Cherno More Varna

The club that eventually took the city's name carried that trade into its identity: green and white, an anchor on the badge, and a nickname — the Sailors — that never needed explaining to anyone who grew up near the docks. Cherno More itself is a late arrival to a lineage that runs back further. A sports society called Galata was renamed Ticha, a breakaway side called Vladislav split off in 1921 and rejoined in 1945, and only in 1959 did a merger with the Botev club produce the name the city knows today. The club still counts the older sides' honours as its own.

That inheritance is where the four league titles come from — 1925, 1926, 1934 and 1937/38 — all won as Vladislav or Ticha. What followed was a wait that outlasted most of the century: no league, cup or Super Cup since 1948, until 2015 broke it twice over. Cherno More beat Levski 2-1 after extra time to lift the Bulgarian Cup, then took the Super Cup with a 1-0 win over Ludogorec.

Ivan Vasilev remains the reference point for what the academy can produce: 196 appearances in green and white before he left to become a champion with CSKA and reach a European Cup semi-final. The Varna derby, close to a century old and around 95 meetings deep, still tilts in Cherno More's favour on the head-to-head.

Ticha holds 8,250 since its 2008 refit replaced the old terracing with plastic seats. Eleven years on from the last trophy, the search for a fifth league title — one the club could finally claim in its own name — continues.