Dunav (football club)

February 16, 1949 in the city of Ruse, on the basis of the merger of the two teams “Rosenets” and “Lokomotiv”, the football club “Dunav” was created. But the team did not last long. In October of that year, FC Dunav was disbanded, and the Torpedo club was established instead. The official date for the creation of the JVT “Torpedo” is considered to be October 17, 1949 . At the beginning of 1951, the club was divided into two new clubs: Torpedo and Lokomotiv . At the end of 1953, Torpedo merged with the Builder club.

On May 11, 1957, the rest of the football teams joined the team, mainly factory teams representing the region’s enterprises: September, Red Banner and Spartak. March 22, 1959 Torpedo was merged with the Partizan and Lokomotiv clubs. After the merger of the teams, the club was returned to the former name of FC “Dunav”. However, Lokomotiv chose to remain an independent football club and existed separately from FC Dunav until the early 2000s . On July 1, 1997, Dunav merged with the Rakovski club under the name Dunav-Rakovski. However, less than a year later, on April 23, 1998, Dunav-Rakovski was again divided into two separate clubs: FC Rakovsky and FC Dunav. On May 20, 1998, Dunav merged with the Prista club under the name Dunav 98.

June 18, 1999 the club was returned to its former name "Dunav". On July 24, 2003, Dunav declared bankruptcy , but with the help of the city administration, money was found and the club continued to perform in the championship. But eight years later, the club's new financial problems reappeared, and on February 17, 2011 the club again declared bankruptcy. On July 5, 2011 , thanks to the support of local businessmen, the Dunav club was revived. In the 2011/12 season in the third league, for legal reasons, the club was called “Dunav 2010”, and in the 2012/13 season it received its final name “Dunav Ruse”.

In 1962, Dunav reached the final of the Cup of the Soviet Army , but was defeated by the Botev club from Plovdiv with a score of 0: 3. The team achieved the highest success in the Bulgarian Championship in the 1974/75 season, when Dunav took fourth place and for the first time in its history got the right to perform in European competitions , where it started in the UEFA Cup . The team had to fight with one of the best clubs in Europe at that time - the Italian “ Roma ”. In the first match of the qualifying round on September 17, 1975, before the 100,000th audience at the stadium in Rome, “Dunav” lost 0-2. On October 1, at the home stadium in Ruse , in the presence of 25 thousand spectators, thanks to the goal of Todor Ivanov, “Dunav” won a historic victory, which is considered one of the brightest pages in the history of Bulgarian football. ^[one]

In 1995, the team reached the final of the Football League Cup , the first draw of a new football tournament in Bulgaria . However, the final was unsuccessful for the team, and on May 23, 1995 at the stadium in Sofia Dunav lost to the Etar club with a score of 0: 3.

In 2003, due to significant financial problems, the club declared bankruptcy , but thanks to the support of the city administration, funding was restored and the club continued to play in the championship. On August 5, 2003, a new football club was created on the basis of the disbanded team, as the previous bankrupt club was not able to repay the club's debts to creditors.

The revived club was forced to start playing in the lowest division of the football hierarchy in Bulgaria - the Regional Football League . Under the leadership of the playing coach Yengibar Yengibarov, in just two years of its existence, Dunav was able to rise to Group B of the Vostok zone of the championship, in addition to this, Dunav won the Amateur Football League Cup in the 2003/04 season, gaining the upper hand over the club " Sliven 2000. "

On January 5, 2006, the team was headed by the famous Bulgarian specialist Ferario Spasov . The composition of the team was almost completely changed, a number of famous football players came to the club, including such well-known players for Bulgaria as Ivaylo Petev , Stanimir Georgiev and Rosen Emilov , as well as a number of former football players of the disbanded club. The club leased a number of young players from Litex , such as Nikolai Tsvetkov , Ivan Skerlev and Tikhomir Trifonov . Having scored only 10 points in the first round of the season and taking the penultimate 13th place in Group B, the Vostok zone, Dunav already in the next round gave an impressive leap and climbed to the final 6th place, gaining 36 points, only once defeated after a winter break. In the 2006/07 season , Dunav suffered only one defeat from the Haskovo club and tied with the clubs Nafteks and Chernomorets from Burgas twice. The following year, “Dunav” holds its most successful season in the Eastern League “B” , with 52 points taking second place in the season, only one point behind the league champion Nessebar club. Despite all the success, the team sponsors refused to finance the club, and after the 2010/11 season ended , the team stopped playing in the league.

In the 2011/12 season , Dunav found funding and was reborn again. The club claimed to participate in Group B , the third strongest division of the Bulgarian football championship . Due to outstanding debts to the previous creditors, the club was forbidden to bear the previous name “Dunav”, because of which the prefix 2010 was added to the name of the club, according to the name of the year the team was recreated.

In the 2012/13 season, “Dunav 2010” took the final second place, gaining 74 points, four points behind the leader of the club “ Dobrudja ” from Dobrich . Due to the failure to complete the promotion and absenteeism to Group B , the club management decided to dismiss the team coach Dejan Bozhinov . Miroslav Mironov was appointed in his place.

In early August 2013 , after the exclusion of three teams from Group B , Dunav, as the best team from the second place in the divisions of Group B , receives an invitation to participate in the second league. On August 6, 2013, the Sports Commission of the Football Union of Bulgaria due to the refusal of the Svetkavitsa club to participate in the tournament decides to admit the Dunav 2010 club to the Bulgarian Championship in Group B of the 2013/14 season .

However, in practice, the team was not yet ready to perform at a higher level, and in the 2013/14 season in the second division, “Dunav 2010” took off from the tournament following the results of the championship, taking the penultimate place. In autumn 2013, due to illness , the head coach of the Mironov team went on a long vacation, and his head coach Samir Mestinov took his place. However, this measure did not help the club, and as a result, Dunav left the second division .

Immediately after the end of the previous season, Veselin Velikov was appointed head coach of the team. Before the start of the season in Group B, Velikov committed himself to return the team to the elite of Bulgarian football. And soon this was confirmed by the final result. The 2014/15 season in group “B” “Dunav” in fact did not meet any resistance from rivals. Only in two matches of the season did the Dunav lose points, in one game they were defeated and one brought in a draw. The final 85 points, 28 wins in 30 matches with a goal difference of 121-11 became evidence of the superiority of the team in the league and confirmed the hegemony of the club in the tournament.

After an impressive performance in the third division, “Dunav” was considered one of the favorites of Group “B” . Having successful results in the previous season, before the start of the 2015/16 season in the second league, the club management set the task to take one of the first places in the league. However, before the start of the season, the club's results began to decline, and Dunav did not win a single victory in all the friendly matches of the pre-season tournaments, which cast doubt on the ultimate success. But from the first rounds of the season, the team began to confirm the status of one of the favorites of the league, which was confirmed by the final result: early championship in the tournament with a ten-point advantage over the closest competitor and a clear advantage in all statistical indicators over other teams. For the first time after a 25-year absence, Dunav returned to the elite of Bulgarian football .

In his very first season after returning to the elite, Dunav immediately recommended the title of the impudent newcomer of the tournament, having settled down at the top of the tournament table from the first rounds of the championship. As a result, the team achieved the right to participate in the bullet of the strongest teams in the championship, where as a result it won the fourth place that was not high for the rookie league, which became an undoubted success for the club.

As of July 16, 2016

• Paytashev, Rumen. Svetovna Futbolna Entsiklopediya: [] . - Sofia: KK Trud, 2001 .-- P. 126. - ISBN 954-528-201-0 .

• Club official website