 | |||
| Full name | Професионален Футболен Клуб Берое Стара Загора (Professional Football Club Beroe Stara Zagora) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nicknames | Зелените (The Greens),Берое Хуниорс (Beroe Juniors) | ||
| Founded | 6 May 1916; 109 years ago (1916-05-06) as Vereya | ||
| Ground | Stadion Beroe | ||
| Capacity | 12,000 | ||
| Owner | CRD Sport | ||
| Chairman | Hernan Banato | ||
| Head coach | Vacant | ||
| League | First League | ||
| 2024–25 | First League, 8th of 16 | ||
| Website | beroe | ||
Professional Football Club Beroe Stara Zagora, better known as justBeroe (Bulgarian:Берое), is a Bulgarian professionalassociation football club based inStara Zagora, that competes in theFirst League, the top division of theBulgarian football league system. The club was founded in 1916 under the nameVereya. The club's colours are green and white.
Since then the home ground of Beroe has been the homonymousStadion Beroe inStara Zagora with aseating capacity of 12,128. Beroe were the1986 champions ofBulgaria and they also won theBulgarian Cup twice in2010 and2013. In terms of international achievements, Beroe hold the record forBalkans Cups titles, having won the tournament four times. The club's most noted and successful player isPetko Petkov, 2 times A Group Top Scorer:1974 (with 20 goals) and1976 (with 19 goals).
Football was played inStara Zagora as early as 1916, however with no organized championship inBulgaria until the late 1920s, numerous clubs enjoyed regional success in those early years for the game in both the city andBulgaria itself. Beroe can trace its roots back to 4 May 1924, when it was founded as Beroya, after the merger of two other clubs – Borislav and Rekord.
The club withstood the almost constant chaos and strife of the times, often caused by numerous shifts in the political regimes ofBulgaria, and despite many mergers and name changes throughout the first four decades of its history, it is constantly among the top 3 clubs in the city. It has also often been the platform for attempts to unite all the clubs inStara Zagora, which foreshadowed its role and meaning for the city in the years to come.
The establishment of an organized league to determine the champion ofBulgaria in the late 40s coincided with the consolidation of football inStara Zagora, the city finally seeing a one single strong club emerge to represent it at the highest level ofBulgarian football. That club was Beroe, at first bearing the names of Udarnik and Botev, before finally restoring its old name in 1959.
1968 marked the beginning of Beroe's golden age. During the summer transfer period, the forwardPetko Petkov joined the club. In the next 12 years he scored 144 goals for the club inA Group. Beroe became all-powerful, winning theBalkans Cup in 1968 (beating in the finalSpartak Sofia with a 6–4 on aggregate) and 1969 (beatingDinamo Tirana with a 4–0 on aggregate). However in 1970 the team was relegated after being excluded from the championship after 18 rounds due to crowd trouble in the match with Levski.
Bouncing back after a year, season 1971–72 in the domestic league was very successful for the team, which finished 3rd, and qualified for theUEFA Cup. The club's first participation inUEFA Cup was also promising, with Beroe eliminating the AustrianAustria Wien (7–0 and 3–1) and the HungarianHonvéd (3–0 and 0–1) respectively and reaching the third round (but being knocked out by the YugoslavOFK Beograd).
In season 1973–74 Beroe reach the quarter-finals of theCup Winners' Cup: after eliminating the LuxembourgFola Esch and the Basques ofAthletic Bilbao, they were stopped in DDR by1. FC Magdeburg (2–0 and 1–1).
Beroe have had some success in Europe, such as the 1–0 win overJuventus in aCup Winners' Cup first-leg in 1979 and a 3–0 win overAthletic Bilbao in 1973. Moreover, Beroe is one of the twoBulgarian football clubs that has a positive record of the matches played in European club competitions.
In 1982 and 1984 Beroe won theBalkans Cup for the third and fourth times.
