Celje

Celje sits in the Savinja valley, an industrial town whose 19th-century wealth came from ironworks and salt trading, and the club has worn its name through nearly every version of the country around it. Founded on 28 December 1919 as SK Celje, it became NK Kladivar in 1946, merged with Železničar in 1967, was renamed NK Publikum in 1992, and only got the town's own name back, NK Celje, in 2007 — four identities for one dressing room.

Since Slovenia's top flight became independent in 1991, Celje has never dropped out of it, a run matched by few clubs in the country. The championship itself came late: the first title arrived in 2019–20, a second followed in 2023–24, and a third in 2025–26. The Slovenian Cup came twice, twenty years apart — 2004–05 and 2024–25.

The club's nickname, Grofje — the Counts — nods to Celje's own counts, the medieval dynasty that once ruled much of the region from the town. Home games are played at Stadion Z'dežele, known commercially as Arena Petrol, in front of 13,059 seats, all of them under cover.

Ivan Hribernik — Hribernik — played 344 matches and scored 101 goals between 1958 and 1978, the longest individual thread in the club's history. Since independence, Simon Sešlar holds the appearance record with 332 games, and Andrej Gorenak — Andrej Gorišek — the scoring one with 68. Benjamin Verbič was named the best player in the Slovenian league in 2014–15 while still at Celje, before a move abroad.

The Štajerski derby against Maribor remains the fixture that defines the season regardless of where either club finishes in it. What Celje has not yet done is test itself regularly in Europe on the back of these titles — the domestic run has outpaced any continental one.