Naxxar Lions

The Derby of the North against Mosta pulls Naxxar Lions out of the mid-table anonymity that has otherwise defined the club for most of this century; whatever else is going on in a given season, that fixture still turns the league table on its head for ninety minutes.

Naxxar was the first organised football side to come out of the region, and the club dates its formation to 1920. The badge and the nickname, Pride of the North, point at that same claim to the district rather than at any single trophy on the shelf.

The honours case is built almost entirely out of the lower divisions. Titles in the Third and Fourth Division through the mid-1980s, followed by the Second Division crown in 1986-87, read as the ladder the club climbed rather than as a list of separate wins. That climb had a name attached to it: Michael Zammit Tabona took over as president in 1984 with the team in the Third Division and pushed it up three divisions inside five years, into the Premier Division by 1989. He stayed in charge until 2000, and the club's fortunes did not survive his departure cleanly — relegation and a difficult stretch followed almost immediately.

The First Division title has come round three times since, in 1987-88, 1993-94 and 2012-13, each one a return trip rather than a breakthrough, since Naxxar has never turned a Second Division promotion into a Premier League campaign that stuck. A 1–1 friendly against Manchester United in 1987 remains the name most visitors ask about, though it settled nothing in the league.

What the club has never done is win the Premier League or lift the FA Trophy. Sixth place in 2023-24 stands as the best top-flight finish on record, which leaves the Premier League itself as the one line still missing from the honours list.