CSKA Sofia

The Bulgarian army wanted a football club of its own, and in 1948 it got one: the merger of Septemvri and Chavdar with the Central House of the Armed Forces gave Sofia a side built and funded through military channels. The name that stuck was Central Sports Club of the Army, shortened to CSKA, and the nickname followed just as naturally — the Army, playing in red and white.

No Bulgarian club has matched the record since. CSKA hold 31 league titles and 22 Bulgarian Cups, most of them won across decades when the title rarely left Sofia, passed back and forth with Levski. Matches between the two are still known as the Eternal Derby, the one fixture in Bulgarian football that outweighs all others, including the Capital derby against neighbours Slavia.

Hristo Stoichkov came through the CSKA youth system before Barcelona and the Ballon d'Or. Dimitar Berbatov started there too, in 1998, and picked up a Bulgarian Cup winner's medal in 1999 before his career took him elsewhere. The old Balgarska Armia stadium came down in 2024; CSKA have played their home games at the Vasil Levski National Stadium since, while a new 18,540-seat ground rises on the same site, due in 2026. The 2010s brought a split of a different kind, when a falling-out with the club's ownership sent a group of supporters off to found a rival, CSKA 1948, under a name once carried by CSKA alone.

A European trophy has eluded CSKA throughout that history. The closest they came was a UEFA Cup semi-final in 1988/89, with Stoichkov still on the books.