FC Montana

FC Montana

Full name	Football Club Montana
Founded	1921 (1921) as SC Hristo Mihaylov
Ground	Ogosta Stadium, Montana, Bulgaria
Ground Capacity	8,000
Owner	Montana Municipality
Chairman	Rumen Panayotov
Head coach	Yavor Valchinov
League	Second League
2016–17	First League, 13th (relegated)
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

Montana (Bulgarian: Монтана) is a Bulgarian association footbal club based in Montana, that plays in the Second League, the second tier of Bulgarian football.

The football club plays its home matches at the Ogosta Stadium, which has a capacity of 8,000 spectators. Montana's colours are blue, white and red. In recent years, the club was propelled back into professional football with the help of some experienced and talented footballers, including the ex-captain of English Aston Villa and Bulgarian international Stiliyan Petrov.

PFC Montana was founded in 1921 when the few amateur sports clubs and organizations in the city decided to merge into one club. The new club was named SC Hristo Mihaylov after the Bulgarian communist party activist Hristo Popmihaylov, who was born in the town. Montana has played a total of 9 seasons in the A Group and 40 seasons in the B Group.

Honours

A Group:

• 9th place (2) : 1995-96, 2015-16

B Group:

• Winners (2): 2008-09, 2014-15

Bulgarian Cup:

• Runners-up (1): 2015-16
• Semi-finals (1): 1994-95

Bulgarian League Cup:

• Runners-up (1): 1996

History

Stiliyan Petrov was raised in Montana's youth academy

PFC Montana was founded on 1921 under the name SC Hristo Mihaylov, after a union of a few sports clubs from the city. From 1957 to 1990 the sports club wears the name of FC Septemvriyska Slava. Since 1990, the club uses the name PFC Montana.

Until 2009, Montana has played three seasons in the top flight, between 1994 and 1997. Montana joined the division in 1994, and the same year the club finished thirteenth out of sixteen clubs in its first season. The same season, Montana reached the semi-final of the Bulgarian Cup. Montana's best season in the A PFG was in the 1995-96 season - 9th place. In this campaign, the team led by Anatoli Tonov, Todor Pramatarov, Rumen Panayotov and Angel Chervenkov, the club reached the final of the currently folded Bulgarian League Cup tournament, but was knocked out by Neftochimic Burgas. In the 1996-97 season, Montana finished in the 15th place and was relegated to the second division. A part of the squad was then the talented seventeen-year-old Stiliyan Petrov, which was sold the same year to CSKA Sofia. Otherwise according to the fans, Boyan Gergov is Montana's most prominent figure, being the club's top goalscorer with a total of 157 goals in 364 matches. The following 1997-1998 season, after a financial collapse, Montana was relegated to the Bulgarian V AFG. However, after a 7-year stay in the V AFG, the club finished in the 2nd position in the North-West V AFG, and Montana returned in the West B PFG for the upcoming 2004-05 season.

In 2008, the chairman of PFC Montana appointed Ivan Marinov as a manager of the club. The following year, with the financial support of the mayor of the city Zlatko Zhivkov, the club finished the season in the West B PFG in the first place and therefore Montana gained promotion to the top flight for the upcoming season. The same year, Montana's striker Ventsislav Ivanov became the top goalscorer of the division with the impressive 19 goals.

Recent seasons

League positions

Stadium

PFC Montana's home ground is the Ogosta Stadium in Montana. The stadium was built in 1965, but the ground underwent a total reconstruction after 41 years, in 2006. It has approximately 8,000 seats, spread in two opposite stands, with pitch dimensions of 105×68 metres. The record attendance at the stadium is 11,500 spectators and it was achieved at a game between CSKA Sofia and Montana. The stadium's name is derived from the river Ogosta, which passes nearby the town. Currently there aren't any new plans for renovating the stadium.

Current squad

As of 22 July 2017 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 Evgeni Aleksandrov 2 DF Mario Blagoev 3 DF Ivan Mihov (captain) 4 MF Daniel Vasev 5 DF Stefan Tsonkov 7 MF Daniel Genov 8 MF Svilen Shterev 9 FW Atanas Iliev 10 FW Petar Atanasov 11 MF Aleksandar Manolov 13 MF Yordan Yordanov 14 DF Nikolay Parnarov

No. Position Player 15 FW Aleksandar Slaveykov 17 DF Todor Kolev 19 DF Yuliyan Chapaev 20 FW Miroslav Antonov 21 MF Vladimir Aytov 22 MF Sergey Georgiev 23 MF Hristiyan Iliev 26 MF Borislav Damyanov 33 GK Nemanja Šćekić 77 FW Nebojša Ivančević FW Aleksandar Veselinov

For recent transfers, see Transfers winter 2016–17 and Transfers summer 2017.

Foreign players

Up to one non-EU national can be registered and given a squad number for the first team in the Second League. Those non-EU national 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.

Former managers

• Atanas Dzhambazki (2007)
• Rumen Stoyanov (July 2007–Sept 07)
• Stevica Kuzmanovski (July 2009–Dec 09)
• Atanas Dzhambazki (Jan 2010–June 11)
• Ivan Marinov
• Stefan Grozdanov (July 2011–Dec 11)
• Atanas Atanasov (Dec 2011–??)
• Atanas Dzhambazki (July 2012–??)
• Stoycho Stoev (Feb 2013–Apr 2013)
• Georgi Stankov^[1]
• Atanas Dzhambazki (June 2013–Dec 2013)^[2]
• Nikolay Mitov (Dec 2013–May 2014)^[3]
• Ferario Spasov (May 2014–Nov 2015)^[4]
• Emil Velev (Nov 2015–May 2016)^[5]
• Stevica Kuzmanovski (June 2016–Oct 2016)^[6]
• Atanas Dzhambazki (Oct 2016–Apr 2017)^[7]
• Atanas Atanasov (Apr 2017–Jun 2017)^[8][9]
• Yavor Valchinov (Jun 2017–present)^[10]

References

External links

• Official website