Question: What has a 12-year-old child never seen? Answer: A Bulgarian champion different than Ludogorets!
Nothing in the history of the team from little Bulgarian town named Razgrad can suggest that years later they would become the biggest nightmare for the previous strongest teams in Bulgaria. Established in 1945, Ludogorets was a longtime participant in the second division of the Bulgarian championship. After a series of name changes and various mergers with other Razgrad teams, fluctuating between the second and third leagues, they reached 2001.
Then two enthusiasts decided to revive the Ludogorets team by creating the “Ludogorie” project as the successor and legal heir of the original team from the middle of the last century. In order to successfully develop youth football, they undertook a new merger, and the team competed under the name “Razgrad 2000”. Years followed, during which despite winning their group, the team declined to participate in professional football. However, after finally entering the third professional league and several unsuccessful attempts to advance to the second league, they succeeded.
This became a fact, and after some twists of fate, one of the teams withdrew from participating in the second league, and its place had to be filled by the winner of a playoff between “Razgrad 2000” and “Maritsa” Plovdiv. Coincidentally or not, “Maritsa” also withdrew from the playoff, and “Razgrad 2000” became a participant in the second professional league.
New financial benefactor, new name, first successes…
In 2010, the “Razgrad 2000” team was renamed to “Ludogorets 1945”. However, the battle was serious in the second league, and the team was in the middle of the standings. That’s when businessman Kiril Domuschiev came to the forefront. As one of the richest people in the country, after becoming the owner of Ludogorets, he ambitiously aimed to make it a top team. The team from Razgrad won all its matches until the end of the championship and earned the right to promotion to the First League.
Ludogorets impressed not only Bulgaria but also the world, by winning everything possible in its debut season in the “A” group. The team became champion in an unquestionable manner, defeating the record title holder CSKA.
Shortly before that, Ludogorets also won the Bulgarian Cup, followed by the Super Cup of the country. Thus, as a debutant in the First League, the “eagles” won three cups and started a series of twelve consecutive championship titles, with only the thirteenth, which is just one victory away, remaining in the remaining four matches until the end of the season.
“Fortune” flies over the Ludogorets stadium…
The nickname “eagles” comes from the team’s emblem, which depicts an eagle, the same as Ludogorets’ mascot.
The team’s mascot is the eagle Fortuna. Ludogorets, along with the Portuguese Benfica and the Italian Lazio, are the three teams in the world that have living eagles as mascots. Benfica’s eagle is named Vitoria, and Lazio’s is Olympia.
The idea for Ludogorets to acquire a live mascot arose during a meeting between the owners of Lazio and those of the Bulgarian team. The Roman team assisted Ludogorets in obtaining the eagle, which made its debut flight on Bulgarian soil minutes before the match against Valencia at the Vasil Levski Stadium.
Once again, a Bulgarian team in the group stage of the Champions League!
However, Ludogorets’ successes are not only related to victories in the domestic championship. The team, for the second time in Bulgaria’s history, reached the group stage of the Champions League and became the first Bulgarian team to earn points in this phase of the tournament after defeating Basel 1-0 in Sofia. One season later, the Greens once again reached the group stage of the Champions League. In this way, they became the only Bulgarian team to qualify twice for the groups of the most prestigious European club tournament. Additionally, Ludogorets qualified seven times for the group stage of the Europa League, and in the past season, the Greens participated for the first time in the group stage of the Conference League.
It seems that there are no limits for Ludogorets, and the team only moves forward and upward in both the Bulgarian championship and the European tournaments. Therefore, we can with bated breath follow whether anyone can stop them and how far their flights, the “eagles”, are capable of reaching.
