FC Lokomotiv 1929 Sofia
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| Full name | Football Club Lokomotiv 1929 Sofia | |||
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| Nickname(s) | Железничарите (The Railwaymen)[1] | |||
| Founded | 2 September 1929 (as Railway Sports Club) | |||
| Ground | Stadion Lokomotiv, Sofia | |||
| Capacity | 17,500 | |||
| Owner | Ivan Vasilev | |||
| Chairman | Boycho Velichkov | |||
| Manager | Ivan Kolev | |||
| League | Second League | |||
| 2019–20 | Second League, 4th | |||
| Website | http://www.fclokomotiv1929.com/ | |||
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Lokomotiv 1929 (Template:Lang-bg) is a professional association football club based in Sofia, Bulgaria. Formed as Railway Sports Club in 1929, and refounded in 2015, following bankruptcy, the club has played at Stadion Lokomotiv since 1985 and competes in the Second League, the second division of Bulgarian football.
They have won four League titles and four Bulgarian Cups.
Honours
Domestic
Winners (4): 1939–40, 1945, 1963–64, 1977–78
Runners-up (6): 1941, 1946, 1947, 1957, 1964–65, 1994–95
Third place (10): 1948–49, 1952, 1954, 1959–60, 1967–68, 1978–79, 1995–96, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2014–15
European
- Winners: 1973
- Quarter-finals: 1980
- Winners (2): 1961, 1963
History
1929–1994
Lokomotiv was founded on 2 September 1929 as Railway Sports Club (RSC) by a group of railway workers. RSC's first competitive game was a 2–1 victory against Zora Sofia on 3 October 1929. In the 1939–40 season, RSC won the Bulgarian title for first time in the team's history. The team was made by: Stoyo Nedyalkov (captain), Sl. Videnov, K. Kostov, D. Marinov, St. Angelov, As. Milushev, Krum Milev, L. Hranov. In 1945, the club had already been renamed Lokomotiv Sofia and won the title in the first post-war championship.
During season 1963–64 after 30 games, Lokomotiv won their third title after they defeated main rivals to the title Levski Sofia and Slavia Sofia. This achievement enabled Lokomotiv to participate in the 1964-65 European Cup preliminary round for the first time ever. Lokomotiv were drawn against Swedish champions Malmö. In the first leg, played at the Vasil Levski National Stadium in Sofia, Lokomotiv trashed their rivals with a score of 8-3, with Nikola Kotkov scoring five goals in that match. The Railroaders lost the second game in Sweden by 0-2, but still progressed to the first ground on aggregate. In the first round, Lokomotiv were drawn against Hungarian champions Gyóri ETO FC. In the first leg, played in Hungary, Lokomoti Sofia lost by 5-3. The return leg in Sofia was crucial for Loko's progression. Lokomotiv won the game 4-3, meaning they were eliminated on aggregate 8-7 by their Hungarian rivals, thus ending Lokomotiv's first European Cup adventure.
In 1969 the club was united with Slavia Sofia for a brief period to 1971 and is associated with the Bulgarian railway workers. In 1978, led by Atanas Mihaylov and Boycho Velichkov Lokomotiv won their fourth title. In Europe the club won European championship of the railwaymen two times in 1961 and 1963, and Balkans Cup in 1973. In 1980 Lokomotiv reached a quarter final in the UEFA Cup where they faced VfB Stuttgart, eliminating before that Ferencváros, AS Monaco and Dynamo Kyiv. Against Stuttgart the team lost with 0–1 in Sofia and with 1–3 in Germany.
