| Clubname: | Tsarsko Selo |
| Fullname: | Association Football Club Tsarsko Selo 2015 |
| Nickname: | Царете (The Tsars) |
| Upright: | 0.8 |
| Ground: | Arena Tsarsko Selo |
| Capacity: | 1,550 |
| Coordinates: | 42.6366°N 23.316°W |
| Mgrtitle: | Head coach |
| Website: | fctsarskoselo.com |
| Season: | 2021–22 |
| Position: | First League, 14th of 14 (Relegated) |
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Association Football Club Tsarsko Selo 2015 (Bulgarian: Сдружение Футболен Клуб Царско Село 2015), commonly referred to as Tsarsko Selo, was a Bulgarian association football club based in Sofia. It played in First League, the top tier of Bulgarian football league system.
Tsarsko Selo played their home matches at their Tsarsko Selo Sports Complex in the Dragalevtsi quarter of Sofia.
In the summer of 2015, the previous chairman of CSKA Sofia Stoyne Manolov established a new academy called Football Academy Tsarsko Selo, with a focus on scouting and developing youth football players born in 2002 to 2010.[1] The club was initially registered and a subsequent men's team in the A RFG Sofia South was established, with former long-time CSKA Sofia captain Todor Yanchev appointed as manager.[2] On November 12, 2015, Manolov announced an academy partnership with Spanish La Liga club Málaga CF.[3] In the end of December 2015, Todor Yanchev took over Sofia 2010, which was bought by Manolov and was merged with Tsarsko Selo to establish a new club called Tsarsko Selo Sofia.[4] [5]
On 28 July 2016 the team was accepted in the newly created Bulgarian Second Professional League.[6] They finished their first match against Botev Galabovo with a draw.[7] In their first match for the Bulgarian Cup they played against Levski Sofia. The match was played on 22 September 2016 at the Lokomotiv Stadium in Sofia and was won by Levski by 2–0.[8] After 2 heavy defeats, Yanchev stepped down from his position as a manager and on 29 October 2016, previous Cherno More Varna head coach Nikola Spasov was announced as the new manager of the team.[9] The team finished their first season in Second League in 5th place.[10]
The good start of the season for Tsarsko Selo was marked not only by the first place in the league after 8 rounds, but with their first win for the Cup, winning the first round against Neftochimic Burgas on 19 September 2017.[11] On 3 January 2018 Nikola Spasov was announced as the new manager of the Kazakhstan Premier League team Kyzylzhar.[12] Shortly the same day Veselin Velikov was announced as the new manager of the club.[13] On 8 May 2018 Velislav Vutsov was announced as the new head coach of the team with Velikov becoming a selectionist.[14]
On 22 April 2019 in a goalless draw against CSKA 1948 the kings secured their first place in Second League and won promotion in the First League for first time in their history, being 18 points ahead from the second and third place five rounds before the end of the season.[15]
Tsarsko Selo's first ever match in the Bulgarian First Division resulted in a 0–2 away loss against the actual champion Ludogorets Razgrad. This was followed by a home 0–0 draw to the other debutant Arda Kardzhali. Tsarsko selo's first win came in the fifth round, when the team managed to beat Botev Plovdiv away with 0–2. Two goals for the win were scored by Dutch winger Rodney Antwi. The first home win came in the seventh round with 2–1 against Beroe Stara Zagora. Tsarsko Selo eventually finished 13th, having to play a playoff match in order to remain in the elite. They were drawn against the second-placed team from the Second League, Septemvri Sofia. In a very close fought game played in Sofia, Tsarsko Selo won 2–0, securing their place in the First League for the next season.
