FC Vihren Sandanski

Vihren

Full name	FC Vihren Sandanski
Nickname(s)	The gladiators
Founded	24 May 1925
Ground	Sandanski Stadium, Sandanski (Capacity: 6 000)
Chairman	Vacant
Manager	Filip Filipov
League	West B PFG
2010–11	West B PFG, 7th
Home colours Away colours

FC Vihren (Bulgarian: Вихрен Сандански) is a Bulgarian football club from the town of Sandanski, currently playing in the West B PFG, the second division of Bulgarian football. The club's home ground is the Sandanski Stadium in Sandanski with a capacity of 6,000. Vihren Sandanski's team colours are green and white.

Equipment

Currently the team's home kit is green and the away kit is white. Various combinations of green and white have been used through the years, but green remains the basic colour of the team.

History

The club was founded on 24 May 1925. It has carried the names Ustrem, Gotse Delchev, Yane Sandanski and Cherveno zname throughout its history. Until the 2004/05 season, the team participated in either the second or the third Bulgarian division, but gained a promotion to the Bulgarian A PFG for the 2005/06 season. In the first year of A PFG, FC Vihren's owner decided to bring players from other country. His first signing was the ex-FC Porto player Jose Furtado. He was from the Portugal G.D. Tourizense for free. Brazilian player Serginio Dias, and Portuguese players Mauro Alexandre and Nuno Almeida were just a few players who signed for FC Vihren after Furtado. The team coach was named Petar Zhekov. Vihren finished season 2005/06 on 10th place in A PFG with 32 points. In season 2007-08, FC Vihren's owner Konstantin Dinev decided to bring Portuguese coach Rui Dias. With the club from Sandanski signed also eight Portuguese and two Brazilian players. But three months later, Rui Dias was discharged for poor results. Again the team finished on 10th place. Season 2008/09 started excellent with a 1-0 win against Bulgarian Vice-champion Levski Sofia. In the 4th round, the club defeated Lokomotiv Sofia. In January 2009, with Vihren signed notable Greek players Christos Maladenis and Dimitrios Zografakis. In the end of the season the team finished in 14th place and were relegated to B PFG.

Recent Seasons

Season		Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P	Cup	Notes
2004-05	B PFG	1	30	21	5	4	56	15	68	1/16	Promoted
2005-06	A PFG	10	28	10	2	16	35	55	32	1/4
2006-07	A PFG	10	30	11	4	15	27	39	37	1/8
2007-08	A PFG	10	30	9	6	15	26	29	33	1/8

Current squad

As of March 1, 2011 Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 2 DF Vangel Stoyanov 3 DF Ivo Harizanov 4 DF Tsvetelin Radev 5 MF Blagoy Nakov 6 DF Aleksandar Dyulgerov 7 MF Martin Stankev 8 MF Kostadin Nikolov 9 FW Aleksandar Ruskov 10 MF Antonio Laskov 11 FW Andon Gushterov 12 GK Hristo Bahtarliev 13 DF Rumen Karadakov

No. Position Player 14 DF Iliyan Panchev 15 FW Petar Shopov 16 MF Vasil Zahariev 17 MF Goran Churkin 18 MF Kiril Andreev 21 FW Tomas Galabov 22 DF Yuri Ivanov 23 MF Kristian Krastev 25 MF Gondju Ibrahim 26 MF Petyo Dinkov

Managerial history

This is a list of the last ten Vihren managers:

Name	Nat	From	To
Kostadin Todorov		January 2000	January 2001
Vasil Metodiev		January 2001	June 2002
Yordan Bozdanski		December 2002	May 2004
Petar Zhekov		June 2004	May 2005
Petar Zhekov		June 2005	May 2006
Dionisos Beklias		June 2006	August 2006
Petar Zhekov		August 2006	May 2007
Rui Dias		June 2007	October 2007
Eduard Eranosyan		October 2007	November 2007
Filip Filipov		December 2007	incumbent

As of December 31, 2009.

Notable players

Vasil Metodiev Vladimir Karakachiev Todor Mechev Krasimir Bakalov Valentin Stankov Atanas Manushev Plamen Mitsanski Emil Mitsanski Hristo Zlatinov

Pando Kotov Kiril Katzarov Ivan Stoyanov Bozhko Pandaziev Iliya Tochev Krasto Penev Evgeni Mihaylov Georgi Bachev

Former foreign players

Brazil Serginio Dias Ademar Miran Mauro Alexandre Bruno Paes Manoel Da Silva Cape Verde Rodolfo Lima Croatia Bruno Šiklić Vedren Muratović France Florian Lucchini

Greece Christos Maladenis Dimitrios Zografakis Dimitris Karademitros Hungary Zoltán Fehér Tihamér Lukács Macedonia Slavcho Georgievski Nigeria Shikoze Udoji Emejuru Okwudili Yusuf Bello

Portugal Jose Furtado Eduardo Simões Diogo Andrade Luis Dias Nuno Almeyda Tiago Costa Paulo Teixeira Pina Semedo Mauro Almeida

Serbia Saša Simonović Zoran Cvetković Uruguay Edgardo Simovic Argentina Gastón Pisani Venezuela Gabriel Cichero

External links

• Official website (Bulgarian)