POFC Botev Vratsa

Botev () is a Bulgarian professional football club based in Vratsa, that competes in the First League, the top division of Bulgarian football.

The club was founded in 1921. Since 1948, Botev have played their home games at Stadion Hristo Botev. It is situated in the Hristo Botev sport complex, in the east part of Vratsa. The stadium originally had 25,000 seats. After a recent reconstruction, which took place in 2008, 2009, 2015 and in 2022, the stadium has 9 reconstructed seated sectors with a total of 8 935 seats.

Botev's longest continuous period in the top tier was 26 consecutive seasons between 1964 and 1990. The club's highest ever league finish came in 1970–71 when it finished third in the top flight.

History

Botev Vratsa Football Club was founded in 1921 by Nikola Kunov, Ivan Abuzov, Nako Paunov, Gergo Boytchev, Todor Orozov, Hristo Lighenski and Angel Rachinski. The place of foundation is a playground near the Old market in Vratsa. Between 1921 and 1956 various sport clubs were founded in the city. In 1957 most of the sport clubs in the city are joined to form FC Botev Vratsa. Between 1957 and 1964 Botev Vratsa is a member of Bulgarian second division. In 1964 the club entered the Bulgarian top division and played there for 26 seasons. The team of Vratsa has 788 games in the top flight of Bulgarian football.

Botev's most glorious moment came in 1971, when the team finished third in Bulgarian top division, after CSKA Sofia and Levski Sofia. Botev did, however, represent Bulgaria in the 1971–72 UEFA Cup where they lost in the first round to Dinamo Zagreb, then representing Yugoslavia, 2–8 on aggregate. The first game in Vratsa, in the presence of 35,000 spectators, ended with a 2–1 loss. The second game in Zagreb finished 6–1.

The biggest success in the Bulgarian Cup is a semi-final in 1960–61, 1974–75 and 1984–85. After the 1989–90 A Group season, Botev was relegated to B Group. In the next 19 years, the club participated in either the second or the third Bulgarian division.

Botev managed to return to the top flight in 2011, after they won the eastern group of the 2010–11 B Group, thus ending a 21-year absence from the top level of Bulgarian football. The 2011-12 A Group season was successful because Botev avoided relegation, finishing 12th, which was the main goal of the club. The next season was less successful, with Botev finishing 13th, which meant that they were relegated after a two-year spell in the top flight. In the next couple of years, Botev Vratsa bounced between the second and third tiers, until 2018, when the team managed to return to the top flight, by winning the 2017-18 Second League. This ended a 5-year absence from the top flight.

Among the club's legendary players is Martin Petrov, considered by most Botev fans as the greatest player to have ever been involved with the club, and one of the greatest Bulgarian players. The list of other famous players to have come from the clubs' youth system consists of Iliya Valov, Valentin Iliev, and Valentin Stanchev. Nikolay Penkov is the player with most league appearances for the club – 334. The player with most league goals for the club is Georgi Kamenov, with 150 goals for Botev.

Colours, signs and symbols

Botev is known as one of the "green" teams in Bulgaria, but red is just as characteristic in the club's history. Until 1971, the home colours were red and black vertical stripes. To commemorate the 50th anniversary, officials decided to re-brand the entire image of Botev by selecting green as main colour from 1972 on. At the same time, the club logo was also changed, selecting a lion as its centerpiece to commemorate the revolutionary flags of the Hristo Botev revolutionaries. Until that point, the portrait of Hristo Botev himself was used as club logo.
The most recent re-branding of the club was in 2009, when the fans initiated a return of the lion to the club logo, almost 15 years after it had been removed. The new logo, which incorporated the original graphic from 1971 was crafted by lifelong fan Aleksandar Alekov.

Honours

Domestic

* First League
**Third place (1): 1970–71
*Bulgarian Cup:
**Semi-finals (3): 1960–61, 1974–75, '' 2024–25''
* Second League:
**Winners (3): 1963–64, 2010–11, 2017–18

League positions

ImageSize = width:1600 height:65
PlotArea = left:10 right:10 bottom:30 top:10
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/07/1952 till:01/07/2026
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:2 start:1953
Colors =
id:bl1 value:rgb(0.5,0.8,0.5)
id:bl2 value:rgb(0.9,0.9,0.3)
id:rs value:rgb(0.8,0.6,0.6)
id:rn value:rgb(0.9,0.1,0.1)

