Spartak Varna

FC Spartak Varna () is a Bulgarian association football club based in Varna, which currently competes in the First League, the top level of Bulgarian football league system. Spartak plays its home matches at the local Stadion Spartak.

Founded in 1918, Spartak Varna established itself as one of the early pioneering clubs in Bulgarian football. Spartak won the Bulgarian league in 1932, and was runner up in 1931 and 1933. Spartak has spent the majority of its existence in the first tier of Bulgarian football, with the club’s most recent top flight participation being season 2022–2023.

Spartak's nickname is the "Falcons", and the club has a very heated rivalry with fellow Varna-based club, Cherno More Varna. Matches between the two sides are known as the "Derby of Varna". The two sides even used to share the Yuri Gagarin Stadium before it was demolished.

History

1918–1945: Foundation of SC Sokol

Spartak Varna was founded on 28 August 1918 by a group of young people, who were playing football together for two years. At the initial meeting, regarding the establishment of the club, the name was decided to be SC Sokol. Niagol Kolev was elected as the first chairman of the club. A few days later, the members of the board registered the Football Club to the government under the name "Bulgarski Sokol". The colors of the team were blue and white. "Bulgarski Sokol," one of the poor suburban teams in Varna, was poorly circumstanced in comparison to the leading teams at that time such as ''Ticha'' and "Vladislav." Nonetheless, the football team quickly became stronger, and improved their style of play.

On 30 January 1924 "Bulgarski Sokol" merged with the sport club "Shipka" and proved to be one of the strongest teams in Varna. Among all the players called with a lot of love from the fans "Falcons" with most successful plays was the forward Mihail Tunchev. In 1924 he was invited in the national team and that way he became the first national player of the team.

A few years later started the rise of the team. In the season 1928/29 the team won for the first time the championship of Varna, and joined the State Championship where they reached third place. Two years later 1930/31 the falcons were again champions of Varna. For the State Championship they reached the final with the Sofia's AS-23. Next year "Shipchenski Sokol" again reached the final, where the rival was the capitol's team Slavia. On 18.09.1932 in front of 10 000 audience on the football field of AS-23 the falcons won with 2:1 and became State Champion and Winner of the Cup of the King. In the next season "Shipchenski sokol" were again champion of Varna, and for the State Championship they reach for the third consecutive time the final. On 03.10.1933 in Sofia rival of the "falcons" was PFC Levski Sofia. Varna's team lost with 3:1 and took the second place in the State Championship.

1945–2010: Merge and Spartak naming

In 1945 the club merged with other two Varna's football clubs "Levski" and "Radetski". This happened on 18 October 1945, and the team accepted a new name - Spartak Varna (the name ''Spartak'' means "Spartacus", a gladiator who led an uprising against Ancient Rome). In the years between 1945–1948, three times Spartak reached the semi-finals of the State Championship. In 1950, the team took the fifth place in the newly created "A" Republican Football League. Spartak Stalin relegated to B League in 1952 but returned to A League at next year. Spartak again relegated to second level in 1963–64 season but returned in 1964–65 season. However, this return was short-lived and relegated in 1965–66.

In 1955, Spartak won the third place and bronze medals in the championship of "A" League. In 1959, the forward of Spartak, Georgi Arnaudov-"Alaha", became a shooter of the championship with nine goals. Two years later, Spartak again had a winner in the shooters list: Liuben Kostov with 12 goals. In 1960/61, Spartak had very good matches in the tournament of the Soviet Army which then was playing the role of the Cup of Bulgaria. They reached the final and met the strongest team in Bulgaria at that time- CSKA. Spartak lost the final 3:0. As a finalist, however, Spartak won the right to play in the 1961–62 European Cup Winners' Cup. Spartak met Austrian club SK Rapid Wien in the first round. After a goalless draw in Wien, Spartak lost the second leg 5–2 at home and was eliminated. In 1969, another sport club merged with Spartak – it was the "Lokomotiv" sport club, a smaller club from Varna. The merge became a fact on 06.03.1969 and the club took the name "JSK-Spartak". JSK-Spartak returned to first level in 1971 but relegated in 1973–74 and returned to first level in 1974–75. JSK-Spartak relegated again in 1977–78.