1994–2015, Nikolay Gigov era
The new era for Lokomotiv Sofia came in 1994 with the new president Nikolay Gigov. The football club's status was turned professional. For merely one year (1994–95), from a team struggling not to lose its place in the professional league, Lokomotiv won the silver medals in the Championship and the State Cup. The club's home ground is Lokomotiv Stadium with 25,000 places, a junior training centre: Lokomotiv has an enthusiastic and well-organized fan-club. The team came fourth in the 2005–06 season in A PFG and qualified for the UEFA Cup 2006-07 first qualifying round, where they face FK Makedonija Gjorče Petrov from the Republic of Macedonia. Lokomotiv beat the Macedonian side 2–0 in the first match in Sofia on 13 July 2006 and finished 1–1 as a guest in Macedonia and continued to the next round of the tournament. Next, they faced the team of Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv, which they beat twice: 2–0 on 10 August 2006 and 4–0 on 24 August 2006. Their next opponent in the first round of the tournament was the team of Feyenoord Rotterdam. The first game in Sofia ended with a 2–2 draw, after Lokomotiv went ahead 2–0 early in the first half. The second game finished 0–0 and Lokomotiv Sofia were out of the UEFA tournament.
Domestically, Lokomotiv had an amazing run of 10 consecutive wins, before being stopped by CSKA Sofia in the direct clash for the second position. Eventually, Lokomotiv finished third with equal points with second-placed CSKA Sofia.
The 2007–08 season started promisingly for the team. In the UEFA Cup second qualifying round Lokomotiv eliminated Romanian side Oţelul Galaţi after a 3–1 win at home and a scoreless away draw. This marked 8 European games without a loss, which was a new national record for longest streak without a loss achieved by a Bulgarian team in all European competitions. The previous record of 7 games was held by Levski Sofia. In the next round, Lokomotiv faced the French Rennes and the loss 1–3 in the first leg in Sofia marked an end to the team's winning streak in Europe. The Bulgarian side showed a surprising rally in the second game in France, which they won 2–1 and were only a single goal short of making it to the extra time. For a second consecutive year, Lokomotiv were stopped short of entering the group stage of the UEFA Cup, despite being the first Bulgarian club in football history to snatch a victory on French soil. The team finished third during the 2014–15 season in the A PFG, but was denied a license for the European tournaments and A Group due to unpaid debts. Lokomotiv were relegated to Bulgaria's third division, the V Group.[2]
FC Lokomotiv 1929
After being relegated to the third tier of Bulgarian football, Lokomotiv experienced serious financial problems and the club was disqualified from the Third League, after which it was liquidated. Shortly after, some of the legends of the team including Ivan Vasilev, Boycho Velichkov and Anton Velkov formed a new club in A OFG Sofia (city) - north (4th division). The new club, now called Lokomotiv 1929 Sofia, is considered the rightful successor of the previous team, and thus carries over the history and honors won from the original team. The youth academy was also moved to the new club. Some other former players went back to the club, as well as young players from the academy who were selected to the new first squad.[3]
On 29 July 2016, the team was officially approved for the new Bulgarian Second League, skipping one level of Bulgarian football together with Tsarsko Selo Sofia.[4] However, initially the team couldn’t get promoted to the First League until 2018-19 season due to the rule that a team can play in the highest level only after 3 seasons of existence. This was changed later, allowing Lokomotiv to promote as early as 2018, since the new team was considered to be the successor of the original Lokomotiv.
The 2017-18 season was very dramatical for Lokomotiv Sofia. They finished second in the Second League, which meant that they qualified for the promotion playoffs to enter First League. However, they were denied entry to the top tier by Vitosha Bistritsa, who beat them on penalties to stay in the league.[5] Next season wasn’t as successful, with Lokomotiv only managing a mid-table result. For the 2019-20 season, Lokomotiv finished fourth, only three points behind Montana, who qualified for the promotion playoffs. The 2020-21 season began well for Lokomotiv, as they managed to remain in first place in the league for the majority of the season before the winter break.
