PFC Slavia Sofia

 

On 10 April 1913, a group of young people living near a Russian Monument in Sofia and representatives of the local capital clubs Botev and Razvitie, in a coffee-house – Alabin str. in Sofia, decided to establish an incorporated sports club, the first organized sport club in Sofia.^[1] The new incorporated club was named Slavia. Dimitar Blagoev – Palio, a 21-year-old student, was elected as the first president of the club. As members of the first club administrative council were elected Emanuil Geshev, Ferdinand Mihaylov, Tsvyatko Velichkov, Georgi Grigorov and Todor Kalkandzhiev.

 

A few days later, was elected the first football team of the club – Stefan Lalov, Ilia Georgiev, Emanuil Geshev, Todor Kalkandzhiev, Stefan Chumpalov, Dimitar Blagoev – Palio (all of them from Botev) and Pavel Grozdanov, Ferdinand Mihaylov, Boris Sharankov, Asen Bramchev, Dimitar Cvetkov (all of them from Razvitie). The first sport dresses of the club were white shirts and black shorts. Since 1924, the team has played with white shirts and white shorts and up to present days it is popular as the "White pride". On 11 August 1913, Slavia played its first match, against local club Savata, and won 1–0.

After World War I, Slavia began to become more successful. On 5 June 1928, the club won its first champion title, winning 4–0 in the final match against Vladislav Varna. Slavia won the title five more times until 1946, in 1930, 1936, 1938–39, 1941 and 1943.

Slavia won its first Bulgarian Cup in 1952. By winning the 1963 Bulgarian Cup Final, Slavia qualified for the European Cup Winners' Cup, the club's first appearance in European competition. They were drawn against Hungarian club MTK Budapest in the first round. Slavia were eliminated from the competition 2–1 on aggregate. Its most important achievements in Europe during 1966–67 Cup Winners' Cup campaign when Slavia eliminated Swansea City, Strasbourg and Servette, before being eliminated by Rangers in the semi-finals.^[2] The team consisted of great players such as goalkeeper Simeon Simeonov, Ivan Davidov, Aleksandar Shalamanov, Dimitar Largov, Dimitar Kostov and Aleksandar Vasilev.

In 1969, Slavia was merged with Lokomotiv Sofia under the name ZhSK Slavia. Two years later, the two clubs split again after a split was supported by 100,000 fans.

 

In the 1980–81 season, led by Chavdar Tsvetkov and Andrey Zhelyazkov,^[3] Slavia reached the quarter-finals of the Cup Winners' Cup before losing 6–3 on aggregate to Feyenoord. In 1986, Slavia won Balkans Cup, defeating Greek side Panionios 5–3 on aggregate in the final. In 1988, Slavia won the Balkans Cup for the second time.^[4]

In 1994, Stoyan Kotsev, the former Slavia midfielder, was appointed as the club's new manager. After finishing fourth in 1995, they went on to win the A PFG title in 1995–96. Slavia finished with five points more than second-placed Levski Sofia. This marked Slavia's first Bulgarian title since 1943. In the 2010–11 season, Slavia reached the Bulgarian Cup final, defeating Ludogorets Razgrad, Etar 1924, Chernomorets Burgas and Pirin Blagoevgrad en route. However, they lost the final 1–0 to CSKA Sofia.^[5]

In 2018, Slavia won the Bulgarian Cup for the eight time in its history, defeating rivals Levski Sofia at the Vasil Levski National Stadium after a penalty shootout. This enabled the team to play in the 2018-19 UEFA Europa League second qualifying round. In the second qualifying round, Slavia eliminated Finnish side FC Ilves. However, in the third qualifying round, they lost to Hajduk Split of Croatia, thus being eliminated.

The 2019–20 season was very successful for Slavia. The team finished in third place, qualifying for the Europa League playoff. Slavia clinched the third place in the last round of the season, defeating champions Ludogorets 3–1 at home, while Levski Sofia lost 1–2 to Lokomotiv Plovdiv, thus making Slavia third. This was Slavia’s best placement since the 1996–97 season.

