PFC Lokomotiv Sofia

Football club infobox
clubname = PFC Lokomotiv Sofia


fullname = PFC Lokomotiv Sofia
nickname = Loko , The irons
founded = 28 October 1929
ground = Lokomotiv Stadium
capacity = 25 000
chairman =
manager =
league = TBI A Football Group
season = 2006-07
position = A Group, 3 place
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pattern_la2= _blackshoulders|pattern_b2=|pattern_ra2= _blackshoulders
leftarm2=FFFFFF|body2=FFFFFF|rightarm2=FFFFFF|shorts2=FFFFFF|socks2=FFFFFF

PFC Lokomotiv Sofia is a Bulgarian football club from the capital city of Sofia, founded on 28 October 1929 as ZHSK (ЖСК).

The club was united with Slavia Sofia for a brief period between 1969 and 1971 and is associated with the Bulgarian railway workers.

History

The story begins somewhere in 1929. A group of railway workers from the railway factory in Sofia, charmed by the magic of football decide to organize their passion into a football club – and so the Railway Sports Club (RSC) came into being. The date is the 15th of May 1929. The first victory comes soon – on the 4th of June in the first official game versus BG Sofia (Botev-Gladstone), RSC grabs the victory with 2:1.The club is officially registered in the beginning of September.The following ten years are the time in which the young organization strengthens, the team develops both professionally and organizationally, despite the fact that the players are considered complete amateurs. “Locomotiv” takes the express route to the top of the rather chaotic Bulgarian football league. The top is reached in 1940, when a fantastic RSC leads the league. The names say enough: Stoyo Nedyalkov (captain), Sl.Videnov, K. Kostov, D. Marinov, St. Angelov, As. Milushev, Krum Milev, L. Hranov… The outbreak of World War II stops the triumphant march to the title of this superb team.With peace comes a new name for RSC – “Locomotiv” and in the first post-war championship the club wins the title. The year is 1945. The next years in Locomotiv’s history are decided (for better or worse) by the new political and economical conditions in the country. In all sports and especially football, state-favored teams begin to dispute the championship title between each other and it takes “Locomotiv” an enormous amount of will, love and daring to nobly stand its ground in the Bulgarian football elite, without being one of the state’s pets. The hard-earned championship titles (1964 and 1978), the winning of the republican cup (1948, 1953, 1982 and 1995), the successes in the UEFA tournaments and countless other victories are examples for both the human and sports spirit, that marks the ones loyal to “Locomotiv”.There are countless names of players, who defended both “Locomotiv” and the national team’s glory – Simo Kostov, Stoyan Ormandzhiev, Lazar Hristov, Petar Argirov, Kotze Blagoev, Georgi Berkov, Ivan Deyanov, Vasil Metodiev, Ivan Dimitrov, Todor Velev, Apostol Chachevsky, Dimitar Penev, Ivan Kotzev, Nikola Kotkov, Spiro Debarski, Boko Dimitrov, Georgi Bonev, Yordan Stoykov, Ventzi Arsov, Angel Kolev, Trayko Sokolov, Radi Zdravkov, Boycho Velichkov, Atanas Mihaylov, Ivaylo Georgiev, Georgi Hristakiev, Anton Velkov, Dimitar Vasev.

The new era for “Locomotiv” Sofia came in 1994, when with the coming of democracy in Bulgaria; Nikolay Gigov took over the club. A young and successful businessman with a strong character and democratic ruling principles, Gigov showed true and positive love for the football game. The football club’s status is turned professional. For merely one year (1994–1995), from a team struggling to not to lose its place in the professional league, “Locomotiv” won the silver medals in the Championship and the State Cup. Nowadays PFC Locomotiv is in the professional soccer elite of Bulgaria, participating in the UEFA tournaments. The club owns a stadium with 25000 places, a junior training center (among the most productive ones in the country), and an enthusiastic and well-organized fan-club. Naturally, the most valued possession of the club is the sincere affection of its fans. Lokomotiv came fourth in the 2005-06 season in A PFG and qualified for the UEFA Cup 2006-07 first qualifying round, where they face FK Makedonija Gorce Petrov from the Republic of Macedonia. Lokomotiv beat the Macedonian side 2-0 in the first match in Sofia on 13 July 2006 and finished 1-1 as a guest in Macedonia and continued to the next round of the tournament. Next, they faced the team of Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv, which they beat twice: 2-0 on 10 August 2006 and 4-0 on 24 August 2006.Their next opponent in the first round of the tournament was the team of Feyenoord Rotterdam. The first game in Sofia ended with a 2-2 draw, after Lokomotiv went ahead 2-0 early in the first half. The second game finished 0-0 and Lokomotiv Sofia were out of the UEFA tournament.