League positions
Statistics and records
Lokomotiv's first competitive game was a 2–1 victory against Zora Sofia on 3 November 1929. Atanas Mihaylov holds Lokomotiv's overall appearance record—he played 348 matches over the course of 17 seasons from 1964 to 1981. Lokomotiv's all-time leading scorer again is Atanas Mihaylov, who scored 145 goals. The most goals scored by a player in a single match is six; Tsvetan Genkov have achieved this feat in 2007.[6]
Lokomotiv's biggest victory is 11–1 against Chavdar Byala Slatina in 1991 for Bulgarian Cup. Lokomotiv's 9–0 defeat of Chernomorets Burgas Sofia on 27 May 2007 was its largest league win.[7] Lokomotiv's heaviest defeat, 0–8, came against Levski Sofia in 1994. Lokomotiv's 6–0 win against Neftchi Baku in the UEFA Cup was the largest victory in the Europe competition's history at the time.
European record
| Competition | S | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
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| UEFA Champions League / European Cup | 2 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 19 | 21 | – 2 |
| UEFA Cup Winners' Cup / European Cup Winners' Cup | 3 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 17 | – 9 |
| UEFA Europa League / UEFA Cup | 8 | 34 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 49 | 37 | + 12 |
| Total | 13 | 50 | 18 | 12 | 20 | 76 | 75 | + 1 |
Supporters
Lokomotiv has a group of loyal fans known as Iron Brigades (Bulgarian: Железни бригади) who supported the team in the lowest levels of the Bulgarian football. Lokomotiv's biggest rivalry is with Slavia Sofia.[8] Lokomotiv's fans maintain a friendship with Spartak Varna and Austrian club FavAC.
Players
Current squad
As of 1 August 2020[update]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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- For recent transfers, see Transfers summer 2020.
Foreign players
Only one non-EU national can be registered and given a squad number for the first team in the Bulgarian Second League. 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.
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EU Nationals |
EU Nationals (Dual citizenship)
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Non-EU Nationals
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Crest, shirt and mascot
Team main kit is red and black. Away kits are black and white.
| Period | Kit manufacturer | Shirt partner |
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| 2015–2017 |  Joma
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Casa Boyana |
| 2017– | Efbet |
Managers
| Dates | Name | Honours |
|---|---|---|
| 2015–2016 |  Anton Velkov
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| 2016 | Angel Kolev /interim/
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| 2017 | Yavor Valchinov
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| 2017–2018 |  Mladen Dodić
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| 2018 | Angel Kolev
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| 2019 | Mladen Dodić
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| 2019–2020 | Radoslav Zdravkov
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| 2020– | Ivan Kolev
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Past seasons
| Season | League | Place | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts | Bulgarian Cup | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015–16 | A RFG (IV) | 1st [9] | 20 | 0 | 0 | 142 | 8 | 60 | DNQ | ||
| 2016–17 | Second League (II) | 6th [10] | 13 | 8 | 9 | 47 | 34 | 47 | Second Round | ||
| 2017–18 | Second League | 2nd | 19 | 6 | 5 | 51 | 27 | 63 | Second Round | ||
| 2018–19 | Second League | 8th | 9 | 9 | 12 | 25 | 28 | 36 | Second Round | ||
| 2019–20 | Second League | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | Qual. Round | ||
| Green marks a season followed by promotion, red a season followed by relegation. | |||||||||||
References
- ^ "The most popular Bulgarian football clubs – Lokomotiv Sofia". bnr.bg.
- ^ http://www.novinite.com/articles/169558/Draw+Confirms+Exclusion+of+CSKA,+Lokomotiv+Sofia+from+Bulgaria's+A+Group
- ^ Рестартът на Локомотив (София) започва с ремонт на 2 терена, единият става изкуствен
- ^ "Царско село" и "Левски" (Карлово) допълниха състава на Втора лига
- ^ "sport.com/news2044271_1.html Локомотив (Сф) без право на промоция в Първа професионална лига". Archived from the original on 2017-01-05. Retrieved 2019-08-15.
- ^ "Genkov scored six against Chernomorets Burgas Sofia". pfl.bg.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Lokomotiv's biggest league win". pfl.bg.[permanent dead link]
- ^ https://www.blitz.bg/sport/bg-futbol/slaviya-i-lokomotiv-v-opashkarsko-stolichno-derbi_190550.html
- ^ League table 2015/2016 in Bulgarian
- ^ League table 2016/2017 in Bulgarian