In1986, the team led by the coachEvgeni Yanchovski won theBulgarian title, the first in the club's history. Beroe finished the season with 43 points (after 20 wins, 4 draws and 6 losses). Beroe played in the1986–87 UEFA European Champions Cup where they were eliminated in the first round toDynamo Kyiv of theSoviet Union after 1–1 atBeroe Stadium and 0–2 loss inKyiv.[1]
The 1990s would see a gradual decline as Beroe were relegated toB Group in season1994–95, finishing in last place with twelve points.
The advent of democracy inBulgaria ushered a new period of chaos and economical hardship for the country, and that didn't pass by Beroe. Nevertheless, despite several seasons of crisis the club again withstood the test of time, and despite needing a helpful merger with another team – Olimpik (Teteven) – remained a key player on theBulgarian football scene.
The first two seasons back in top division saw Beroe fight relegation, with safety being achieved by second-half runs. In 2001–02 season the team again relegated.
In the autumn of 2007 the actual majority shareholder of Professional Football Club Beroe JSCo Nikolay Banev gave up the financial support of the team. In spite of that, the team demonstrated good football in most of the games. On 10 January 2008 23 players and 3 coaches terminated their contracts with the club after a planned sale of the shares had failed.
Beroe got out of trouble on 3 February 2008, when the Beroe veterans’ club and the national fanclub, assisted by lawyer Damian Georgiev initiated, through related firms, insolvency proceedings in respect of the club in the Regional Court ofStara Zagora. The appointed administrator Elka Petrova transferred all the assets and liabilities of the club to a newly established joint-stock company Professional Football Club Beroe Stara Zagora JSCo.
The new entity succeeded Professional Football Club Beroe JSCo as regard of the license, the membership in theBulgarian Football Union and the running of the football team itself.
In the summer of 2009 due to the world economic crisis most of the shareholders left the club due to financial problems. The club's main sponsor Brikel JSCo transferred its shares to Beroe veterans’ club and the national fanclub, who appointed a new board of directors. It consists of Damyan Georgiev – Chairman, Genyo Petrov – Executive Director and Tsvetelin Zhoevski.
In the 2007–08 season Beroe lost their place inA Group, due to a controversial match betweenBelasitsa Petrich andMarek Dupnitsa in the last round of the season. In the very next season, however, Beroe won first place inB Group and returned to the top flight. At that timeIlian Iliev had already been manager of the club for the last 2 years. In the year to follow, Beroe achieved its best season in over 20 years, beating all of the main competitors for theBulgarian Cup. Beroe eliminatedCSKA Sofia in the quarter-finals, which paved the way for them to obtain the trophy, winning against second-divisionChernomorets Pomorie 1–0 in the final atLovech Stadium.[2] The winning goal was scored dramatically in the last seconds of the added time by Beroe's former youth playerDoncho Atanasov, who also went on to become top goalscorer of the tournament with 4 goals. Beroe became one of the only two Bulgarian teams that have won thecup without succeeding any goals. This success led toIlian Iliev being awarded with the Coach of the Season award, as well asIvo Ivanov (defender) being proclaimed best defender inA Group for 2009. Besides him other players that played a main role throughout the season wereIskren Pisarov,Georgi Andonov,Zdravko Iliev,Slavi Zhekov,Dian Genchev. One of the players with most matches inA Group for all timesKostadin Vidolov ended up his career mid-season with Beroe and went on to become a coach for Beroe's second team.
Beroe started 2010–11 season with the debut of the team in theUEFA Europa League.[3] Beroe entered the competition in the third qualifying round and faced the Austrian sideRapid Wien. The game in Bulgaria ended in a 1–1 draw.Rapid Wien won the rematch with 3–0[4] putting an end to the international campaign of the Bulgarian team.