In 1982 the "Falcons" reached the final of the Cup of Bulgaria as they won the semi-final against Levski-Spartak in Kazanlak in front of a crowd of 20,000. In Plovdiv, Spartak lost the final 4:0 to CSKA-Septemvriisko Zname, but as a finalist they obtained the right to play in the Cup of the National Cup Winners. In the first round, Spartak faced Turkish side Mersin Idman Yurdu. Spartak managed to win in Varna and draw in Mersin, enabling progression. In the next round, Spartak had the privilege to play former European champions Manchester United. Spartak displayed strong performances in both games, but narrowly lost 1-2 at the Yuri Gagarin Stadium and 0-1 at Old Trafford, thus suffering elimination. In the same year, JSK-Spartak returned to the A League. In the season 1983/84, after mighty and successful games, Spartak reached third place. The goalkeeper Krasimir Zafirov was declared the best goalkeeper in the championship. Since 1985 the football was separated from the other sports in JSK-Spartak, and that way the FC Spartak Varna is differentiated as well.

The 80's will be remembered and with the regular participation of the team in the tournaments for the Varna Summer Cup. Rivals of the "falcons" were the teams of NK Rijeka Croatia, the English Oxford United F.C., Hungarian Újpest FC and many others. In 1988/89, Spartak became the first Bulgarian team with private sponsor and president Atanas Atanasov-Kebie. From the autumn of 1994, president of the club was Nikolay Ishkov. Spartak relegated to B league in 1988–89 and returned to A League in 1991–92. However, Spartak relegated to second level in 1993–94.

In the season 1994/95 after mighty games the falcons won the cup as the most progressive team in Bulgaria. In the same season the forward Ivo Georgiev scores 21 goals and became shooter number one of Bulgaria. At this time Spartak was considered one of the strongest teams in Bulgaria. For the first time there was successful transfer policy and perspective selection. Many of the players has a profitable offers from capitol's and foreign clubs. In its 84 years of history Spartak went through many peaks and downfall moments, but it left a bright trace in the Bulgarian football. F.C. Spartak is one of the clubs with the greatest traditions, between the 10 clubs which have most participations in the A PFG, and between the 15 who reached the Champions title of Bulgaria. The same season Spartak returned to the first level.

2010–2015: Dark times

In May 2010, Spartak Varna was relegated to Bulgarian North East V group due to the inability to comply with requirements for a professional licence. As a result, under new ownership, the club was re-registered as Spartak 1918 after a formal merger with another football club from Varna - Vladislav (an amateur club founded an year earlier in 2009 but with a professional licence). A month later, fans of Spartak Varna (forming the majority of the ultras), not happy with the previous management and not seeing a change after the new registration, formed a new club taking over the license of FC Topolite. However, although reaching an agreement with FC Topolite, the club was not allowed to change the name of that club to Spartak. The fan-owned team finished second after Spartak 1918 in the first half of the 2010/2011 season, but due to financial problems, it stopped its participation. The group of fans who formed FC Topolite kept boycotting the current management of Spartak 1918 for the next few years, by not attending the team's games.

2015–present: Restructure of Spartak 1918 and founding of a new FC Spartak Varna

2015–2017: FC Spartak Varna and Spartak 1918

A new team was founded on 17 May 2015 by founding board led by Spartak's legends Atanas Atanasov, Lyudmil Goranov, Dimitar Trendafilov, Ilko Stanchev and Trayan Dyankov, after the original club Spartak 1918, still alive despite the financial collapse and maintaining a youth team and an academy had bad leadership in the last years. Both teams existed in parallel; The new FC Spartak Varna team wanted to use Spartak Stadium in order to start from the 3rd league - the Bulgarian V AFG, but this hasn't happened since the stadium was given to Spartak 1918, which withdrew from V Group and only kept a youth formation and an academy that football season. Some of the players who joined the newly founded team played also for the local futsal club Grand Pro Varna.

On 11 October 2015 the new team signed a sponsorship with UltraGas, which would guarantee them enough money to prepare a new strong team in the future.ФК Спартак Варна представи спонсор
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On 6 May 2016 FC Spartak Varna applied to gain rights to play and operate at Spartak Stadium because they can't play at Lokomotiv Stadium in V Group in 2016–17 season if they get promotion. Atanas Atanasov had a talk with the sports minister Krasen Kralev who promised to give these right to Spartak, if the stadium become municipal property, because Spartak 1918 was the current operator of the stadium, even after the condition of the stadium is critical. Atanasov also said, that the team is looking for sponsors and eventually a club owner. On 11 May 2016 the club gain the rights on Lokomotiv Stadium, which would give them the chance to start a complete youth academy from the 2016/17 season.

