Koper

Full name	Football Club Koper
Nickname(s)	Kanarčki (The Canaries)
Founded	1920 (1920)[1] (as Circolo sportivo Capodistria)
Ground	Bonifika
Capacity	4,047
President	Ante Guberac
Head coach	Aleksandar Radosavljević
League	Slovenian PrvaLiga
2022–23	Slovenian PrvaLiga, 6th of 10
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

Football Club Koper, commonly referred to as FC Koper or simply Koper, is a Slovenian football club based in Koper that competes in the Slovenian PrvaLiga, the top flight of Slovenian football. The club was founded in 1920.^[1] Koper is one of five Slovenian clubs that managed to win all three domestic trophies (league, cup and supercup).

The club's home ground is Bonifika Stadium, which has a capacity of 4,047 seats.

History

The club was formed as Circolo sportivo Capodistria in 1920.^[2] The team was made up of students, workers and fishermen. Its colours were black and white.^[2] In 1928, the club was renamed as Unione sportiva Capodistriana. Six years later, the club was renamed as Libertas.^[2]

After World War II, the club became part of a larger sports association and renamed as Aurora.^[2] By 1948, there were five clubs operating in the Koper area: Aurora, Meduza, Partizan, Edilit, and Adria.^[2] In 1955, Aurora and Meduza merged, creating NK Koper.^[2] The club played under this name in different Yugoslav leagues until 1991 and was one of the most successful Slovenian clubs. After Slovenia's independence, the club played in the Slovenian PrvaLiga. At the beginning of the 1990s, the club was achieving mid-table success. By the end of the 1990s, the club had been relegated to the second division twice, had serious financial problems, and renamed as FC Koper. With the advent of the new millennium, Koper consistently achieved positions in the upper half of the table. In 2002, they competed in the 2002 UEFA Intertoto Cup, their first international competition. Two years of mid-table anonymity and significant financial difficulties followed, in part because the former owner, Georg Suban, left substantial debts to the club and took half of the team with him when he moved to the other Slovenian PrvaLiga team, Mura.

The fans took control of the club and tried to improve its finances to save it from going bankrupt like three other major Slovenian clubs (Olimpija, Mura and Ljubljana), with reasonable success. In the 2005–06 season, Mladen Rudonja returned to the club and brought with him the Serbian-American businessman Milan Mandarić, who paid off all the remaining debts. After the first half of the season, before the arrival of the new patron, Koper was battling against relegation, but in the second part of the season, with a new coach, Milivoj Bračun, the club started an unbeaten run that led them to reach the third place in the Slovenian PrvaLiga and to win the Slovenian Cup for the first time.^[3] This also qualified the team to play in the UEFA Cup qualifying rounds in the 2006–07 season. The following seasons were more difficult, with the club narrowly avoiding relegation in 2009. In the 2009–10 season, the team was expanded and, under the leadership of veteran player Miran Pavlin, eventually won the Slovenian PrvaLiga championship for the first time,^[4] securing a place in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers, where they were defeated by Dinamo Zagreb 5–4 on aggregate (1–5, 3–0).^[5] In the aftermath, Pavlin left the club.

Following the 2016–17 season, Koper failed to obtain a competition licence and was excluded from the Slovenian top division.^[6][7]

Stadium

Bonifika Stadium

Bonifika Stadium is the team's home ground, named after the area where it is situated in the town of Koper. The stadium was built in 1948.^[8] In 2010, the stadium underwent extensive reconstruction^[9] and its current capacity is 4,047 seats.^[8]

Current squad

As of 14 November 2023^[10]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  SVN Jan Koprivec 2 DF  LBR Mark Pabai 3 DF  SVN Michael Pavlović 4 DF  CRO Franjo Prce 6 MF  SVN Luka Vešner Tičić 8 MF  SVN Omar Kočar 9 FW  FRA Timothé Nkada 10 MF  KAZ Ramazan Orazov 11 FW  NGA Bede Osuji 12 GK  SVN Tim Štrasberger 13 GK  SVN Klemen Hvalič 15 DF  SVN Maj Mittendorfer 18 DF  SVN Matej Palčič 19 FW  SVN Enej Marsetič

No. Pos. Nation Player 21 MF  SVN Nik Omladič 22 MF  SVN Maks Barišič 23 MF  SVN Luka Kambič 25 GK  CAN Nikola Čurćija 26 MF  CRO Gabriel Groznica (on loan from Lokomotiva) 27 MF  SVN Andraž Ruedl 28 DF  FRA Toura Diaby 29 MF  CRO Nikola Krajinović 30 DF  CRO Novak Tepšić 40 MF  GHA Ahmed Ankrah 44 MF  SVN Rene Hrvatin 77 MF  SVN Enej Jelenič 99 FW  BIH Nardin Mulahusejnović

Honours

Domestic league and cup results

Koper in UEFA competitions

All results (home and away) list Koper's goal tally first.

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Agg.
2002	Intertoto Cup	1R	Helsingborgs IF	0–0	0–1	0–1
2003	Intertoto Cup	1R	Zagreb	1–0	2–2	3–2
		2R	Dubnica	1–0	2–3	3–3 (a)
		3R	Egaleo	2–2	3–2	5–4
		SF	Heerenveen	1–0	0–2	1–2
2006–07	UEFA Cup	1Q	Litex Lovech	0–1	0–5	0–6
2007–08	UEFA Cup	1Q	Široki Brijeg	2–3	1–3	3–6
2008–09	UEFA Cup	1Q	Vllaznia	1–2	0–0	1–2
2010–11	UEFA Champions League	2Q	Dinamo Zagreb	3–0	1–5	4–5
2011–12	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Shakhter Karagandy	1–1	1–2	2–3
2014–15	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Čelik Nikšić	4–0	5–0	9–0
		2Q	Neftchi Baku	0–2	2–1	2–3
2015–16	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Víkingur Reykjavík	2–2	1–0	3–2
		2Q	Hajduk Split	3–2	1–4	4–6
2022–23	UEFA Europa Conference League	2Q	Vaduz	0–1	1–1 (a.e.t.)	1–2

Notes

• 1Q: First qualifying round
• 2Q: Second qualifying round
• 1R: First round
• 2R: Second round
• 3R: Third round
• SF: Semi-final

References

External links

• Official website (in Slovene)
• Unofficial NK Koper website (in Slovene)
• FC Koper at PrvaLiga (in Slovene)
• FC Koper at Soccerway