Akademija Pandev

Stadion Blagoj Istatov holds up to 9,200 people, though older counts put it closer to 6,370. Locally it still goes by two other names, Mladost and Kukuš. For younger age groups the club uses its own training base, Sportski centar Pandev, opened in 2019-2020 and built for a few hundred spectators rather than thousands.

The academy came first, registered on 29 March 2010; a senior team followed only in 2014. Goran Pandev founded it and gave it his name, and since August 2022 a 90% stake has belonged to Brera Holdings PLC, with Pandev retaining the rest — the full name on paperwork now reads FC AP Brera Strumica. Ilija Matenicharov serves as president.

Between 2015 and 2018 the club won the Third League East, then the Second League, then finished third on its Premier League debut in 2017/18 — a division climbed in successive seasons rather than settled into gradually. That third-place finish repeated the following year, each time carrying European qualification with it. Ljupcho Doriev led the scoring charts in 2018/19, the peak of that run, before leaving the following year.

The club reached the final again in 2021, losing to Sileks on penalties after the tie finished goalless. The pandemic-interrupted 2019/20 season, ending in seventh place, is a reminder that the early climb has not always continued in a straight line.