On 3 July 2016 Trayan Dyankov was appointed as the new manager of the team and would lead the team in Third Amateur League. On 1 August 2016 Dyankov died from a heart attack during training at Lokomotiv Stadium. Atanas Atanasov become the manager of the team for the beginning of the season.

On 26 November 2016 the manager of Spartak, Atanas Atanasov, announced that the new club will merge with the old Spartak 1918 to have one Spartak. In the meantime Spartak 1918, having pulled out a men's formation from the 2015/2016 season, joined in Varna Regional Group 'A' in 2016/2017 season.

On 1 February 2017 the official merger was announced, with Spartak 1918 manager Ivan Naydenov taking the team. The complete merger would be after the season 2016/2017 end.

2017–Present: Merger of Spartak teams

On 25 June 2017 FC Spartak Varna and Spartak 1918 finally merged as Spartak 1918. Three days earlier the new logo of the team was announced. On 29 December 2017 Engibar Engibarov was announced as the new manager of the team. On 6 July 2018 the unified Spartak 1918 officially returned the rights over to Spartak Stadium.

On 12 May 2019 at the end of season 2018/19, Spartak secured their return to professional football, winning South-East Third division two rounds before its end and managing to be promoted to the Second League. However, Spartak endured a difficult season back into the second tier, finishing second to last, suffering an immediate relegation.

For the 2020-21 season, Spartak finally returned to their renovated home stadium. On 16 May 2021 the team secured their first place in their Third League group and won the promotion to Second League once again. The team ended up on top of the standings before the winter break. On 5 May 2022, after a 2–1 home win against Sozopol the team secured a top 3 place and their return to First League in the 2022–23 season, after 12 years of absence. The team missed the chance to win the last league match, and subsequently the league, ending in 3rd place, with the same number of points as Septemvri Sofia and Hebar Pazardzhik.

Spartak experienced a difficult return to the top level. The falcons largely remained within the relegation zone of the regular season and ultimately remained there for the remainder of the season, suffering immediate relegation back to Second League. Season 2023–24 marked a good run in the Bulgarian Cup for Spartak. The team managed to reach the quarterfinals, defeating top tier side Lokomotiv Sofia in the round of 16 after a penalty shootout.

Honours

* First League
** Winners (1): 1932
* Second League
** Winners (8): 1953, 1964–65, 1970–71, 1974–75, 1981–82, 1994–95, 2005–06, 2023–24
* Third League
** Winners (3): 2010–11, 2018–19, 2020–21
* A Regional Group
** Winners (1): 2015–16

Crest, shirt and sponsors

Spartak Varna adopted blue, white and red, the main colours of the original Spartak Varna. On 11 October 2015 the team signed a sponsorship with UltraGas. For the first match in 2018 Spartak signed a contract with the reseller store iPhonePlace.

After adopting a new crest in 2016, on 23 January 2018 Spartak managed to return the rights to their original crest.ФК "Спартак 1918" си върна старата емблема
/ref>

European tournaments history

Players

Current squad

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

Out on loan

Second-team squad

Foreign players

Up to five non-EU nationals can be registered and given a squad number for the first team in the Bulgarian First Professional League however only three can be used in 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
* Felix Strauß
* Mateo Jurić-Petrašilo
* Christian Ilić
* Filip Lesniak
* Bernardo Couto

EU Nationals (Dual citizenship)
* Pa Konate

Non-EU Nationals
* Xandy
* Gideon Akuowua
* Atsushi Kurokawa
* Romeesh Ivey
* Maksym Kovalyov
* Kolako Johnson

Goalscoring and appearance records

*Players in bold are still playing for Spartak.

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
* Ahmed Ahmedov
* Stefan Aladzhov
* Georgi Arnaudov
* Atanas Atanasov
* Vasko Boev
* Panteley Dimitrov
* Zdravko Dimitrov
* Diyan Donchev
* Trayan Dyankov
* Engibar Engibarov
* Stanislav Genchev
* Georgi Georgiev
* Ivo Georgiev
* Milen Georgiev
* Plamen Getov
* Zhivko Gospodinov
* Mihail Gyonin

* Boyan Iliev
* Ivo Ivanov
* Dian Kateliev
* Plamen Kazakov
* Lyuben Kostov
* Iliya Kirchev
* Emil Kremenliev
* Martin Kushev
* Ventsislav Marinov
* Ivan Minchev
* Viktor Mitev
* Anatoli Nankov
* Stefan Naydenov
* Valentin Naydenov
* Hristo Nikolov-Choko
* Ivan Paskov
* Kiril Pandov
* Anastas Petrov

