PFC Litex Lovech

The club was founded in 1921 as Hisarya and began playing league football two years later, in 1923. Over the years, the club has changed its name several times. From 1957 it was named Karpachev, before becoming Osam in 1979. Under that name the club played constantly in the B Group, the second division of Bulgarian football and was near to promotion several times. A notable player during this period was Plamen Linkov, who broke the club's appearance record, playing 575 matches and scoring 167 goals respectively.

In 1990, after Bulgaria's transition to market economy, privately owned company LEX became the main sponsor of the club. During the same year, the new owners changed the name of the football club to LEX. The 1993–94 B Group proved to be impressive for the club, as the team finished first in the second division and qualified for the A Group, a notable milestone never done before in the club's history. LEX's debut season in the A Group was also noteworthy, as the team ranked 11th at the end of the season. The next season however proved to be unsuccessful and the club, renamed Lovech, was relegated to the B Group.

Litex's former top goalscorer Dimcho Belyakov.

In June 1996, the club was purchased by Grisha Ganchev, petrol businessman and a citizen of Lovech, and it was renamed to Litex. The takeover was immediately followed by a flurry of bids for high-profile players. Ferario Spasov was named as the new Litex coach. He led the club back to the A Group at their first attempt. During the 1996–97 season Litex also reached the quarter-finals of the Bulgarian Cup and the final of the Bulgarian League Cup, which was lost after a penalty shoot-out.

Litex players with the Bulgarian Cup in 2009.

In 1997, Litex was promoted for the second time to the top division and immediately became Bulgarian champions, finishing the season 5 points ahead of the second-placed Levski Sofia, unprecedented before in the Bulgarian football history. The striker of the team Dimcho Belyakov also became top goalscorer with his 21 goals contributed during the season. In addition, midfielder Stoycho Stoilov received the Best Player of the League award. The club's first participation in the European club tournaments was also promising, with Litex eliminating Swedish club Halmstads BK after 4–3 on both ties and reaching the second qualifying round, where it was knocked out by the Russian powerhouse Spartak Moscow.

A year later Litex successfully defended their league title, losing only two league games during the course of the season. They became the first provincial club to win back-to-back league titles since the 1920s. During their campaign, Litex also inflicted the biggest defeat in CSKA Sofia's history, an 8-0 thrashing at the Lovech Stadium.

During the first decade of the 21st century, Litex won the Bulgarian Cup four times—in 2001 after defeating Velbazhd Kyustendil 1–0 in extra time, in 2004 against CSKA after a penalty shoot-out, in 2008 after a 1–0 win over Cherno More Varna,[1] and in 2009, after a 3–0 thrashing over Pirin Blagoevgrad.[2] In early August 2007, Litex signed a three-year sponsorship and advertising contract with Bulgarian mobile operator GLOBUL and started the 2007–08 season with the logo of the mobile service i-mode on the team's kits. In December 2007, Litex became the first Bulgarian club to have a branded mobile phone game, Litex Football. Before the start of the 2008–09 season, Litex lost the Bulgarian Supercup final with 0-1 from CSKA Sofia after a goal from Kiril Kotev in the 65th minute. A season later, Litex again failed to win the Bulgarian Supercup final, this time against domestic title holders Levski Sofia.

Litex with the A PFG title in 2010

In 2009–10, Litex became champions of Bulgaria for the third time in their history, finishing the season with 12 points advantage than the runners-up CSKA Sofia.[3] On 12 August 2010, Litex defeated Beroe 2–1 to finally secure the Bulgarian Supercup, the last possible remaining domestic trophy never won before by the club. In 2010–11 Litex retained their fourth league title, securing the championship after a 3–1 away win against Lokomotiv Sofia on 21 May 2011.[4]

In the summer of 2015, Grisha Ganchev stepped down from his position as an owner, only to reallocate his main investments to Bulgarian football club CSKA Sofia, which was struggling financially with unpaid debts during the time. As a result, his son Danail took over at Litex, with previous shareholder Bulgarian joint stock company Sport 96 remaining in the club as a subsidiary of Litex Commerce JSC.