Beroe started 2012–13 season inBulgarian Cup eliminatingAkademik Svishtov in the second round.In the quarter-finals Beroe eliminatedLokomotiv (Mezdra) with aggregate result of 8–1, and thenPirin (Gotse Delchev) in the quarter-finals andSlavia Sofia in the semi-finals. In the final match atLovech Stadium inLovech againstLevski Sofia, the result after 90 minutes was 3–3. After Beroe had taken the lead with 3–1 in the 80th minute,Levski Sofia with 10 men restored the tie, afterHristo Yovov received a second yellow card in the end of the first half. At the penalty shoot-outLevski Sofia scored just 1 from 4 penalties and Beroe, 3 of 5 which meant that Beroe had won thecup for the second time in the club's history.
In the summer of 2023, American player agency CRD Sport is the new owner of Bulgarian top tier club Beroe Stara Zagora. CRD has acquired 100% of the club’s shares.[5] This came after several years of financial problems at the club.Argentinian Gustavo Aragolaza was announced as the new coach for the2023–24 season.
Beroes colours are green and white.
| Period | Kit manufacturer | Shirt Sponsor |
|---|---|---|
| 1924–82 | None | None |
| 1982–83 |  Puma | |
| 1983–86 | None | |
| 1986–91 | Adidas | |
| 1991–92 |  Nike | CEBI |
| 1992–95 |  Unknown | |
| 1995–04 | None | |
| 2004–06 | Uhlsport | AKB Fores |
| 2006–07 | Jako | |
| 2007–08 | Uhlsport | |
| 2008–09 |  Tomy Sport | Stara Zagora |
| 2009–10 | GUPA | |
| 2010–11 | Bulsatcom | |
| 2011–13 | Uhlsport | |
| 2013–15 |  Joma | None |
| 2015–22 | Uhlsport | REFAN |
| 2022–23 | Jako | Efbet |
| 2023–2024 |  Dryworld | |
| 2024– | Nike | 8888.bg |
As of 10 November 2025[update]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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For recent transfers, seeTransfers summer 2025.
Up to twenty foreign nationals can be registered and given a squad number for the first team in theBulgarian First League, however only five non-EU nationals can be used during a match day. Those non-EU nationals 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/EEA Nationals
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1 ex officio the team doesn't come or leave the field.
| Competition | S | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UEFA Champions League /European Cup | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | – 2 |
| UEFA Europa League /UEFA Cup | 6 | 22 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 30 | 23 | + 7 |
| UEFA Cup Winners' Cup /Cup Winners' Cup | 2 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 20 | 11 | + 9 |
| Balkans Cup | 7 | 34 | 21 | 4 | 9 | 54 | 42 | + 12 |
| Total | 16 | 68 | 34 | 12 | 22 | 105 | 79 | + 26 |
Club coefficients[edit]This is the current 2016–17UEFA coefficient:[6]
| Club world ranking[edit]These are theIFFHS club's points as of 7 January 2016:[7]
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Beroe Stadium is situated in the northwestern part ofStara Zagora near the biggest park of the city – Ayazmoto, which is the biggest sport facility of the team. The team has also three training grounds, the Beroe stadium base includes also tennis facilities and covered training hall. Built in 1959, the stadium is currently being renovated and has around 13,000 seating places, most of which are covered. The stadium has its own gymnastics, acrobatics and boxing hall. There is also a table-tennis facility. The stadium's overall capacity is about 15,000. The Beroe stadium has the fastest athletics lane and was often used for such competitions. The biggest attendance was in 1986 when the team won the championship title and more than 40,000 spectators were celebrating together with the players.
The club has very strong support in the country. Their group is called Zara Boys.
Beroe's main rival isBotev Plovdiv. The match between these two teams is calledThracian Derby. They also have a strong rivalry with the two most popular teams in the country –Levski Sofia andCSKA Sofia. Other teams that are in bad relations with Beroe areLokomotiv Plovdiv and especiallyNeftochimic Burgas.
The only team with which fans Zara Boys have a strong friendship isEtar Veliko Tarnovo.
