1918–1945: Foundation of SC Sokol

Spartak Varna was founded on 28 August 1918 by a group of young people, who were playing football together for two years. At the initial meeting, regarding the establishment of the club, the name was decided to be SC Sokol. Niagol Kolev was elected as the first chairman of the club. A few days later, the members of the board registered the Football Club to the government under the name "Bulgarski Sokol". The colors of the team were blue and white. "Bulgarski Sokol," one of the poor suburban teams in Varna, is poorly circumstanced in comparison to the leading teams at that time such as Ticha and "Vladislav." Nonetheless, the football team quickly became stronger, and improved their style of play.

On 30 January 1924 "Bulgarski Sokol" merged with the sport club "Shipka". These days the team proved itself as one of the strongest teams in Varna. Among all the players called with a lot of love from the fans "Falcons" with most successful plays was the forward Mihail Tunchev. In 1924 he was invited in the national team and that way he became the first national player of the team.

A few years later started the rise of the team. In the season 1928/29 the team won for the first time the championship of Varna, and joined the State Championship where they reached third place. Two years later 1930/31 the falcons were again champions of Varna. For the State Championship they reached the final with the Sofia's AS-23. Next year "Shipchenski Sokol" again reached the final, where the rival was the capitol's team Slavia. On 18.09.1932 in front of 10 000 audience on the football field of AS-23 the falcons won with 2:1 and became State Champion and Winner of the Cup of the King. In the next season "Shipchenski sokol" were again champion of Varna, and for the State Championship they reach for the third consecutive time the final. On 03.10.1933 in Sofia rival of the "falcons" was PFC Levski Sofia. Varna's team lost with 3:1 and took the second place in the State Championship.

1945–2010: Merge and Spartak naming

In 1945 the club merged with other two Varna's football clubs "Levski" and "Radetski". This happened on 18 October 1945, and the team accepted a new name - Spartak Varna (the name Spartak means "Spartacus", a gladiator who led an uprising against Ancient Rome). In the years between 1945–1948, three times Spartak reached the semi-finals of the State Championship. In 1950, the team took the fifth place in the newly created "A" Republican Football League. Spartak Stalin relegated to B League in 1952 but returned to A League at next year. Spartak again relegated to second level in 1963–64 season but returned in 1964–65 season. However, this return was short-lived and relegated in 1965–66.

In 1955, Spartak won the third place and bronze medals in the championship of "A" League. In 1959, the forward of Spartak, Georgi Arnaudov-"Alaha", became a shooter of the championship with nine goals. Two years later, Spartak again had a winner in the shooters list: Liuben Kostov with 12 goals. In 1960/61, Spartak had very good matches in the tournament of the Soviet Army which then was playing the role of the Cup of Bulgaria. They reached the final and met the strongest team in Bulgaria at that time- CSKA. Spartak lost the final 3:0. As a finalist, however, Spartak won the right to play in the 1961–62 European Cup Winners' Cup. Spartak met Austrian club SK Rapid Wien in the first round. After a goalless draw in Wien, Spartak lost the second leg 5–2 at home and was eliminated. In 1969, another sport club merged with Spartak – it was the "Lokomotiv" sport club, a smaller club from Varna. The merge became a fact on 06.03.1969 and the club took the name "JSK-Spartak". JSK-Spartak returned to first level in 1971 but relegated in 1973–74 and returned to first level in 1974–75. JSK-Spartak relegated again in 1977–78.

In 1982 the "Falcons" reached the final of the Cup of Bulgaria as they won the semi-final against Levski-Spartak in Kazanlak in front of a crowd of 20,000. In Plovdiv, Spartak lost the final 4:0 to CSKA-Septemvriisko Zname, but as a finalist they obtained the right to play in the Cup of the National Cup Winners. In the first round, Spartak faced Turkish side Mersin Idman Yurdu. Spartak managed to win in Varna and draw in Mersin, enabling progression. In the next round, Spartak had the privilege to play former European champions Manchester United. Spartak displayed strong performances in both games, but narrowly lost 1-2 at the Yuri Gagarin Stadium and 0-1 at Old Trafford, thus suffering elimination. In the same year, JSK-Spartak returned to the A League. In the season 1983/84, after mighty and successful games, Spartak reached third place. The goalkeeper Krasimir Zafirov was declared the best goalkeeper in the championship. Since 1985 the football was separated from the other sports in JSK-Spartak, and that way the FC Spartak Varna is differentiated as well.