As of 15 November 2024^[update]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK   BUL Georgi Petkov (captain) 3 DF   TUR Ertan Tombak 4 DF   BUL Viktor Genev 5 DF   BUL Veljko Jelenković 6 DF   BUL Martin Georgiev 7 FW   BUL Denislav Aleksandrov 10 FW   BUL Vladimir Nikolov 11 FW   MTQ Karl Fabien 12 GK   BUL Nikolay Krastev 14 FW   BUL Roberto Raychev 17 FW   BUL Vasil Kazaldzhiev 18 MF   BUL Kristiyan Balov

No. Pos. Nation Player 19 MF   BUL Chung Nguyen Do 21 GK   BUL Svetoslav Vutsov 22 DF   NED Quentin Seedorf 23 FW   BUL Tsvetelin Chunchukov 27 MF   BUL Emil Martinov 33 MF   BUL Galin Ivanov 37 DF   BUL Ventsislav Kerchev 55 FW   BUL Lyubomir Kostov 71 MF   BUL Kristiyan Stoyanov 73 MF   BUL Ivan Minchev 77 MF   BUL Emil Stoev — DF   FRA Jordan Semedo

For recent transfers, see Transfers winter 2023–24 and Transfers summer 2024.

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.

There is one remaining ultras group called Boys Sofia, a name referring to the fact the traditional support is from the south of the city; in the past there were multiple other groups. They have a long standing friendship with BSC Young Boys.^[6][7] The traditional rivalry has been with Levski Sofia, also known as Oldest capital derby, however in recent decades Lokomotiv Sofia has become the major rival.^[8] The derby between them is called Little capital derby. The other city rivalry is with CSKA Sofia.

 

In the first ten years after Slavia was founded, the club played in the stadium of his predecessor SC Razvitie. On 3 October 1923, Slavia became the owner of land to the Russian Monument in Sofia, where was the first ground of the club. They played their home games there for the next few decades, until they moved to southwest Sofia in the 1960s.

On 12 March 1958, started the construction of Slavia Stadium. Mayor of the sixth area in Sofia and president of the Slavia women's basketball team, Dimitar Tinev, presided at the laying in place of the first stone. The stadium is built in a residential area Ovcha Kupel, served by regular bus services 6 km from Sofia city centre. Slavia Stadium has undergone many changes over the years and it presently has a capacity of 25,556.

• First League:
  • Winners (7): 1928, 1930, 1936, 1939, 1941, 1943, 1995–96
• Bulgarian Cup:
  • Winners (8): 1952, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1965–66, 1974–75, 1979–80, 1995–96, 2017–18

• Balkans Cup
  • Winners (2): 1986, 1987–88
• Cup Winners Cup
  • Semi-finals: 1966–67
• UEFA Intertoto Cup
  • First place in group four: 1977

This is a list of the last Slavia managers:

Name	Nat	From	To	Honours
Dobromir Tashkov		1963	1969	–
Dobromir Tashkov		1973	1974	–
Hristo Mladenov		1978	1980	–
Oleh Bazylevych		1987	1988	–
Stoyan Kotsev		1994	1997	1 Bulgarian Cup 1 Bulgarian title
Miroslav Mironov		Oct 1999	May 2000	–
Žarko Olarević		May 2000	23 Nov 2000	–
Kiril Kachamanov		23 Nov 2000	25 Sept 2001	–
Žarko Olarević		25 Sept 2001	18 Dec 2002	–
Miodrag Ješić		18 Dec 2002	23 Aug 2003	–
Ratko Dostanić		24 Aug 2003	23 Sept 2004	–
Atanas Dzhambazki		23 Sept 2004	29 March 2005	–
Petar Houbchev		29 March 2005	10 Nov 2005	–
Alyosha Andonov		10 Nov 2005	2 July 2006	–
Ratko Dostanić		3 July 2006	26 Dec 2006	–
Alyosha Andonov		26 Dec 2006	6 June 2007	–
Stevica Kuzmanovski		6 June 2007	2 June 2009	–
Velislav Vutsov		2 June 2009	18 May 2010	–
Emil Velev		19 May 2010	28 May 2011	–
Martin Kushev		28 May 2011	29 Nov 2012	–
Velislav Vutsov		30 Nov 2012	5 June 2013	–
Asen Bukarev		5 June 2013	20 Oct 2013	–
Milen Radukanov		21 Oct 2013	31 Aug 2014	–
Ivan Kolev		1 Sep 2014	30 Nov 2015	–
Vladimir Ivanov (caretaker)		30 Nov 2015	18 Dec 2015	–
Aleksandr Tarkhanov		18 Dec 2015	2 Nov 2016	–
Vladimir Ivanov		3 Nov 2016	11 May 2017	–
Zlatomir Zagorčić		11 May 2017	1 September 2020	1 Bulgarian Cup
Martin Kushev		7 September 2020	17 September 2020	–
Aleksandr Tarkhanov		17 September 2020	12 April 2021	–
Zlatomir Zagorčić		12 April 2021	4 May 2023	–
Angel Slavkov (caretaker)		4 May 2023	23 June 2023	–
José Mari Bakero		23 June 2023	September 2023	–
Zlatomir Zagorčić		September 2023		–

• Official website