PlotData=
bar:Position width:16 color:white align:center
from:01/07/1952 till:01/07/1953 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/1953 till:01/07/1954 shift:(0,-4) text:6
from:01/07/1954 till:01/07/1955 shift:(0,-4) text:4
from:01/07/1955 till:01/07/1956 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/1956 till:01/07/1957 shift:(0,-4) text:8
from:01/07/1957 till:01/07/1958 shift:(0,-4) text:9
from:01/07/1958 till:01/07/1959 shift:(0,-4) text:8
from:01/07/1959 till:01/07/1960 shift:(0,-4) text:13
from:01/07/1960 till:01/07/1961 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/1961 till:01/07/1962 shift:(0,-4) text:5
from:01/07/1962 till:01/07/1963 shift:(0,-4) text:6
from:01/07/1963 till:01/07/1964 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/1952 till:01/07/1964 color:white shift:(0,14) text: " B Group"
from:01/07/1964 till:01/07/1965 shift:(0,-4) text:9
from:01/07/1965 till:01/07/1966 shift:(0,-4) text:13
from:01/07/1966 till:01/07/1967 shift:(0,-4) text:7
from:01/07/1967 till:01/07/1968 shift:(0,-4) text:8
from:01/07/1968 till:01/07/1969 shift:(0,-4) text:8
from:01/07/1969 till:01/07/1970 shift:(0,-4) text:13
from:01/07/1970 till:01/07/1971 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/1971 till:01/07/1972 shift:(0,-4) text:7
from:01/07/1972 till:01/07/1973 shift:(0,-4) text:8
from:01/07/1973 till:01/07/1974 shift:(0,-4) text:7
from:01/07/1974 till:01/07/1975 shift:(0,-4) text:11
from:01/07/1975 till:01/07/1976 shift:(0,-4) text:13
from:01/07/1976 till:01/07/1977 shift:(0,-4) text:5
from:01/07/1977 till:01/07/1978 shift:(0,-4) text:13
from:01/07/1978 till:01/07/1979 shift:(0,-4) text:12
from:01/07/1979 till:01/07/1980 shift:(0,-4) text:10
from:01/07/1980 till:01/07/1981 shift:(0,-4) text:12
from:01/07/1981 till:01/07/1982 shift:(0,-4) text:14
from:01/07/1982 till:01/07/1983 shift:(0,-4) text:11
from:01/07/1983 till:01/07/1984 shift:(0,-4) text:10
from:01/07/1984 till:01/07/1985 shift:(0,-4) text:4
from:01/07/1985 till:01/07/1986 shift:(0,-4) text:12
from:01/07/1986 till:01/07/1987 shift:(0,-4) text:8
from:01/07/1987 till:01/07/1988 shift:(0,-4) text:14
from:01/07/1988 till:01/07/1989 shift:(0,-4) text:13
from:01/07/1989 till:01/07/1990 shift:(0,-4) text:16
from:01/07/1964 till:01/07/1990 color:green shift:(0,14) text: " A Group"
from:01/07/1990 till:01/07/1991 shift:(0,-4) text:13
from:01/07/1991 till:01/07/1992 shift:(0,-4) text:9
from:01/07/1992 till:01/07/1993 shift:(0,-4) text:18
from:01/07/1993 till:01/07/1994 shift:(0,-4) text:13
from:01/07/1990 till:01/07/1994 color:white shift:(0,14) text: " B Group"
from:01/07/1994 till:01/07/1995 shift:(0,-4) text:5
from:01/07/1995 till:01/07/1996 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/1996 till:01/07/1997 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/1997 till:01/07/1998 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/1994 till:01/07/1998 color:red shift:(0,14) text: " V Group"
from:01/07/1998 till:01/07/1999 shift:(0,-4) text:8
from:01/07/1999 till:01/07/2000 shift:(0,-4) text:5
from:01/07/2000 till:01/07/2001 shift:(0,-4) text:9
from:01/07/2001 till:01/07/2002 shift:(0,-4) text:8
from:01/07/2002 till:01/07/2003 shift:(0,-4) text:16
from:01/07/1998 till:01/07/2003 color:white shift:(0,14) text: " B Group"
from:01/07/2003 till:01/07/2004 shift:(0,-4) text:12
from:01/07/2004 till:01/07/2005 shift:(0,-4) text:16
from:01/07/2005 till:01/07/2006 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/2006 till:01/07/2007 shift:(0,-4) text:2
from:01/07/2007 till:01/07/2008 shift:(0,-4) text:4
from:01/07/2008 till:01/07/2009 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/2003 till:01/07/2009 color:red shift:(0,14) text: " V Group"
from:01/07/2009 till:01/07/2010 shift:(0,-4) text:6
from:01/07/2010 till:01/07/2011 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/2009 till:01/07/2011 color:white shift:(0,14) text: " B Group"
from:01/07/2011 till:01/07/2012 shift:(0,-4) text:12
from:01/07/2012 till:01/07/2013 shift:(0,-4) text:13
from:01/07/2011 till:01/07/2013 color:green shift:(0,14) text: " A Group"
from:01/07/2013 till:01/07/2014 shift:(0,-4) text:6
from:01/07/2014 till:01/07/2015 shift:(0,-4) text:13
from:01/07/2013 till:01/07/2015 color:white shift:(0,14) text: " B Group"
from:01/07/2015 till:01/07/2016 shift:(0,-4) text:2
from:01/07/2015 till:01/07/2016 color:red shift:(0,14) text: " V"
from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2017 shift:(0,-4) text:10
from:01/07/2017 till:01/07/2018 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2018 color:white shift:(0,14) text: "2nd"
from:01/07/2018 till:01/07/2019 shift:(0,-4) text:9
from:01/07/2019 till:01/07/2020 shift:(0,-4) text:11
from:01/07/2020 till:01/07/2021 shift:(0,-4) text:12
from:01/07/2021 till:01/07/2022 shift:(0,-4) text:13
from:01/07/2022 till:01/07/2023 shift:(0,-4) text:12
from:01/07/2023 till:01/07/2024 shift:(0,-4) text:14
from:01/07/2024 till:01/07/2025 shift:(0,-4) text:14
from:01/07/2025 till:01/07/2026 shift:(0,-4) text:
from:01/07/2018 till:01/07/2026 color:green shift:(0,14) text: " 1st League"