The 80's will be remembered and with the regular participation of the team in the tournaments for the Varna Summer Cup. Rivals of the "falcons" were the teams of NK Rijeka Croatia, the English Oxford United F.C., Hungarian Újpest FC and many others. In 1988/89, Spartak became the first Bulgarian team with private sponsor and president Atanas Atanasov-Kebie. From the autumn of 1994, president of the club was Nikolay Ishkov. Spartak relegated to B league in 1988–89 and returned to A League in 1991–92. However, Spartak relegated to second level in 1993–94.

In the season 1994/95 after mighty games the falcons won the cup as the most progressive team in Bulgaria. In the same season the forward Ivo Georgiev scores 21 goals and became shooter number one of Bulgaria. At this time Spartak was considered one of the strongest teams in Bulgaria. For the first time there was successful transfer policy and perspective selection. Many of the players has a profitable offers from capitol's and foreign clubs. In its 84 years of history Spartak went through many peaks and downfall moments, but it left a bright trace in the Bulgarian football. F.C. Spartak is one of the clubs with the greatest traditions, between the 10 clubs which have most participations in the A PFG, and between the 15 who reached the Champions title of Bulgaria. The same season Spartak returned to the first level.

2010–2015: Dark times

In May 2010, Spartak Varna was relegated to Bulgarian North East V group due to the inability to comply with requirements for a professional license. As a result, under new ownership, the club was redounded as Spartak 1918. A month later, fans of Spartak Varna (forming the majority of the ultras), not happy with the previous management and not seeing a change after the new registration, formed a new club taking over the license of FC Topolite. However, although reaching an agreement with FC Topolite, the club was not allowed to change the name of that club to Spartak. The fan-owned team finished second after Spartak 1918 in the first half of the 2010/2011 season, but due to financial problems, it stopped its participation. The group of fans who formed FC Topolite kept boycotting the current management of Spartak 1918 for the next few years, by not attending the team's games.

2015–present: Refounding of new Spartak

First-team squad

As of 14 January 2024

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 2 DF  BUL Velislav Boev 3 DF  BUL Preslav Petrov 5 MF  BUL Yoan Baurenski 6 MF  BUL Aleksandar Tsvetkov 9 FW  BUL Mehmed Sabri 10 MF  BUL Rumen Rumenov (captain) 11 MF  BUL Viktor Mitev 13 MF  BUL Georgi Mariyanov 14 MF  PAN Romeesh Ivey 17 FW  USA Dakarai Truvillion 18 MF  BUL Hidayet Hyusein 19 MF  BUL Aleksandar Aleksandrov 22 DF  BUL Stefan Stefanov 23 GK  BUL Georgi Georgiev

No. Pos. Nation Player 29 FW  BUL Ahmed Ahmedov 44 DF  BUL Angel Granchov 45 MF  BUL Daniel Nachev 47 MF  BUL Svetoslav Nikolov 67 GK  BUL Denislav Zhekov 81 DF  BUL Atanas Zehirov 82 DF  BUL Lyuboslav Marinov 89 GK  BUL Nikola Videnov 99 MF  BUL Daniel Halachev — DF  BUL Hristofor Hubchev — DF  BUL Radoslav Terziev — MF  BUL Georgi Babaliev — MF  BUL Velislav Minkov

For recent transfers, see Transfers summer 2023 and Transfers winter 2023–24.

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Second-team squad

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.

Board of directors

Position	Name	Nationality
President	Stefan Kalimenov
Vice President	Evgeniiy Balev
Sports director	Engibar Engibarov
Member	Krasimir Zafirov
Member	Borislav Georgiev
Member	Radostin Stanev
Member	Martin Zafirov
Member	Todor Stoykov
Member	Georgi Simeonov
Member	Marin Marinov

Current technical body

Position	Name	Nationality
Head coach	vacant
Assistant coach	Mihail Tzokov
Assistant coach	Nikolay Grekov
Goalkeeper coach	Vitomir Vutov
Academy director	Vasil Petrov
Academy Coordinator	Miroslav Milošević

