Early years, on the road (1910–1940) The game of football had arrived to
Nagyvárad (Oradea) in 1902 together with inhabitants that returned from study or work, from abroad or from
Budapest. The first football match that was ever played on the banks of
Crișul Repede river was a friendly one and was held in the
Rhédey Garden. The game was gaining in popularity fast, but there was not yet an organized club to represent the town in matches against other towns. This organizational problem led to the establishment of Nagyváradi Sport Egyesület (NSE), then appeared Nagyváradi Torna Club (NTK), both
multi-sport clubs, but none focused mainly on football. Then, eight years after that first football match played in Oradea's history,
Nagyváradi Atlétikai Club (NAC) – in
Romanian:
Club Atletic Oradea (CAO) was established, also a multi-sport club, but with the football section as the "pearl of the crown". The constituent assembly was held on 25 May 1910, in the EMKE Café (today Astoria Hotel), a place that also had an important contribution in the identity, bohemianism and cosmopolitanism of the football club. EMKE (Erdélyi Magyar Közművelődési Egyesület) Café, translated as the Coffee Shop of the Hungarian Cultural Association of Transylvania Coffee Shop, was the place where the Oradea's cultural elite spent much of its time, one of the main clients being the well-known poet
Endre Ady. Back to the football club, the first board of directors was formed of: Dr. Emil Jonas (chairman), Béla Mikló (executive president), Andor Szabo (secretary) and Dr. Kálmán Kovács (cashier), one of the decision took also in that first day was to submit the documents for registration at the
Hungarian Football Federation. On 31 July 1910, NAC played its first game, against
KVSC, and in January 1912 a home ground was secured, in the
Rhédey Garden. The next month, a touring team from
England came to town:
Bishop Auckland, the Northern League champions that season, NAC won with an incredible 8–0. Before
World War I, the club activated only on local and a regional level, they joined the eastern division of the Southern Hungarian League and in 1913 NAC won 25 out of 31 matches. One of the most important games for the local community, in this period, was the match against Hungarian giant,
Ferencváros, played in
Nagyvárad, on 6 July 1913 and lost honorable by NAC, with the score of 2–4. In 1951, the management of the football club opted for a new change of identity,
ICO was renamed as
Progresul Oradea, the second important step in the plan of blurring the identity of the club. This time the club's colors were also changed from "white and green" to "blue, bleu and white" similar with the colors combination used by
Progresul București (which was named Spartac Banca RPR at the time), but often combined with white or red, in any case, a new identity and not too well defined, but also not so representative for Oradea of those times. In the
1951 season, however, Progresul, under the leadership of the same
Gusztáv Juhász, achieved a rank beyond expectations, occupying the last step of the podium after
CCA București and
Dinamo București. In that team of Oradea appeared among others, the veterans
Mircea David,
Adolf Vécsey or János Kovács II (from the past teams of CAO/NAC), the younger Vasile Ion,
Ladislau Zilahi,
Gavril Serfözö,
Gheorghe Bodo or
Gheorghe Váczi (from the ICO generation of 1949), but also the defender
Iuliu Darok (a product of Dermata Cluj and already Romanian international since 1947) or the new "terrible child" of
Crișana, Iuliu Kiss, a product of
Metalul Oradea Football Academy (former Stăruința), a club that also gave other "heavy names" to the Romanian football, such as
Iosif Bartha or
Iuliu Barátky, among others. The following year as a
Divizia A team, the club won the
1956 Cupa României final, after a 2–0 win against
Divizia B team
Energia Câmpia Turzii. The winning squad of Progresul was managed by
Camil Scherz and formed of the following players: Adalbert Gébner – Gheorghe Kromely,
Andor Tyirják,
Gheorghe Barcu, Iosif Bartha, Ștefan Cuc, Ludovic Tóth, Ladislau Köszegi,
Alexandru Karikas,
Ladislau Vlad and Iosif Mészáros.
