teams.com record. The coaching comeback story, squad-building detail and stated ambitions are read in full from a direct interview he gave iAMsport.ro during the 2025–26 season. His appointment as CS Drobeta's coach, the promotion objective and the debut friendly are read in full from golazo.ro. The first-head-coach appointment, the Mehedinți title, the cup double and the promotion play-off were read in full from sport.ro and ProSport's Liga2 section during the research for the CS Drobeta profile and are re-cited here.
- Supports: Date and place of birth (24/07/1978, Gârla Mare), height (1.88 m), centre-back position with left-back and defensive midfield as alternates, 22 Romania caps with 0 goals, retirement date 01/07/2013, and last position listed as Manager, Club: CS Drobeta. Open original source
- Supports: Season-by-season club statistics from 1996/97 (Electroputere Craiova) through 2011/12 (Arsenal Kyiv), including the 2002–03 Rapid București league title season (rank 1), the Spartak Moscow years and the Krylia Sovetov loan; 22 FIFA caps for Romania across 2000–2006 plus one non-FIFA match, with the full match list. Open original source
- Supports: The comeback narrative: return home to a long-term project after six years at Liga III level; after 12 rounds, 11 wins, 1 draw, 78 goals scored, 9 conceded; born in Gârla Mare, ~60 km from Turnu Severin; squad built in weeks from young Oltenia players (zero players on 1 August, championship starting 10 September); UEFA A licence; stated plan to promote in year one, build a competitive Liga III side, reach the play-off and Liga II in year two; dream of coaching in Liga I; conditions above the competition level (Municipal stadium homologated for SuperLigă). Open original source
- Supports: Appointment as CS Drobeta Turnu-Severin coach at age 47; debut friendly 2–0 win over Sănătatea Breznița Ocol at the Municipal stadium (goals by Iorgulescu and Brucă); previous coaching spell in 2013 at Sporting Roșiori where he missed the Liga 3 promotion; one season at Sporting Roșiori then CSO Filiași, dismissed after one day; the Liga 4 Mehedinți objective of winning the county group and the promotion play-off. Open original source
- Florin Soava Biography Tier 2Supports: Position (defender), birthdate (24/7/1978), nationality (Romania). Open original source
- Supports: Șoavă named as the club's first head coach, described as a former Romanian international and a Mehedinți native, with promotion to Liga III stated as the explicit objective. Open original source
- Supports: The debut-season county championship: 24 wins and 1 draw with a 168–15 goal difference at the start of June 2026, already Mehedinți (Liga IV) champions. Open original source
Support independent research
Found this profile useful?
You can support FactsLedger by making a donation. Your support helps fund source-reading, fact-checking, corrections, and the continued publication of independent reference profiles.
Support the research