FC Montana


FC Montana is a Bulgarian association football club based in Montana, which currently plays in the First League, the top tier of Bulgarian football.
Montana plays its home matches at the Ogosta Stadium, which has a capacity of 8,000 spectators. The club's traditional colours are blue, white and red. After a prolonged period of absence, they were propelled back into professional football in the mid 90s with the help of some experienced and talented footballers, including the ex-captain of English Aston Villa and Bulgarian international Stiliyan Petrov.
FC 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. Since then, Montana have spent a total of nine seasons in the Bulgarian First League and 40 seasons in the lower Second League. They have also reached the Bulgarian Cup final once, in 2016.

Honours

First League:
Second League:
Bulgarian Cup:
Bulgarian League Cup:
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.
In season 2009-10 in the then "A" football group, Montana finished 11th and remained in the league for 4 consecutive seasons, before being relegated to the lower division on 15th place. They remained in the "B" group for 2 seasons before finishing 1st and being promoted to the first division. They started the new 2015-16 season with a surprising 0-0 draw as a guest to a strong sided Beroe, then defeating with the impressive 6-0 Botev Plovdiv, with Ivan Minchev scoring a hattrick. The good matches continued as Montana finished 1-1 with the champion Ludogorets Razgrad. The same season Montana would go all the way to the Bulgarian Cup final, before losing 1-0 to CSKA Sofia in a match with above 33,300 attendance. However, Montana would later finish 9th in the "A" group and successfully defend its place in the relegation playoffs for the next season in the renamed "First Legue". The season didn't go well for Montana as they finished 13th and lost the relegation playoff against Septemvri Sofia in a close 2-1 match. In season 2018-2019 Montana finished second and once again played in a promotion playoff against Vitosha Bistritsa, in which lost with 3-0.
However in the next season, after 3 years of awaiting for promotion, Montana finished third in the 2019-20 season in the second tier, qualifying for playoffs. On July 17th, Montana defeated Dunav Ruse 4-1, and was finally promoted to the First League after the long wait.

Recent seasons

League positions


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from:01/07/2002 till:01/07/2003 shift: text:2
from:01/07/2003 till:01/07/2004 shift: text:4
from:01/07/2004 till:01/07/2005 shift: text:2
from:01/07/2002 till:01/07/2005 color:red shift: text: "V Group"
from:01/07/2005 till:01/07/2006 shift: text:11
from:01/07/2006 till:01/07/2007 shift: text:10
from:01/07/2007 till:01/07/2008 shift: text:7
from:01/07/2008 till:01/07/2009 shift: text:1
from:01/07/2005 till:01/07/2009 color:white shift: text: "B Group"
from:01/07/2009 till:01/07/2010 shift: text:11
from:01/07/2010 till:01/07/2011 shift: text:10
from:01/07/2011 till:01/07/2012 shift: text:11
from:01/07/2012 till:01/07/2013 shift: text:15
from:01/07/2009 till:01/07/2013 color:green shift: text: "A Group"
from:01/07/2013 till:01/07/2014 shift: text:4
from:01/07/2014 till:01/07/2015 shift: text:1
from:01/07/2013 till:01/07/2015 color:white shift: text: "B Group"
from:01/07/2015 till:01/07/2016 shift: text:9
from:01/07/2015 till:01/07/2016 color:green shift: text: "A Group"
from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2017 shift: text:13
from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2017 color:green shift: text: "First League"
from:01/07/2017 till:01/07/2018 shift: text: 4
from:01/07/2018 till:01/07/2019 shift: text: 2
from:01/07/2019 till:01/07/2020 shift: text: 3
from:01/07/2017 till:01/07/2020 color:white shift: text: "Second League"
from:01/07/2020 till:01/07/2021 shift: text:
from:01/07/2020 till:01/07/2021 color:green shift: text: "First League"

Stadium

FC 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 through the town.

Players

Current squad


For recent transfers, see Transfers summer 2020.

Out on loan

Former managers