On 16 December 2015, the Bulgarian Football Union expelled Litex Lovech from the A Group.[5] The decision was taken in response to an incident that occurred during Litex Lovech's 12 December tie with Levski Sofia, when chairman Stoycho Stoilov controversially pulled the squad off the field in protest of 2 players being sent off at a score of 1–0 for the Lovech club.[6] On 20 January 2016 the team was administratively relegated to the B Group for the upcoming 2016–17 season. Litex's players however were allowed to complete their participation in the Bulgarian Cup and could finish the 2015–16 season with the club's reserve squad, Litex Lovech II, playing in the B Group.

On 27 May 2016, the legal firm that represented PFC Chavdar Etropole - "PFC Chavdar EAD" was renamed to "PFC CSKA-1948 AD".[7] On 6 June 2016 the legal firm that represented PFC Litex Lovech—"PFC Litex-Lovech AD"—was renamed to "PFC CSKA-Sofia EAD",[8] with "PFC CSKA-1948 AD" being written in as its owner. That legal firm later applied to take part and was accepted into the reformed First League,[9] as PFC CSKA Sofia. The shift was made because the old legal firm that represented PFC CSKA Sofia - "PFC CSKA AD" did not gain a professional license, and later went bankrupted and ceased operations as of 9 September 2016. PFC Litex Lovech later started playing in the Third League, taking the place of FC Botev Lukovit.[10]

On 4 July 2016, former Litex player Zhivko Zhelev was appointed as a manager of a team, consisting mainly of academy players.[11] The renewed Litex team started the new season and managed to win its first official match. The squad also played in the 2016–17 Bulgarian Cup, eliminating First League outfits of Slavia Sofia and Cherno More on their way to the semifinals,[12] where Litex lost to reigning 5-time champions Ludogorets Razgrad on an aggregate score of 0–11. Litex also was promoted to the Second League, after winning the North-West Group of the Third League.

First League:

• Winners (4): 1997–98, 1998–99, 2009–10, 2010–11
• Runners-up (1): 2001–02
• Third place (3): 2002–03, 2005–06, 2013–14

Second League:

• Winners (2): 1993–94, 1996–97

Third League:

• Winners (1): 2016–17

Bulgarian Cup:

• Winners (4): 2000–01, 2003–04, 2007–08, 2008–09
• Runners-up (3): 1998–99, 2002–03, 2006–07

Bulgarian Supercup:

• Winners (1): 2010
• Runners-up (5): 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011

Cup of Bulgarian Amateur Football League:

• Semi-finals (1): 2017

Bulgarian League Cup:

• Runners-up (1): 1997

UEFA Cup / UEFA Europa League:

• Round of 32 (2): 2001–02, 2005–06

As of 1 February 2020

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 Stanislav Nistorov 3 DF Aleksandar Angelov 4 MF Dzheyhan Zaydenov 6 DF Valentin Ivanov 7 FW Radoslav Zhivkov 8 FW Petar Hristov (on loan from Arda) 9 FW Aleksandar Asparuhov 10 MF Georgi Ivanov 11 DF Galin Minkov 12 MF Dobromir Bonev 14 MF Nikolay Yankov 15 MF Hristiyan Petrov

No. Position Player 16 DF Ivan Ivanov 17 MF Petar D. Petrov 18 MF Adrian Girginov 21 MF Iliyan Kapitanov 22 DF Plamen Nikolov (captain) 23 MF Ivan Mitrev 24 GK Martin Sheytanov 34 MF Oleg Dimitrov 77 DF Martin Sandov 99 GK Petar L. Petrov

For recent transfers, see Transfers summer 2019 and Transfers winter 2019–20.

• Updated 13 December 2014[14]

Rank	Name	Goals scores	Games played	Assists	Goals per game	Years played
1	Svetoslav Todorov	56	127	22	0.44	1997–01, 2009–12
2	Stefan Yurukov	55	113	11	0.49	1996–97, 1998–02, 2003–04
3	Hristo Yovov	45	97	20	0.46	2000–04
4	Wilfried Niflore	39	72	11	0.54	2008–11
5	Dimcho Beliakov	35	67	11	0.52	1994–97, 1998–99, 2004
6	Zhivko Zhelev	31	196	7	0.16	1996–07
7	Wilmar Jordán	29	54	7	0.54	2013–15
8	Zoran Janković	29	64	17	0.45	2000–02, 2004, 2007–08
9	Georgi Milanov	28	106	20	0.26	2009–13
10	Krum Bibishkov	27	60	6	0.45	2007–09