European record

Matches

Players

Current squad

'

''For recent transfers, see List of Bulgarian football transfers winter 2024–25.''

Foreign players

Up to twenty foreign nationals can be registered and given a squad number for the first team in the Bulgarian First League, however only five non-EU nationals can be used during a match day. Those non-EU nationals with European ancestry can claim citizenship from the nation their ancestors came from. If a player does not have European ancestry he can claim Bulgarian citizenship after playing in Bulgaria for 5 years.

EU Nationals
* David Suárez

EU Nationals (Dual citizenship)
* Mehdi Boukassi
* Saturnin Allagbé
* Marco Majouga
* Quentin Bena
* Arian Kabashi

Non-EU Nationals
* Ewerton Potiguar
* Federico Barrios
* Boubacar Traorè
* Danylo Kondrakov

Notable players

Had international caps for their respective countries, held any club record, or had more than 100 league appearances. Players whose name is listed in bold represented their countries.

;Bulgaria
* Petar Alyoshev
* Georgi Antonov
* Petar Atanasov
* Lachezar Baltanov
* Valeri Bojinov
* Daniel Bozhkov
* Valeri Domovchiyski
* Daniel Genov
* Ivo Georgiev
* Nikola Hristov
* Valentin Iliev
* Mihail Ivanov
* Georgi Kamenov

* Todor Kolev
* Krasimir Kostov
* Andrian Kraev
* Ruslan Kuang
* Angel Lyaskov
* Ivaylo Mihaylov
* Tihomir Naydenov
* Valentin Naydenov
* Yuliyan Nenov
* Nikolay Penkov
* Martin Petrov
* Apostol Popov
* Rumen Rangelov

* Svetlin Simeonov
* Valentin Stanchev
* Radoslav Tsonev
* Momchil Tsvetanov
* Svetoslav Valeriev
* Iliya Valov
* Iliya Voynov
* Dominik Yankov
* Tsvetan Yonchev
* Atanas Zehirov
* Hristo Zlatinski

;Europe
* Edgar Tur
* Dorian Babunski

;Africa
* Saturnin Allagbé
* Marco Majouga
* Messie Biatoumoussoka
;Asia
* Samir Ayass
* Iskandar Dzhalilov

Managers

* Sasho Angelov (2009–11)
* Atanas Dzhambazki (Sept 2011 – Oct 11)
* Todor Garev (Oct 2011 – Dec 11)
* Antoni Zdravkov (Dec 2011 – Aug 12)
* Giuliano Sonzogni (Aug 2012 – Sept 12)
* Antoni Zdravkov (Sept 2012 – June 2013)
* Yasen Petrov (June 2013 – September 2013)
* Boyko Velichkov (December 2013 – June 2014)
* Viktorio Pavlov (June 2014 – November 2014)
* Adalbert Zafirov (December 2014 – April 2015)
* Atanas Dzhambazki (May 2015– November 2015)
* Nikolay Todorov (December 2015–May 2016)
* Boyko Velichkov (May 2016–November 2016)
* Sasho Angelov (November 2016–November 2019)
* Antoni Zdravkov (November 2019–March 2021)
* Veselin Velikov (March 2021–June 2021)
* Daniel Morales (June 2021–March 2022)
* Ivaylo Dimitrov (March 2022–May 2022)
* Gennaro Iezzo (May 2022–June 2022)
* Rosen Kirilov (June 2022–September 2022)
* Daniel Morales (September 2022–)

Kit

References

External links

*
Unofficial website
(archived)
Botev Vratza Picture Gallery
(archived)

{{Football in Bulgaria table cells

Botev Vratsa
Botev Vratsa
Botev Vratsa