FC Montana

Montana
Full name Football Club Montana
Founded 1921 (1921)
as SC Hristo Mihaylov
Ground Ogosta Stadium,
Montana, Bulgaria
Ground Capacity 6,000
Owner Montana Municipality
Chairman Rumen Panayotov
Head coach Atanas Dzhambazki
League Bulgarian First League
2015–16 A Group, 9th
Website Club home page

FC Montana (Bulgarian: ФК Монтана) is a Bulgarian football club based in Montana, that plays in the First League, the top 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:

B Group:

Bulgarian Cup:

Bulgarian League Cup:

  • 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

Season Lvl Place W D L GF GA Pts Bulgarian Cup
2010–11A Group (I) 10 8 8 14 30 46 32 Second round
2011–12A Group 11 8 7 15 29 51 31 Second round
2012–13A Group 15 4 4 22 27 57 16 Second round
2013–14B Group (II) 4 12 8 6 36 24 44 Secound round
2014–15 B Group 1 25 3 2 72 16 78 Secound round
2015–16A Group (I) 9 4 9 19 23 42 21 Runners-up
2016–17First league         TBD
Green marks a season followed by promotion, red a season followed by relegation.

League positions

Bulgarian A Football Group Bulgarian B Football Group Bulgarian A Football Group Bulgarian B Football Group

Stadium

Main article: Ogosta 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 24 November 2016 Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
1 Bulgaria GK Hristo Ivanov (captain)
2 Bulgaria DF Mario Blagoev
3 Bulgaria DF Ivan Mihov
5 Russia DF Anton Polyutkin
6 Bulgaria DF Tihomir Trifonov
7 Bulgaria MF Daniel Genov
8 Bulgaria MF Georgi Korudzhiev
9 Bulgaria FW Atanas Iliev
10 Bulgaria FW Petar Atanasov
11 Bulgaria MF Andreas Vasev
12 Bulgaria GK Pavel Zdravkov
14 Greece DF Christos Kontochristos
No. Position Player
16 Bulgaria MF Steven Petkov
17 Bulgaria MF Aleksandar Veselinov
19 Bulgaria DF Yuliyan Chapaev
22 Bulgaria MF Sergey Georgiev
23 Brazil DF Choco
24 Brazil MF Fernando Silva
25 Bulgaria MF Kostadin Dyakov
26 Bulgaria DF Borislav Damyanov
28 Bulgaria MF Marquinhos
29 France DF Bamba Diarrassouba
33 Bulgaria GK Ivaylo Vasilev

For recent transfers, see Transfers summer 2016.

Foreign players

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

EU Nationals

EU Nationals (Dual citizenship)

Non-EU Nationals

Former players

The following players, which are included were either playing for their respective national teams or left good impression among the fans.

Former managers

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/24/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.