# FC Chernomorets Balchik

Chernomorets (Bulgarian: Черноморец) is a Bulgarian football club based in Balchik, that competes in the North-East Third League, the 3rd tier of Bulgarian football. The team plays its home games at the local Balchik Stadium with 2,618 seats.

## History

Chernomorets were founded as Sport Club Strela in late 1918 by English and Italian soldiers after World War I. The team finally became known as Chernomorets in 1957.
In its history, Chernomorets has played mainly in the Bulgarian amateur divisions. Until the 1976/77 season, the team participated at most in the third Bulgarian division but gained promotion to the B Group for the 1977/78 season. The next season was not so successful and the team was relegated back to the third division (The club finishing in 17th place in the group).
Chernomorets qualified for the second time in its history for the second division by finishing in 3rd place in North-Eastern V Group in the 2007–08 season. In this period, in the club worked as an assistant coach former famous football player Iliyan Kiryakov.
Chernomorets withdrew from B PFG in February 2011 due to suffering from finance debts.
Between 9 November 2014 and 27 March 2016, Chernomorets won 37 consecutive games in the third division. The club sent a letter to the Guinness Book of World Records as a jest for its achievement.
In the 2015–16 season, the team finished first and won promotion to the B Group after five years of absence, but on 12 June 2016, they announced that would stay in the V Group and won't compete in the professional tier due to financial reasons. Next season, Chernomorets finished first once more, but this time the team accepted participation in the Second League. Chernomorets managed to remain three seasons in the Second League, but the team was eventually plagued by financial problems in 2020 and was disqualified during the 2019–20 season and demoted back to the Third League. After three years in the third league, Chernomorets again managed to gain promotion to the second league for the 2023–24 season under head coach Martin Hristov losing only a single game and conceding only 13 goals having the best defence and attack in the league simultaneously.

## Honours

* Second League:
** 7th place: 2018–19
* Third League:
** Winners (3): 2015–16, 2016–17, 2022–23
* Bulgarian Cup:
** Round of 16 (2): 2018–19, 2020–21
* Cup of Bulgarian Amateur Football League:
** Winners (1): 2016–17

## Players
### Current squad

As of 28 April 2024
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 1 | GK | BUL | Stamen Boyadzhiev |
| 2 | DF | BUL | Yordan Radev |
| 3 | DF | BUL | Ivaylo Minchev |
| 4 | DF | BUL | Petar Ivanov |
| 5 | MF | BUL | Dani Bonev |
| 6 | MF | BUL | Vladislav Georgiev |
| 10 | MD | BRA | Lucas Cardoso |
| 11 | MD | BUL | Stefan Mitev |
| 8 | DF | STP | Adjeil Neves |
| 9 | FW | GNB | Paulo Costa |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 12 | DF | BEL | William Fonkeu |
| 15 | DF | BUL | Georgi Radev (Captain) |
| 17 | MF | BUL | Teodor Totev |
| 18 | DF | BUL | Nasko Yankov |
| 19 | MF | BUL | Ivan Tomov |
| 20 | FW | USA | Georgio Dimitrov |
| 23 | MF | BUL | Aleks Nakov |
| 27 | GK | BUL | Kristiyan Nedelchev |
| 30 | GK | BUL | Galin Grigorov |
For recent transfers, see Transfers summer 2023 and Transfers winter 2023–24.

## Notable players

Had international caps for their respective countries, held any club record, or had more than 100 league appearances. Players whose name is listed in bold represented their countries.

## Past seasons
### League positions

| Season | League | Place | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts | Bulgarian Cup |
| 2011–12 | V AFG (III) | 10 | 8 | 7 | 13 | 43 | 34 | 36 | not qualified |
| 2012–13 | V AFG | 7 | 11 | 8 | 9 | 37 | 31 | 41 | not qualified |
| 2013–14 | V AFG | 13 | 8 | 2 | 20 | 39 | 63 | 26 | not qualified |
| 2014–15 | V AFG | 2 | 24 | 4 | 2 | 85 | 14 | 76 | not qualified |
| 2015–16 | V AFG | 1 | 24 | 1 | 1 | 79 | 14 | 73 | First round |
| 2016–17 | Third League | 1 | 24 | 4 | 0 | 67 | 9 | 76 | First round |
| 2017–18 | Second League (II) | 11 | 10 | 9 | 11 | 37 | 40 | 39 | First round |
| 2018–19 | Second League | 7 | 10 | 7 | 13 | 27 | 35 | 37 | Second round |
| Green marks a season followed by promotion, red a season followed by relegation. ||||||||||