* Stanislav Petrov
* Dimitar Popov
* Stoyko Sakaliev
* Nasko Sirakov
* Genko Slavov
* Emil Spasov
* Valentin Stanchev
* Stefan Staykov
* Dobromir Tashkov
* Radomir Todorov
* Dimitar Trendafilov
* Aleksandar Tsvetkov
* Georgi Tsvetkov
* Kosta Yanev
* Ivan Yordanov
* Stefan Yurukov
* Krasimir Zafirov
* Atanas Zehirov

;Europe
* Razmik Grigoryan
* Zoran Banović
* Valērijs Ivanovs
* Alexandr Belousov
* Marko Simić

;North America
* Nathan Holder
* Liandro Martis

;South America
* Romeesh Ivey

;Africa
* Pa Konate
* João Mário
* Prosper Mendy

Personnel

Club officials

Manager history

Seasons

League positions

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DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/07/1952 till:01/07/2025
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)
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PlotData=
bar:Position width:16 color:white align:center
from:01/07/1952 till:01/07/1953 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/1952 till:01/07/1953 color:white shift:(0,14) text: " B Group"
from:01/07/1953 till:01/07/1954 shift:(0,-4) text:10
from:01/07/1954 till:01/07/1955 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/1955 till:01/07/1956 shift:(0,-4) text:10
from:01/07/1956 till:01/07/1957 shift:(0,-4) text:10
from:01/07/1957 till:01/07/1958 shift:(0,-4) text:8
from:01/07/1958 till:01/07/1959 shift:(0,-4) text:9
from:01/07/1959 till:01/07/1960 shift:(0,-4) text:10
from:01/07/1960 till:01/07/1961 shift:(0,-4) text:7
from:01/07/1961 till:01/07/1962 shift:(0,-4) text:11
from:01/07/1962 till:01/07/1963 shift:(0,-4) text:13
from:01/07/1963 till:01/07/1964 shift:(0,-4) text:15
from:01/07/1953 till:01/07/1964 color:green shift:(0,14) text: "A Group"
from:01/07/1964 till:01/07/1965 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/1964 till:01/07/1965 color:white shift:(0,14) text: " B"
from:01/07/1965 till:01/07/1966 shift:(0,-4) text:15
from:01/07/1965 till:01/07/1966 color:green shift:(0,14) text: " A"
from:01/07/1966 till:01/07/1967 shift:(0,-4) text:6
from:01/07/1967 till:01/07/1968 shift:(0,-4) text:2
from:01/07/1968 till:01/07/1969 shift:(0,-4) text:5
from:01/07/1969 till:01/07/1970 shift:(0,-4) text:2
from:01/07/1970 till:01/07/1971 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/1966 till:01/07/1971 color:white shift:(0,14) text: " B"
from:01/07/1971 till:01/07/1972 shift:(0,-4) text:15
from:01/07/1972 till:01/07/1973 shift:(0,-4) text:15
from:01/07/1973 till:01/07/1974 shift:(0,-4) text:16
from:01/07/1971 till:01/07/1974 color:green shift:(0,14) text: " A"
from:01/07/1974 till:01/07/1975 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/1974 till:01/07/1975 color:white shift:(0,14) text: " B"
from:01/07/1975 till:01/07/1976 shift:(0,-4) text:11
from:01/07/1976 till:01/07/1977 shift:(0,-4) text:14
from:01/07/1977 till:01/07/1978 shift:(0,-4) text:15
from:01/07/1975 till:01/07/1978 color:green shift:(0,14) text: " A"
from:01/07/1978 till:01/07/1979 shift:(0,-4) text:4
from:01/07/1979 till:01/07/1980 shift:(0,-4) text:2
from:01/07/1980 till:01/07/1981 shift:(0,-4) text:4
from:01/07/1981 till:01/07/1982 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/1978 till:01/07/1982 color:white shift:(0,14) text: " B"
from:01/07/1982 till:01/07/1983 shift:(0,-4) text:7
from:01/07/1983 till:01/07/1984 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/1984 till:01/07/1985 shift:(0,-4) text:14
from:01/07/1985 till:01/07/1986 shift:(0,-4) text:8
from:01/07/1986 till:01/07/1987 shift:(0,-4) text:10
from:01/07/1987 till:01/07/1988 shift:(0,-4) text:10
