List of Slovenian football champions


The Slovenian football champions are the winners of the highest league of association football in Slovenia, PrvaLiga. Also known by the abbreviation 1. SNL, PrvaLiga is contested on a round robin basis and the championship awarded to the club that is top of the league at the end of the season. The league was established after the independence of Slovenia in 1991, originally containing 21 clubs. Before that, top Slovenian teams competed in Yugoslavia with only Ilirija, ASK Primorje and Ljubljana ever reaching the country's highest division, Yugoslav First League. Olimpija, Maribor and Nafta Lendava were the only Slovenian teams who participated in the top division between the end of World War II in 1945 and the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991. While being a part of the Yugoslav football system, most of the Slovenian clubs competed for the title of regional champions in the Slovenian Republic Football League. However, the republic league was officially the third tier of football most of the time and the competition was usually without the top Slovenian clubs, who played in the Yugoslav Second League or the country's top division.
won the PrvaLiga title as a footballer and manager.
Following the independence of Slovenia, the Football Association of Slovenia separated from the Football Association of Yugoslavia and created their own football competitions. For the first time in history, top Slovenian clubs competed in the newly formed Slovenian football league for the title of Slovenian champion. Of the founding clubs in the PrvaLiga, only Maribor, Gorica and Celje have not been relegated. The format and the number of clubs in the league has changed over time, ranging from 21 clubs in the first season to 10 clubs in its present form. The top clubs at the end of the season are awarded a qualifying spot in the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League, with the bottom one being relegated to the Slovenian Second League, 2. SNL.
Olimpija won the first title. They had a long tradition of playing in the Yugoslav first league and their squad was still composed of players from that era. Olimpija dominated the league and won a further three championships before Gorica won their first in the 1995–96 season. Following Gorica's success, Maribor won their first championship in 1997. This started a record-breaking streak of seven successive league championships which came to an end when Gorica won their second title in the 2003–04 season. The club from Nova Gorica went on to win an additional two titles, becoming the third club to win three consecutive championships. During the 2006–07 season Domžale, a club that played in the Slovenian second division three seasons earlier, won their first title, a feat they repeated the next season. Following the 2008–09 season, Maribor became the major force in Slovenian football for the second time, having won eight out of 12 championships since then.
Maribor is the most successful club; they have won the championship 15 times. Seven of Maribor's titles came during the late 1990s and early 2000s when the club was led alternately by managers Bojan Prašnikar, Ivo Šušak and Matjaž Kek. From 2008 to this date the club won an additional eight titles. Between 2008 and 2013, Darko Milanič has led the club to four championships. In 2017 and 2019, respectively, during his second spell with the club, Milanič won additional two titles with Maribor. Olimpija has won four titles, all in successive years between 1992 and 1995. In addition, Olimpija is the only Slovenian football champion no longer in existence, having been dissolved by the end of the 2004–05 season when they filed for bankruptcy. Tied with four championships is Gorica who won their first title in 1996 and an additional three in successive years between 2004 and 2006. Domžale and Olimpija Ljubljana have won two titles each, followed by Koper and Celje, who won their only championship in 2010 and 2020, respectively. Maribor has won the Slovenian version of the double the most; they have won the league and cup four times in the same season. The current champions are Celje, who won the 2019–20 edition.

Champions

Champions also won the Slovenian Cup that season

YearChampions
Runners-upThird placeLeading goalscorer
Goals
1991–92OlimpijaMariborIzola 29
1992–93Olimpija MariborMura 25
1993–94Olimpija MuraMaribor 23
1994–95Olimpija MariborGorica 25
1995–96GoricaOlimpijaMura 28
1996–97 PrimorjeGorica 21
1997–98MuraGorica 21
1998–99 GoricaRudar Velenje 17
1999–2000GoricaRudar Velenje 24
2000–01OlimpijaPrimorje 23
2001–02PrimorjeKoper 16
2002–03CeljeOlimpija 21
2003–04Gorica OlimpijaMaribor 19
2004–05Gorica DomžaleCelje 18
2005–06Gorica DomžaleKoper 24
2006–07DomžaleGoricaMaribor 22
2007–08Domžale KoperGorica 22
2008–09GoricaRudar Velenje 17
2009–10KoperMariborGorica 23
2010–11DomžaleKoper 16
2011–12 Olimpija LjubljanaMura 05 22
2012–13 Olimpija LjubljanaDomžale 17
2013–14KoperRudar Velenje 19
2014–15CeljeDomžale 17
2015–16Olimpija LjubljanaMariborDomžale

17
2016–17GoricaOlimpija Ljubljana 17
2017–18 MariborDomžale 18
2018–19Olimpija LjubljanaDomžale 18
2019–20Celje MariborOlimpija Ljubljana 26

Total titles won

Correct as of 2019–20 Slovenian PrvaLiga season. As of 2020, a total of seven different clubs have been Slovenian football champions during the 28 PrvaLiga seasons.
Club
WinnersRunners-upWinning years
Maribor 1571996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2008–09, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2016–17, 2018–19
Gorica 451995–96, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06
Olimpija 431991–92, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95
Domžale 232006–07, 2007–08
Olimpija Ljubljana 232015–16, 2017–18
Koper 122009–10
Celje 122019–20

Footnotes