NK Slaven Belupo

Slaven Belupo
Full name	Nogometni Klub Slaven; Belupo Koprivnica
Nickname(s)	Slaven; Farmaceuti (Pharmacists)
Founded	20 August 1912
Ground	Gradski Stadion; Koprivnica, Croatia; (Capacity: 4,000)
Chairman	Stanislav Biondić
Manager	Milivoj Bračun
League	Prva HNL
2008-09	Prva HNL, 4th
Home colours	Away colours

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NK Slaven Belupo, often referred to simply as Slaven and known internationally as NK Slaven Koprivnica, is a Croatian football club based in the city of Koprivnica in the north of the country. They play their home matches at the Gradski Stadion in Koprivnica with a seating capacity of 3,134 which is planned to be expanded until the end of 2007/08 season by making completely new all-seater east stand.

[edit] History

The first football club in Koprivnica was founded back in June 1907, when a student team was formed and named Đački nogometni klub, which is Croatian for Students' Football Club. The name Slaven first appeared when a sports club named HŠK Slaven was founded by the members of the Friedrich family on August 20, 1912 and this is considered to be the foundation date of the present-day club. The club won the Croatian regional championship in 1920. Slaven was subsequently renamed HŠK Victorija, but was then disbanded due to financial difficulties and the city of Koprivnica was subsequently without a football club for four years, between 1926 and 1930.

Between 1930 and 1945, the club was known as HŠK Koprivnica, HŠK Danica and RNHŠK Sloga, before the name Slaven returned with the foundation of FD Slaven. Between 1953 and 1958, the club was known as SD Podravka and was then renamed NK Slaven. The name Slaven remained until today, with only the names of the club's principal sponsors being added to it. The club was thus known as NK Slaven Bilokalnik between 1992 and 1994, after which it was given its current name following a sponsorship agreement with the Koprivnica-based pharmaceutical company Belupo.

Slaven gained their first promotion to the Prva HNL in 1997 and have been playing in the league without relegation ever since. In 2000, they surprisingly finished fifth in the Prva HNL and qualified for the UEFA Intertoto Cup. In their first Intertoto Cup appearance, they managed to reach the third round of the competition before being eliminated by Czech club SK Sigma Olomouc after losing 2-0 at home and getting a goalless draw on the road. One year later, they repeated the success and were only stopped by renowned English club Aston Villa F.C. with a 3-2 aggregate defeat. In their next two Intertoto Cup appearances, they were even more successful as they reached the semifinals of the competition on both occasions, only to be eliminated after losing to renowned clubs Stuttgart from Germany and Lille from France respectively. Their last Intertoto Cup appearance in 2005 ended in the third round with a 4-0 aggregate defeat to Spanish club Deportivo La Coruña.

In 2007, the club reached the Croatian Cup final after beating defending Cup holders NK Rijeka 3-2 in the second leg of the semifinals, going on to play Dinamo Zagreb in the final. Although losing to Dinamo in the final, 2-1 on aggregate, Slaven took a place in the UEFA Cup qualifying for the first time in their history, since their opponents had already qualified for the UEFA Champions League by virtue of having won the Prva HNL.

Slaven reached the second qualifying round of the UEFA Cup 2007-08, beating Albanian side KS Teuta Durrës 8-4 on aggregate before being eliminated after a 4-2 aggregate defeat to Turkish club Galatasaray S.K..^[1] In 2008, Slaven finished runners-up in the Croatian league, which is their best domestic result to date.^[2]

On August 28, 2008 NK Slaven Belupo qualified for the UEFA Cup 2008-09 by beating Aris of Greece 2-0 at their home stadium, to reach an aggregate score of 2-1, thereby achieving arguably the best result in the history of the club. ^[3]^[4]

[edit] Current squad

As of June 30, 2009

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Tomislav Pelin
3	MF	Kristijan Čaval
4	DF	Elvis Kokalović
5	FW	Matija Poredski
6	DF	Kaja Rogulj
7	MF	Dalibor Poldrugač (captain)
8	MF	Nikola Šafarić
9	FW	Aljoša Vojnović
10	MF	Srebrenko Posavec
12	GK	Silvio Rodić
13	MF	Mario Bilen
14	FW	Mateas Delić

No.	Position	Player
15	MF	Matija Jakšinić
16	MF	Vedran Purić
17	FW	Bojan Vručina
18	DF	Stipe Lapić
20	MF	Mario Gregurina
21	FW	Mario Jurić
22	MF	Nicolas Nynkeu
24	FW	Franjo Tepurić
25	GK	Goran Bulić
26	DF	Alen Maras
28	DF	Siniša Rožman
30	DF	Csaba Csizmadia

[edit] Notable players

[edit] European record

[edit] Summary

Competition	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Years
UEFA Cup	10	4	1	5	21	12	2007-08, 2008-09
Intertoto Cup	34	17	7	10	50	30	2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005
Total	44	21	8	15	71	42

Source: uefa.com, Last updated on 6 December 2008
Pld = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against

[edit] By Season

Season	Competition	Round	Opponent	Home	Away	Agg
2000–01	Intertoto Cup	R1	Glenavon	3–0	1–1	4–1
		R2	Zagłębie Lubin	0–0	1–1	1–1
		R3	Sigma Olomouc	1–1	0–1	1–2
2001–02	Intertoto Cup	R1	Anorthosis	7–0	2–0	9–0
		R2	Bastia	1–0	1–0	2–0
		R3	Aston Villa	2–1	0–2	2–3
2002–03	Intertoto Cup	R1	OD Trenčín	5–0	1–3	6–3
		R2	Belenenses	2–0	1–0	3–0
		R3	Marek Dupnitsa	3–1	3–0	6–1
		SF	VfB Stuttgart	0–1	1–2	1–3
2004–05	Intertoto Cup	R1	Hibernians	3–0	1–2	4–2
		R2	Vllaznia	2–0	0–1	2–1
		R3	Spartak Trnava	0–0	2–2	2–2
		SF	Lille	1–1	0–3	1–4
2005–06	Intertoto Cup	R1	Drava Ptuj	1–0	1–0	2–0
		R2	Gloria Bistriţa	3–2	1–0	4–2
		R3	Deportivo La Coruña	0–3	0–1	0–4
2007–08	UEFA Cup	QR1	Teuta	6–2	2–2	8–4
2007–08	UEFA Cup	QR2	Galatasaray	1–2	1–2	2–4
2008–09	UEFA Cup	QR1	Marsaxlokk	4–0	4–0	8–0
		QR2	Aris Thessaloniki	2–0	0–1	2–1
		R1	CSKA Moscow	1–2	0–1	1–3
2009–10	Europa League	QR1	Birkirkara	1–0	0–0	1–0
2009–10	Europa League	QR2	Milano	TBD	TBD	TBD