The article explores the interwar rivalry between Ripensia Timișoara and Rapid Bucharest and argues that, apart from football, the two teamsboth reflected and helped shape regional identities. We show that, as the episodes of the derby were consumed not long after the Greater Union of 1918, this rivalry can also be understood as a confrontation between center and periphery and that it helped the two teams act as ‘status makers’ of regional identities: through Ripensia, the Banat became aware of its territorial and cultural distinctiveness, while Rapid contributed to a reaffirmation of Bucharest within the newly formed national context. In both cases, football was instrumentalized not only to show supremacy on the playing field, but to construct and circulate identity, both teams claiming supremacy.