New era, the same spirit (2017–present) On 22 December 2016
CAO 1910 Association was founded, then on 17 March 2017 the association changed its status as a sports association named:
Asociația Club Sportiv CAO 1910, thus marking the refoundation of the white and green team. The refounding of the club was followed by a marketing promotion period, in which, among other things, the official website of the club and the Facebook official page were launched. Then, on 28 July 2017 a partnership was signed between CAO and
CSM Oradea, the team that took over the
FC Bihor Oradea youth academy after its dissolution, but which didn't have a senior squad, so through this partnership
CSM Oradea ensured a continuity for the youth players at senior level and CAO assured a youth academy. In the same period the team was enrolled in
Liga V. At the end of the season CAO had an impressive ranking line, 24 wins, one draw and only one defeat, 146 goals scored and 21 conceded, 73 points, with 15 more than their main promotion rival, Dinamo Oradea. After the promotion, "the white and greens" continued their strategy to promote young players, being ranked 2nd in the
Liga IV, Bihor series, at the end of the
2018–19 season, 13 points away from the champions,
CSC Sânmartin, a team with many players of certain quality and experience, as
Salif Nogo,
Alexandru Sorian or Florin Pop, among others. The second season of
Liga IV and the third one after the refoundation was beyond the expectations for the "white and greens". CA Oradea won all his matches in the autumn campaign, scored 69 goals and conceded only 6, leading the league table with a total of 45 points. The season was suspended during the winter break, due to
COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, then on 21 May 2020, CAO was crowned as the champions of
Liga IV, Bihor Series based on the results of the matches that were played in the autumn of 2019. The promotion play-offs were played on the
Municipal Stadium in
Zalău, and CAO was assigned in a group of three teams, together with
CSM Satu Mare and
Someșul Dej. CAO lost 1–3 against Satu Mare, than won 2–1 against
Someșul, being ranked 2nd. Finally all the teams from that group were promoted to
2020–21 Liga III, due to the
Liga III competition format changes. In 2020, Oradea Municipality and APTOR (Local Public Association for Tourism) entered in the association, along with the already existing Oradea Renaștem Împreună Association (the association that reunite the founding members, the private sponsors and which owns Club Atletic Oradea brands, registered at the Romanian State Office for Inventions and Trademarks). At the end of the first season spent in the national divisions, after 58 years of absence, CA Oradea was ranked on an honorable 4th place, out of 10, then in the summer of 2021, the club announced that will be a break up between the owners (Oradea Municipality, APTOR and Oradea Renaștem Împreună) due to a difference of opinion between the public and the private parts. Municipality of Oradea wanted a merger between the two brands, Club Atletic Oradea (owned by Oradea Renaștem Împreună) and
FC Bihor Oradea (owned by the Municipality), while the private side did not agree with this and wanted to continue the Club Atletic Oradea project. The owners agreed that the private management of the club will retire from the executive management and the association will work as Club Atletic Oradea only for another season, being expected an exchange of places through which FC Bihor (supported by the public owners), will reach the third tier, while the private owners (Oradea Renaștem Împreună, the official owner of the Club Atletic Oradea brands) will continue to support the white and green club, but a division below, back in the fourth league. CA Oradea had a good
2021–22 season and was ranked 2nd, out of 10, qualifying for
Liga II promotion play-offs, where it was eliminated in the semi-final round, by
Corvinul Hunedoara, 2–4 on aggregate. On 24 June 2022, Club Atletic Oradea announced officially the break up, and that the club will continue in the county leagues, under the ownership of the private management, which also own the Club Atletic Oradea brands, registered at the Romanian State Office for Inventions and Trademarks. On the place of CAO, in the
Liga III will play the club owned by the Municipality of Oradea and APTOR. CAO restarted from the 4th division and after a first season of rebuilding, in which the team was ranked only 9th, it started to grow up season by season, being ranked
3rd (
2023–24) and achieving the
Romanian Cup county rounds final, then
2nd (
2024–25) and winning the Bihor County Cup, also playing a Bihor County Supercup final, but lost in front of
Bihorul Beiuș. ==Crest and colours==