Manager history

Dates Name Honours 1932 Ferenz Fann 1 A Group Title 1933 Dietmar Marius 1945 Aleksandar Kondov 1949–1950 Stefan Kalachev 1950 Kiril Pavlov 1951 Hristo Minkovski 1952–1954 Kiril Pavlov 1954–1955 Trendafil Stankov 1956–1957 Stefan Kalachev 1958–1964 Toma Zahariev 1964 Trendafil Stankov 1965–1966 Petar Minchev 1966–1967 Ivan Radoev 1967–1969 Toma Zahariev 1969 Trendafil Stankov 1970–1971 Stefan Semov 1971 Vladislav Mirchev 1971 Ivan Filipov 1972 Vasil Spasov 1972–1973 Borislav Milenov 1973–1974 Iliya Kirchev 1974–1975 Dobromir Tashkov 1975–1978 Dimitar Doychinov 1978–1979 Iliya Kirchev 1979–1980 Ivan Filipov 1980 Boris Pavlov 1981 Vasil Nenov 1981–1983 Ivan Vutsov 1983–1985 Lyudmil Goranov

Dates Name Honours 1985–1987 Ivan Filipov 1987–1988 Evgeni Yanchovski 1988–1989 Blagoy Kalfov 1989–1990 Stancho Bonchev 1990 Ivan Vasilev 1991–1993 Lyudmil Goranov 1993 Blagoy Kalfov 1993 Kiril Ivkov 1994 Krasimir Zafirov 1994–1995 Lyudmil Goranov 1995–1996 Nikola Hristov 1996–1997 Stefan Grozdanov 1997 Ferario Spasov 1997 Blagoy Kalfov 1998 Dimitar Penev 1998–1999 Radoslav Zdravkov 1999–2000 Velislav Vutsov 2000–2002 Stefan Grozdanov 2002 Dimitar Stoychev 2003 Miroslav Mironov 2004 Stefan Grozdanov 2004 Rumen Dimov 2004 Petar Kurdov 2005 Radoslav Zdravkov 2006 Nikolay Stanchev 2006–2007 Miroslav Mironov 2007 Nedelcho Matushev 2007 Georgi Ivanov 2007–2008 Atanas Atanasov

Dates Name Honours 2008 Radoslav Zdravkov 2008 Slobodan Stašević 2008 Ilko Stanchev 2009 Dragoljub Simonović 2009 Anatolii Kirilov † 2009 Atanas Atanasov 2009–2010 Stoil Trankov 2010 Todor Popov 2010 Deyan Donchev 2010–2012 Dimitar Trendafilov 2012–2013 Ivan Naydenov 2013–2014 Georgi Ivanov 2014 Atanas Atanasov 2014 Zlatko Yankov 2015 Marian Pane 2015–2016 Dimitar Pantev 1 A RFG Title 2016 Trayan Dyankov † 2016–2017 Atanas Atanasov (interim) 2017 Ivan Naydenov 2017 Zlatin Mihaylov 2018–2019 Engibar Engibarov 2019 Diyan Bozhilov 2019–2020 Kyriakos Georgiou 2020–2022 Vasil Petrov 2022 Georgi Ivanov* 2022 Todor Kiselichkov 2023 Dimitar Dimitrov 2023 Valentin Iliev 2023–2024 Vasil Petrov

League positions

Past seasons

Results of league and cup competitions by season

Season	League											Bulgarian Cup	Other competitions		Top goalscorer
	Division	Level	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts	Pos
2015–16	A Regional Group Varna	4	22	19	0	03	90	20	+70	57	1st	Did not qualify	Cup of AFL	R1
2016–17	Third League	3	22	4	1	17	21	51	–30	10	12th	Did not qualify		R1	Ivaylo Rusev	6
2017–18		3	30	10	6	14	43	61	–18	36	8th	Did not qualify		R1	Desislav Dyakov	10
2018–19		3	29	22	7	0	105	19	+86	73	1st	Round of 32		R1	Rumen Nikolov Valentin Veselinov	14
2019–20	Second League	2	22	2	4	15	6	42	–36	10	15th	Round of 32			Rumen Nikolov	2
2020–21	Third League	3	28	22	5	1	81	11	+70	71	1st	Round of 32	Cup of AFL	R1	Yancho Andreev	13
2021–22	Second League	2	36	21	7	8	64	39	+25	70	3rd	Round of 32			Yancho Andreev	12
2022–23	First League	1	35	5	10	20	32	65	–33	25	16th	Quarter-finals			Denys Balanyuk	5
2023–24	Second League	2										Qualified

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