page_title: History of NK Maribor
section_title: Zlatko Zahovič era (2007 to 2020)
hierarchical_section_title: History of NK Maribor / Zlatko Zahovič era (2007 to 2020)
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Jasmin Mešanović
context_page_description: The history of Nogometni klub Maribor covers over 55 years of football from the club based in Maribor, Slovenia. Established on 12 December 1960, the club eventually became the most successful team in the history of Slovenian football.
context_section_description: From the 2007–08 season onwards, former Slovenian international Zlatko Zahovič as the sports director, and soon afterwards, Darko Milanič as the head coach and the club's former player Ante Šimundža as the assistant coach, were appointed at the head of the club's sports department. On 10 May 2008, the club reopened Ljudski vrt stadium, which underwent a major reconstruction that lasted almost 20 months. The first match played on the new stadium was a league match against Nafta Lendava, which was won 3–1 in front of 12,435 spectators. At the start of 2008–09 season Maribor went into history as the first club that has won 1,000 points in league's history. This was achieved in the second round against Rudar in Velenje, Maribor won 2–1. In the same season the team again went far in the Slovenian Cup, reaching semi-finals. They were defeated by Ljubljana based club Interblock (4–5 on aggregate). Their home defeat 3–2 was their first ever domestic defeat on the renovated stadium. With a 1–0 home victory in front of 9,500 fans against Celje on 9 May 2009, the club managed to secure their first title after six years. The scorer of the goal that brought the side its eight league title was Dalibor Volaš.
  At the beginning of 2009–10 season, the team have won their first Slovenian Supercup title, the only domestic trophy missing among club honours. The club had also reached the final of Slovenian Cup, which was hosted on their stadium in May 2010, and won their sixth cup title after extra time, defeating Domžale. David Bunderla scored the decisive goal in the 120th minute of the match. With the latest trophy Darko Milanič became the first coach to have won all three domestic trophies in Slovenian club football. He has achieved that in only two seasons as the head coach of Maribor.
  Maribor played in another Supercup final at the beginning of the 2010–11 season, but failed to defend the title at the home ground, losing to Koper after penalties. The team had an impressive run in the UEFA Europa League where it played a total of six matches, defeating Videoton (1–1, 2–0) and Hibernian (3–0, 3–2) before losing in the play-offs against Serie A club Palermo (0–3, 3–2). On the very next day of the second match against the Italians, it was confirmed that Palermo had acquired Josip Iličić and his teammate Armin Bačinović from Maribor for a permanent move. After 15 rounds of the new season the club set a record for the best start in Slovenian league history. With eleven wins and four draws the team won an impressive 37 points and improved the previous record held by Domžale (35 points) and also improved the club's record of the generation that played in the UEFA Champions League eleven years earlier (34 points). On 12 December 2010, the club celebrated its 50th anniversary. One month later on 13 January 2011, the club announced that their financial debt, that accumulated between 1999 and 2000s, has been paid for in full. On 6 March 2011, Maribor played a home match against Gorica and lost 2–1, which was their first defeat in domestic competitions since April 2010. Although Maribor lost the 2010 Supercup final against Koper, the match officially counts as a draw, as the game finished with the score 0–0 after regulation and was decided only after penalties. Therefore, the undefeated run of the team lasted a total of 33 matches in 326 days. With the 2–1 away victory over Primorje, on 21 May 2011, Maribor secured its ninth Slovenian league title. Four days later the team played the Slovenian cup final at Stožice stadium and lost to Domžale, 4–3. Marcos Tavares was crowned as the best goalscorer of the 2010–11 season, with 16 goals. For his performances during the course of the same season he was voted as most valuable player by the 1. SNL players and the media.
  At the start of the 2011–12 season, Maribor played in the 2011 Slovenian Supercup against Domžale on 8 July 2011 and lost with the score 2–1 after regulation. This was the second consecutive loss for Maribor against Domžale in domestic cup finals in five weeks, after losing the Slovenian cu
caption: Jasmin Mešanović celebrating a last-minute equalizer in Moscow during the 2017–18 Champions League campaign.
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