from:01/07/1988 till:01/07/1989 shift:(0,-4) text:15
from:01/07/1982 till:01/07/1989 color:green shift:(0,14) text: " A"
from:01/07/1989 till:01/07/1990 shift:(0,-4) text:4
from:01/07/1990 till:01/07/1991 shift:(0,-4) text:8
from:01/07/1991 till:01/07/1992 shift:(0,-4) text:2
from:01/07/1989 till:01/07/1992 color:white shift:(0,14) text: " B"
from:01/07/1992 till:01/07/1993 shift:(0,-4) text:12
from:01/07/1993 till:01/07/1994 shift:(0,-4) text:15
from:01/07/1992 till:01/07/1994 color:green shift:(0,14) text: " A"
from:01/07/1994 till:01/07/1995 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/1994 till:01/07/1995 color:white shift:(0,14) text: " B"
from:01/07/1995 till:01/07/1996 shift:(0,-4) text:6
from:01/07/1996 till:01/07/1997 shift:(0,-4) text:9
from:01/07/1997 till:01/07/1998 shift:(0,-4) text:7
from:01/07/1998 till:01/07/1999 shift:(0,-4) text:12
from:01/07/1999 till:01/07/2000 shift:(0,-4) text:7
from:01/07/2000 till:01/07/2001 shift:(0,-4) text:7
from:01/07/2001 till:01/07/2002 shift:(0,-4) text:9
from:01/07/2002 till:01/07/2003 shift:(0,-4) text:7
from:01/07/2003 till:01/07/2004 shift:(0,-4) text:13
from:01/07/2004 till:01/07/2005 shift:(0,-4) text:16
from:01/07/1995 till:01/07/2005 color:green shift:(0,14) text: " A"
from:01/07/2005 till:01/07/2006 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/2005 till:01/07/2006 color:white shift:(0,14) text: " B"
from:01/07/2006 till:01/07/2007 shift:(0,-4) text:13
from:01/07/2007 till:01/07/2008 shift:(0,-4) text:11
from:01/07/2008 till:01/07/2009 shift:(0,-4) text:15
from:01/07/2006 till:01/07/2009 color:green shift:(0,14) text: " A"
from:01/07/2009 till:01/07/2010 shift:(0,-4) text:9
from:01/07/2009 till:01/07/2010 color:white shift:(0,14) text: " B"
from:01/07/2010 till:01/07/2011 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/2010 till:01/07/2011 color:red shift:(0,14) text: " V"
from:01/07/2011 till:01/07/2012 shift:(0,-4) text:7
from:01/07/2012 till:01/07/2013 shift:(0,-4) text:7
from:01/07/2013 till:01/07/2014 shift:(0,-4) text:8
from:01/07/2014 till:01/07/2015 shift:(0,-4) text:16
from:01/07/2011 till:01/07/2015 color:white shift:(0,14) text: " B"
from:01/07/2015 till:01/07/2016 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/2015 till:01/07/2016 color:yellow shift:(0,14) text: Regional
from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2017 shift:(0,-4) text:12
from:01/07/2017 till:01/07/2018 shift:(0,-4) text:8
from:01/07/2018 till:01/07/2019 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2019 color:red shift:(0,14) text: "3rd"
from:01/07/2019 till:01/07/2020 shift:(0,-4) text:15
from:01/07/2019 till:01/07/2020 color:white shift:(0,14) text: "2nd"
from:01/07/2020 till:01/07/2021 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/2020 till:01/07/2021 color:red shift:(0,14) text: "3rd"
from:01/07/2021 till:01/07/2022 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/2021 till:01/07/2022 color:white shift:(0,14) text: "2nd"
from:01/07/2022 till:01/07/2023 shift:(0,-4) text:16
from:01/07/2022 till:01/07/2023 color:green shift:(0,14) text: "1st"
from:01/07/2023 till:01/07/2024 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/2023 till:01/07/2024 color:white shift:(0,14) text: "2nd"
from:01/07/2024 till:01/07/2025 shift:(0,-4) text:
from:01/07/2024 till:01/07/2025 color:green shift:(0,14) text: "1st"

Past seasons

;Key

References

External links

Official websitebgclubs.eu

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spartak

Football clubs in Varna, Bulgaria
Association football clubs established in 1918
Spartak Varna
Phoenix clubs (association football)