FC Chernomorets Balchik

FC Chernomorets Balchik
Full name	Football Club Chernomorets Balchik
Founded	1918; 106 years ago
Ground	Balchik Stadium
Capacity	2,618
Owner	Balchik Municipality
Head coach	Eli Marques
League	Second League
2022–23	North-East Third League, 1st (promoted)
Home colours	Away colours

Chernomorets (Bulgarian: Черноморец) is a Bulgarian football club based in Balchik, that competes in the Second League, the 2nd tier of Bulgarian football. The team plays its home games at the local Balchik Stadium with 2,618 seats.

History

Chernomorets were founded as Sport Club Strela in late 1918 by English and Italian soldiers after World War I. The team finally became known as Chernomorets in 1957.

In its history, Chernomorets has played mainly in the Bulgarian amateur divisions. Until the 1976/77 season, the team participated at most in the third Bulgarian division but gained promotion to the B Group for the 1977/78 season. The next season was not so successful and the team was relegated back to the third division (The club finishing in 17th place in the group).

Chernomorets qualified for the second time in its history for the second division by finishing in 3rd place in North-Eastern V Group in the 2007–08 season. In this period, in the club worked as an assistant coach former famous football player Iliyan Kiryakov.

Chernomorets withdrew from B PFG in February 2011 due to suffering from finance debts.

Between 9 November 2014 and 27 March 2016, Chernomorets won 37 consecutive games in the third division. The club sent a letter to the Guinness Book of World Records as a jest for its achievement.^[1]

In the 2015–16 season, the team finished first and won promotion to the B Group after five years of absence, but on 12 June 2016, they announced that would stay in the V Group and won't compete in the professional tier due to financial reasons.^[2] Next season, Chernomorets finished first once more, but this time the team accepted participation in the Second League. Chernomorets managed to remain three seasons in the Second League, but the team was eventually plagued by financial problems in 2020 and was disqualified during the 2019–20 season and demoted back to the Third League. After three years in the third league, Chernomorets again managed to gain promotion to the second league for the 2023–24 season under head coach Martin Hristov losing only a single game and conceding only 13 goals having the best defence and attack in the league simultaneously.

Honours

Second League:
- 7th place: 2018–19
Third League:
- Winners (3): 2015–16, 2016–17, 2022–23
Bulgarian Cup:
- Round of 16 (2): 2018–19, 2020–21
Cup of Bulgarian Amateur Football League:
- Winners (1): 2016–17

Players

Current squad

As of 28 April 2024

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	BUL	Stamen Boyadzhiev
2	DF	BUL	Yordan Radev
3	DF	BUL	Ivaylo Minchev
4	DF	BUL	Petar Ivanov
5	MF	BUL	Dani Bonev
6	MF	BUL	Vladislav Georgiev
10	MD	BRA	Lucas Cardoso
11	MD	BUL	Stefan Mitev
8	DF	STP	Adjeil Neves
9	FW	GNB	Paulo Costa


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
12	DF	BEL	William Fonkeu
15	DF	BUL	Georgi Radev (Captain)
17	MF	BUL	Teodor Totev
18	DF	BUL	Nasko Yankov
19	MF	BUL	Ivan Tomov
20	FW	USA	Georgio Dimitrov
23	MF	BUL	Aleks Nakov
27	GK	BUL	Kristiyan Nedelchev
30	GK	BUL	Galin Grigorov

For recent transfers, see Transfers summer 2023 and Transfers winter 2023–24.

Past seasons

League positions

Season	League	Place	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts	Bulgarian Cup
2011–12	V AFG (III)	10	8	7	13	43	34	36	not qualified
2012–13	V AFG	7	11	8	9	37	31	41	not qualified
2013–14	V AFG	13	8	2	20	39	63	26	not qualified
2014–15	V AFG	2	24	4	2	85	14	76	not qualified
2015–16	V AFG	1	24	1	1	79	14	73	First round
2016–17	Third League	1	24	4	0	67	9	76	First round
2017–18	Second League (II)	11	10	9	11	37	40	39	First round
2018–19	Second League	7	10	7	13	27	35	37	Second round
Green marks a season followed by promotion, red a season followed by relegation.