Domestically, Lokomotiv had an amazing run of 10 consecutive wins, before being stopped by CSKA Sofia in the direct clash for the second position. Eventually, Lokomotiv finished third with equal points with second-placed CSKA Sofia.

The 2007/08 season started promisingly for the team. In the UEFA cup second qualifying round Lokomotiv eliminated Romanian side Otelul Galati after a 3-1 win at home and a scoreless away draw. This marked 8 European games without a loss, which is a new national record for longest streak without a loss achieved by a Bulgarian team in all European competitions. Previous record of 7 games was held by Levski Sofia. In the next round, Lokomotiv faced the French Rennes and the loss 1-3 in the first leg in Sofia marked an end to the team's winning streak in Europe. The Bulgarian side showed a surprising rally in the second game in France, which they won 2-1 and were only a single goal short of making it to the extra time. For a second consecutive year, Lokomotiv were stopped short of entering the group stage of UEFA cup, despite being the first Bulgarian club in soccer history to snatch a victory on French soil. In the domestic league, Lokomotiv is currently second, trailing 10 points behind CSKA Sofia with 9 more games left to play until the end of the season.

Honours

* Champion of Bulgaria - 4 times – 1940, 1945, 1964 and 1978
* Vice-champion of Bulgaria - 6 times – 1941, 1946, 1947, 1965, 1985 and 1995
* Winner of the cup of Bulgaria - 4 times – 1948, 1953, 1982 (KSA) and 1995
* Cup final - 2 times – 1975 and 1977
* UEFA tournament – quarter final 1980
* European champion of the railwaymen – 1961 and 1963
* Balkan club champion – 1973

Children-juvenile school

Except the representative man team PFC “Lokomotiv Sofia” has children-juvenile school, which consists of 11 football teams of about 300 children at age between 8 and 18 years, children and juvenile. The children at this school are entrusted to qualified football coaches. The majority of them are products of the child-juvenile school and their football career has passed exactly in the representative man team of the club.Of all 11 teams, 6 teams at age between 8 and 18 years take part in the Sofia tournaments and the republican tournaments of Bulgaria. In these tournaments the teams finish at awarded places at their age. The juvenile team (born 1984-1985) won the title of state champion of 2003.The players at age between 8 and 11 years are preparatory groups and after 3-4 years of teaching start their participation in the preliminary tournaments and correspondingly in the city and national tournaments, organized be the Football federation and the Republic of Bulgaria.At almost all age groups there are a lot of talented boys. The child-juvenile school of PFC “Lokomotiv Sofia” Stock exchange is one of the best creators of football talents as for the club and the national team of Bulgaria.

Current squad

"As of August 2008""For recent transfers see: List of Bulgarian football transfers 2008-09"

Notable players

UEFA ranking

Current club ranking
* 170 flagicon|Belgium La Louviere
* 171 flagicon|Greece Xanthi FC
* 172 flagicon|Bulgaria LOKOMOTIV SOFIA
* 173 flagicon|Austria Rapid Wien
* 174 flagicon|Switzerland FC Zurich
* [http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method3/trank2007.html Full List]

Current National League ranking
* 14 flagicon|Turkey Turkish League
* 15 flagicon|Greece Greece League
* 16 flagicon|Bulgaria Bulgarian League
* 17 flagicon|Switzerland Swiss League
* 18 flagicon|Norway Norway League
* [http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method3/crank2007.html Full List]

External links

* [http://lokomotivsofia.bg/ Official website]
* [http://ultrasloko.com/ Fansite ULTASLOKO]
* [http://red-blackpride.dir.bg/ Fansite - RED-BLACK PRIDE]
* [http://lokomotivsofia.hit.bg/ Fansite]
* [http://www.lokomotiv.hit.bg/ Fansite]
* [http://clubs.bul-foot.org/html/a/a/Lokomotiv(Sofia).htm Bulgarian clubs - Lokomotiv (Sofia)]