Litex (football club)

The club was founded in 1921 under the name "Hisarya". He held his first official game in 1923 . Over the years of its existence, the club has changed its name many times. In the 1950s and 60s, it was called Karpachev, in 1979-1994 it was called Osam, and regularly took places in the upper half of the second division table.

In 1994, the club first took first place in the second division and entered the top division, in the same season changed its name to LEX - in honor of its sponsor. In the first season at the highest level, LEX took 11th place and was remembered for victories over the leaders of Bulgarian football - Sofia CSKA , Slavia and Lokomotiv (all - with a score of 1: 0). The next season was not so successful, and the team, renamed Lovech, flew to the second division.

1996 was a turning point in the history of the club. The club bought oil tycoon Grisha Ganchev and gave it a new name - Litex. Most of the old players were sold, and instead, new, well-known players in Bulgaria were bought. In the very first season, Litex easily won the tournament of the second division (by 10 points ahead of the closest competitor), reached the quarter finals of the country's cup and the league cup finals, in which they lost only in the penalty shootout.

In the 1997/98 season, Litex, in the rank of a debutant of the top division, became the country's champion, ahead of Levski by 5 points and became the first debutant in the history of the Bulgarian championships, who took first place immediately after joining the elite. Litex striker Dimcho Belyakov (21 goals) was the best scorer of the season, midfielder Stoycho Stoilov was the best player.

The next season, Litex won the league title again. In the Champions League he managed to get through the Swedish Halmstad , but in the second qualifying round he was stopped by the Moscow Spartak (0: 5, 2: 6).

In the following years, Litex won the Bulgarian Cup three times - in 2001 (having won in the finals Velbazhd 1-0), 2004 (having won by penalty from CSKA) and 2008 .

Among the achievements of the club is a victory over Sofia CSKA 8: 0 in 1998 (this is the largest defeat of the army team in history). In 2001, Litex became the first Bulgarian club to defeat a German club on a foreign field (2-0 with Union from Berlin). The biggest victory of the club in European competition is 7: 0 over the Bosnian Zheleznichar in 2004 .

Lovech Stadium was built in 1962 and completely renovated in 1999. It seats 7,000 spectators, has electric lighting and is one of 4 stadiums in Bulgaria where international matches are allowed. The size of the field is 100x65 meters. Attendance record - 12,500 people was recorded in 1998 at the match against Levski.

• Champion of Bulgaria (4): 1997/98 , 1998/99 , 2009/10 , 2010/11
• Bulgarian Cup Winner (4): 2000/01 , 2003/04 , 2007/08 , 2008/09
• Finalist of the Cup of Bulgaria (3): 1998/99 , 2002/03 , 2006/07
• Finalist of the Bulgarian League Cup (1): 1997
• Super Bowl Winner Bulgaria (1): 2010
• Finalist of the Super Bowl of Bulgaria (4): 2004 , 2007 , 2008 , 2009 , 2011

Data as of July 1, 2015

• Home games in bold

•   Atanas Bornosuzov
•   Dzhemal Berberovich
•    Neboisha Yelenkovich
•   Martin Kushev
•   George Milanov
•   Stanislav Manolev
•   Ivaylo Petkov
•   Yvelin Popov

• Official site