Evgeni Yanchovski holds Beroe's overall appearance record – he played 341 matches over the course of 14 seasons from 1960 to 1974. This is also the record for League appearances. Beroe's all-time leading scorer isPetko Petkov, who scored 144 goals while at the club from 1968 to 1980. Beroe's biggest victory is 8–0 inA Group againstMinyor Pernik in 1973–74 andChernomorets Burgas Sofia in 2006–07. Beroe's 7–0 defeat ofAustria Wien in 1972 was its largest Europe win. Beroe's heaviest defeat, 2–10, came againstCSKA Sofia in 1991–92.
Most league appearances for the club
| Most league goals for the club
| Bulgarian league top scorer with the club
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Panayot Tanev (1953) Borislav Asparuhov (1954) Panayot Tanev (1955–59) Borislav Milenov (1959) Ivan Radoev (1959–64) Anastas Kovachev (1964–65)Manol Manolov (1965–66)Krum Milev (1966–67)Hristo Mladenov (1967–69) Anastas Kovachev (1969–70) Dimitar Grigorov (1970–71)Hristo Mladenov (1971–72) Lozan Kotsev (1972–73) Ivan Tanev (1973–74)Hristo Mladenov (1974–76) Georgi Berkov (1976) Ivan Manolov (1976–77) Ivan Tanev (1977–81) Vasil Ivanov (1981)Ivan Vutov (1981–82) Georgi Belchev (1982–83)Petko Petkov (1983–85)Evgeni Yanchovski (1985–87)Petko Petkov (1987–90) Panayot Panayotov (1990) Boris Angelov (1990–92)Petko Petkov (1992)Evgeni Yanchovski (1992–93)Tenyo Minchev (1993–95)Ivan Vutov (1995)
Dragoljub Bekvalac (1999–00) Ventsislav Kepov (2000)Petko Petkov (2000–01) Tsvetomir Parvanov (2001)Ivan Vutov (2001) Ilia Iliev (2002) Venelin Sivriev (2002–03)Asparuh Nikodimov (2003–04)Ivan Vutov (2004–05)
Hans Kodrić (2005) match record: 2-2-2Petko Petkov (2005–06)Ilian Iliev (2006–07)Eduard Eranosyan (2007)Radoslav Zdravkov (2007) Nikolay Demirev (2007)Ilian Iliev (1 February 2008 – 12 July 2012) 38-27-44Ivko Ganchev (1 July 2012 – 12 Oct 2012)Petar Hubchev (18 October 2012 – 6 April 2016) 70-35-33Plamen Lipenski (7 April 2016 – 31 May 2016)Aleksandar Dimitrov (1 June 2016 – 17 October 2016) 5-2-6Plamen Lipenski (20 October 2016 – 26 October 2016)Ferario Spasov (26 October 2016 – 19 May 2017) 11-6-8Aleksandar Tomash (June 2017 - October 2019) 41-21-28Dimitar Dimitrov (football manager) (October 2019 - April 2021) 21-7-18Petar Kolev (footballer, born 1974) (April 2021 - January 2022) 9-7-11Petar Hubchev (January 2022 - September 2022) 7-5-12Nikolay Kirov (September 2022 - June 2023) 6-6-15
Gustavo Aragolaza (June 2023 – September 2023) match record: 4-1-4José Acciari (September 2023 - October 2024) match record: 13-6-17Josu Uribe (October 2024 - May 2025) match record: 11-5-10Víctor Basadre (July 2025 - present) match record: 1-2-2
Last updated: December 2022 | First Team[edit]
Last updated: December 2022 | Youth Academy[edit]
Last updated: September 2021
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| Position | Name | Nationality |
|---|---|---|
| Press officer | Emil Dimov | |
| Photographerberoe.bg | Ani Georgieva | |
| beroe.bg | Nikolay Petrov | |
| Fan Relations Coordinator | Aleksander Mechev | |
| League competitions | |
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| Cup competitions | |
| Defunct competitions |
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| National teams | |
| Regional Amateur Football Groups | |
| Lists | |
| Awards | |
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