FC Tsarsko Selo Sofia


Tsarsko Selo is a Bulgarian association football club based in Sofia. It currently plays in First League, the top tier of the Bulgarian football league system, having gained promotion from Second League in 2018–19 season.
Tsarsko Selo play their home matches at their Tsarsko Selo Sports Complex in the Dragalevtsi quarter of Sofia.

History

2015–2016: Foundation

In the summer of 2015, the previous chairman of CSKA Sofia Stoyne Manolov established a new academy called Football Academy Tsarsko Selo, with a focus on scouting and developing youth football players born in 2002 to 2010. The club was initially registered and a subsequent men's team in the A RFG Sofia South was established, with former long-time CSKA Sofia captain Todor Yanchev appointed as manager. On November 12, 2015 Manolov announced an academy partnership with Spanish La Liga club Málaga CF. In the end of December 2015, Todor Yanchev took over Sofia 2010, which was bought by Manolov and was merged with Tsarsko Selo to establish a new club called Tsarsko Selo Sofia.

2016–present: Professional debut

On 28 July 2016 the team was accepted in the newly created Bulgarian Second Professional League. They finished their first match against Botev Galabovo with a draw. In their first match for the Bulgarian Cup they played against Levski Sofia. The match was played on 22 September 2016 at the Lokomotiv Stadium in Sofia and was won by Levski by 2-0. After 2 heavy defeats, Yanchev stepped down from his position as a manager and on 29 October 2016, previous Cherno More Varna head coach Nikola Spasov was announced as the new manager of the team. The team finished their first season in Second League in 5th place.
The good start of the season for Tsarsko Selo was marked not only by the first place in the league after 8 rounds, but with their first win for the Cup, winning the first round against Neftochimic Burgas on 19 September 2017. On 3 January 2018 Nikola Spasov was announced as the new manager of the Kazakhstan Premier League team Kyzylzhar. Shortly the same day Veselin Velikov was announced as the new manager of the club. On 8 May 2018 Velislav Vutsov was announced as the new head coach of the team with Velikov becoming a selectionist.
On 22 April 2019 in a goalless draw against CSKA 1948 the kings secured their first place in Second League and won promotion in the First League for first time in their history, being 18 points ahead from the second and third place five rounds before the end of the season.
Tsarsko selo's first ever match in the Bulgarian First Division resulted in a 0-2 away loss against the actual champion Ludogorets Razgrad. This was followed by a home 0-0 draw to the other debutant Arda Kardzhali. Tsarsko selo's first win came in the fifth round, when the team managed to beat Botev Plovdiv away with 0-2. Two goals for the win were scored by Dutch winger Rodney Antwi. The first home win came in the seventh round with 2-1 against Beroe Stara Zagora. Tsarsko Selo eventually finished 13th, having to play a playoff match in order to remain in the elite. They were drawn against the second-placed team from the Second League, Septemvri Sofia. In a very close fought game played in Sofia, Tsarsko Selo won 2-0, securing their place in the First League for the next season.

Honours

Tsarsko Selo's main kit was initially red and white and the away kits were black and red. From 2016, the main kit has been all-red, while the reserve ones are all-white. In 2017 team main kit was changed to pink.
PeriodKit manufacturerShirt partner
2015–2017 JomaNone
2017–2019 NikeNone
2019– NikeWINBET

Players

First-team squad

For recent transfers, see Transfers summer 2020.

Out on loan

Foreign players

Up to five non-EU nationals can be registered and given a squad number for the first team in the Bulgarian First Professional League however only three can be used in 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.

Notable Players

The footballers enlisted below have international caps for their respective countries or more than 100 caps for Tsarsko Selo. Players whose name is listed in bold represented their countries.
;Bulgaria

Most appearances for the club in First League
  • Players in bold are still playing for Tsarsko Selo.

Club Records

  • Biggest home win in First League: Tsarsko Selo 2–1 Beroe Stara Zagora
  • Biggest away win in First League: Botev Plovdiv 0–2 Tsarsko Selo
  • Biggest home loss in First League: Tsarsko Selo 0–2 Levski Sofia
  • Biggest away loss in First League: Ludogorets Razgrad 2–0 Tsarsko Selo, Dunav Ruse 3–1 Tsarsko Selo
  • Unbeaten streak in First League : 3
  • Most consecutive wins in First League : 2

    Past seasons


ImageSize = width:250 height:60
PlotArea = left:10 right:10 bottom:30 top:10
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/07/2015 till:01/07/2020
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:2016
Colors =
id:bl1 value:rgb
id:bl2 value:rgb
id:rs value:rgb
id:rn value:rgb
PlotData=
bar:Position width:16 color:white align:center
from:01/07/2015 till:01/07/2016 shift: text:2
from:01/07/2015 till:01/07/2016 color:yellow shift: text: "Regional"
from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2017 shift: text:5
from:01/07/2017 till:01/07/2018 shift: text:3
from:01/07/2018 till:01/07/2019 shift: text:1
from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2019 color:white shift: text: "Second League"
from:01/07/2019 till:01/07/2020 shift: text:13
from:01/07/2019 till:01/07/2020 color:green shift: text: "First League"

Club officials

Board of directors

Current technical body

Manager history

OWIKI.org. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.