FC Lyubimets 2007

Lyubimets

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Full name	Football Club Lyubimets
Founded	1921 (1921) /restored 2007/
Ground	Gradski Stadium, Lyubimets
Ground Capacity	4,000
Chairman	Atanas Stalev
Manager	Voyn Voynov
League	B Group
2013–14	A Group, 14th /relegated/
Website	(Bulgarian) Club home page
Home colours Away colours

FC Lyubimets (Bulgarian: ФК Любимец 2007) is a Bulgarian professional football club based in Lyubimets. The club competed in the A PFG for the first time in the 2013–14 season.

The club's home ground is the local Municipal Stadium in Lyubimets, which has an overall capacity of 4,000 seats.

History

The first club was founded as Football Club Maritsa in 1921. In 1947 the club changed its name to Football Club Strela. In the 1960s the club finally was named Football Club Lyubimets. They participated just in third and fourth divisions of Bulgarian football and was dissolved by the end of 1993–94 season.

In 2007, thirteen years later, the club was restored as Football Club Lyubimets 2007. In his first season, the club were promoted for first time to second division. In the first season in professional football, the club finished in 7th place.

On 9 January 2013, club's former player Veselin Velikov was announced as the new manager. Four months later he led Lyubimets to promotion to the A PFG for first time in the club's history, finishing in 2nd place in the B PFG.

The first season in the professional top-flight began with a 1-0 win over defending champions Ludogorets Razgrad. Lyubimets went on to win 9 points from their first four games, including wins against Lokomotiv Sofia and Europa League participants Botev Plovdiv (2-1 away in Plovdiv).

Honours

Bulgarian A Group

• 14th place 2013–14

Bulgarian B Group

• Runners-up: 2012–13

Current squad

As of 17 June 2014 Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Zdravko Chavdarov 3 DF Emil Grozev (on loan from Litex Lovech) 4 DF Petar Alyoshev 7 MF Georgi Valchev 9 FW Stefan Hristov 10 MF Mladen Stoev 11 MF Viktor Mitev

No. Position Player 12 GK Radoslav Rashkov 13 MF Nikola Yanachkov 14 DF Georgi Radev 15 DF Emil Argirov 20 MF Ilian Kapitanov 22 FW Georgi Stefanov 77 FW Nikolay Kolev

For recent transfers, see List of Bulgarian football transfers summer 2014.

Foreign players

Up to three non-EU national can be registered and given a squad number for the first team in the A PFG. 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 Albin Hodža

EU Nationals (Dual citizenship) Nemanja Ivanov

Non-EU Nationals Michael Tawiah

Managerial history

After restored

Name Nationality Years Dimcho Markov June 2006–Oct 2008 Ivaylo Petev Oct 2008–Aug 2009 Stamen Belchev Aug 2009–Sept 2012 Krasimir Mechev Sept 2012–Jan 2013 Veselin Velikov Jan 1, 2013–Aug 10, 2013 Krasimir Mechev Aug 10, 2013–Jan 7, 2014 Voyn Voynov Jan 9, 2014–

Notable stats

After restored in 2007

Most appearances for the club # Name Apps Years 1 Emil Petkov 98 2008–2012 2 Ivan Minchev 78 2009–present 3 Ventsislav Yordanov 72 2008–2010/2012–present 4 Kircho Krumov 59 2008–2009/2010–2011 5 Anton Ognyanov 53 2011–present

Most goals for the club # Name Gls Years 1 Nikolay Pavlov 20 2011–2012 2 Anton Ognyanov 16 2011–present 3 Emil Petkov 12 2008–2012 4 Tzvetomir Matev 10 2010–2011 5 Atanas Lyubenov 8 2009–2011

Notes:

• Bold signals active players
• Correct as of 2013-06-10

References

External links

• Official Club Website (Bulgarian)
• Lyubimetz 2007 at bgclubs.eu (Bulgarian)