OFC Vihren Sandanski

Vihren

Full name	OFC Vihren Sandanski
Nickname(s)	The gladiators
Founded	May 24, 1925 (1925-05-24)
Ground	Sandanski Stadium, Sandanski
Ground Capacity	6,000
Manager	Petar Zlatinov[1]
League	South-West Third League
2016–17	South-West Third League, 15th
Home colours Away colours

OFC Vihren (Bulgarian: Вихрен Сандански) is a Bulgarian football club from the town of Sandanski, currently playing in the South-West Third League. Sandanski's home ground is the Sandanski Stadium in Sandanski with a capacity of 6,000. Vihren Sandanski's team colours are green and white.

Equipment

Currently the team's home kit is green and the away kit is white. Various combinations of green and white have been used through the years, but green remains the basic colour of the team.

History

The club was founded on 24 May 1925. It has carried the names Ustrem, Gotse Delchev, Yane Sandanski and Cherveno zname throughout its history. Until the 2004/05 season, the team participated in either the second or the third Bulgarian division, but gained a promotion to the Bulgarian A PFG for the 2005/06 season. In the first year of A PFG, FC Vihren's owner decided to bring players from other country. His first signing was the ex-FC Porto player Jose Furtado. He was from the Portugal G.D. Tourizense for free. Brazilian player Serginio Dias, and Portuguese players Mauro Alexandre and Nuno Almeida were just a few players who signed for FC Vihren after Furtado. The team coach was named Petar Zhekov. Vihren finished season 2005/06 on 10th place in A PFG with 30 points. In season 2007-08, FC Vihren's owner Konstantin Dinev decided to bring Portuguese coach Rui Dias. With the club from Sandanski signed also eight Portuguese and two Brazilian players. But three months later, Rui Dias was discharged for poor results. Again the team finished on 10th place. Season 2008/09 started excellent with a 1-0 win against Bulgarian Vice-champion Levski Sofia. In the 4th round, the club defeated Lokomotiv Sofia. In January 2008,with Vihren signed notable Greek players Christos Maladenis and Dimitrios Zografakis. In the end of the season the team finished in 14th place and were relegated to B PFG.

Recent Seasons

Season		Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P	Cup	Notes
2004-05	B PFG	1	30	21	5	4	56	15	68	1/16	Promoted
2005-06	A PFG	9	28	10	2	16	35	55	32	1/4
2006-07	A PFG	9	30	11	4	15	27	39	37	1/8
2007-08	A PFG	10	30	9	6	15	26	29	33	1/8

Honours

Bulgarian A PFG:

• 9th place: 2005–06 and 2006–07

Bulgarian Cup:

• quarter finalist Cup of the Soviet Army: 1985/86

Current squad

As of 11 August 2017 Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player GK Bozhidar Vasilev GK Ivan Dimitrov GK Georgi Stavrev GK Stefano Kunchev DF Blagoy Atanasov DF Mario Vasilev DF Stoyan Manolski DF Valeri Georgiev DF Radi Mihov DF Iliyan Mitrev DF Milen Stoev MF Svetoslav Savatov

No. Position Player MF Blagovest Yakimov MF Petar Dangov MF Iliya Katalski MF Ivaylo Samardzhiev MF Vasil Zahariev MF Georgi Vladimirov MF Antonio Laskov MF Nikola Mitsanski MF Aleksandar Yakimov MF Yanislav Tusondzhiev FW Aleksandar Ruskov FW Daniel Pehlivanov

Managerial history

This is a list of the last ten Vihren managers:

Name	Nat	From	To
Kostadin Todorov		January 2000	January 2001
Vasil Metodiev		January 2001	June 2002
Yordan Bozdanski		December 2002	May 2004
Petar Zhekov		June 2004	May 2005
Petar Zhekov		June 2005	May 2006
Dionysis Beslikas		June 2006	August 2006
Petar Zhekov		August 2006	May 2007
Rui Dias		June 2007	October 2007
Eduard Eranosyan		October 2007	November 2007
Filip Filipov		December 2007	incumbent

As of December 31, 2009.

Notable players

Former foreign players

References

External links

• Official website (in Bulgarian)
• OFC Vihren Sandanski at bgclubs.eu