Slaven Belupo Koprivnica

Nogometni klub Slaven Belupo (English: Slaven Belupo Football Club), often referred to as NK Slaven Belupo, Slaven Belupo or simply Slaven, and known internationally as NK Slaven Koprivnica, is a Croatian professional football club based in the city of Koprivnica in the north of the country. They play their home matches at Gradski stadion in Koprivnica.

History

The first football club in Koprivnica was founded in June 1907, when a student team was formed and named Dacki nogometni klub, which is Croatian for Students' Football Club. The name Slaven first appeared when a sports club named HSK Slaven was founded by the members of the Friedrich family on 20 August 1912 and this is considered to be the foundation date of the present-day club. The club won the Croatian championship in 1920, which was one of the Yugoslav regional championships. Slaven was subsequently renamed HSK Victorija, but disbanded six years later due to financial difficulties. Subsequently, the city of Koprivnica was without a football club for four years, between 1926 and 1930.

Between 1930 and 1945, the club was known as HSK Koprivnica, HSK Danica and RNHSK Sloga, before the name Slaven returned with the foundation of FD Slaven. From 1953, the club was known as SD Podravka, before being renamed to NK Slaven in 1958. The name Slaven remains until today, with occasional changes to the name of the club's principal sponsors. The club was thus known as NK Slaven Bilokalnik between 1992 and 1994, after which it was changed to its current name following a sponsorship agreement with the Koprivnica-based pharmaceutical company Belupo.

Slaven gained their first promotion to the Prva HNL in 1997 and have never been relegated. In 2000, they finished fifth in the Prva HNL and qualified for the UEFA Intertoto Cup. In their first Intertoto Cup appearance, they managed to reach the third round of the competition before being eliminated by Czech club Sigma

This page also has a version in other languages :  Славен Белупо (russian)