In January 2022 an Italian Private Investment company joined the club leadership.[16] On 21 May 2022, in the last match of the season, Tsarsko Selo were awarded a penalty that could secure them the win. Yusupha Yaffa decided to take the penalty despite Martin Kavdanski being the regular penalty taker. Yaffa was ready to take the penalty when the owner of the team, Stoyne Manolov, entered the pitch and fought with him. He left the pitch and Kavdanski took the penalty, but it was saved.[17] On the next day, Manolov announced that the team won't be participating in the league next season and will end their existence.[18]
Tsarsko Selo's main kit was initially red and white and the away kits were black and red. From 2016, the main kit has been all-red, while the reserve ones are all-white. In 2017 team main kit was changed to pink.
| Period | Kit manufacturer | Shirt partner |
|---|---|---|
| 2015–2017 |  Joma | None |
| 2017–2019 |  Nike | |
| 2019–2022 | WINBET |
Most appearances for the club in league
| Most goals for the club in league
|
The footballers enlisted below have international caps for their respective countries, have more than 100 caps, or hold a record for Tsarsko Selo. Players whose name is listed in bold represented their countries.
Lachezar Baltanov Ivan Bandalovski Ivan Čvorović Reyan Daskalov Svetoslav Dikov Boris Galchev Antonio Georgiev Ventsislav Hristov Mihail Ivanov Yanis Karabelyov Ivaylo Markov Georgi Minchev Veselin Minev Yordan Minev Boyan Peykov Ventsislav VasilevPlotData= bar:Position width:16 color:white align:center from:01/07/2015 till:01/07/2016 shift:(0,-4) text:2 from:01/07/2015 till:01/07/2016 color:yellow shift:(0,14) text: "Regional" from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2017 shift:(0,-4) text:5 from:01/07/2017 till:01/07/2018 shift:(0,-4) text:3 from:01/07/2018 till:01/07/2019 shift:(0,-4) text:1 from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2019 color:white shift:(0,14) text: "Second League" from:01/07/2019 till:01/07/2020 shift:(0,-4) text:13 from:01/07/2020 till:01/07/2021 shift:(0,-4) text:9 from:01/07/2021 till:01/07/2022 shift:(0,-4) text:14 from:01/07/2019 till:01/07/2022 color:green shift:(0,14) text: "First League"
| Season | League | Bulgarian Cup< | --Kept in case of future necessity!rowspan=2 | League Cup--> | Other competitions | Top goalscorer | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| scope=col | Division | scope=col | Level | scope=col | P | scope=col | W | scope=col | D | scope=col | L | scope=col | F | scope=col | A | scope=col | GD | scope=col | Pts | scope=col data-sort-type="number" | Pos |
| scope=row rowspan=1 | 2015–16 | A Regional League | 4 | 26 | 20 | 1 | 5 | 92 | 21 | +71 | 61 | 2nd | Not qualified | ||||||||
| scope=row rowspan=1 | 2016–17 | Second League | 2 | 30 | 14 | 6 | 10 | 54 | 39 | +15 | 48 | 5th | First Round | Simeon Ganchev | 13 | ||||||
| scope=row rowspan=1 | 2017–18 | 2 | 30 | 19 | 6 | 5 | 56 | 28 | +28 | 63 | 3rd | Second Round | Svetoslav Dikov | 25 | |||||||
| scope=row rowspan=1 | 2018–19 | 2 | 30 | 24 | 4 | 2 | 68 | 27 | +51 | 76 | 1st | First Round | Georgi Minchev | 29 | |||||||
| scope=row rowspan=1 | 2019–20 | First League | 1 | 31 | 9 | 4 | 18 | 27 | 50 | –23 | 31 | 13th | First Round | Rodney Antwi | 9 | ||||||
| scope=row rowspan=1 | 2020–21 | 1 | 32 | 9 | 10 | 13 | 33 | 39 | –6 | 37 | 9th | Second Round |  Anderson | 7 | |||||||
| scope=row rowspan=1 | 2021–22 | 1 | 32 | 5 | 11 | 16 | 22 | 38 | –16 | 26 | 14th | First Round | Ventsislav Hristov | 6 | |||||||
Key
| Champions | Runners-up | Promoted | Relegated |
| Name | Nat | From | To | Honours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Todor Yanchev | | 28 December 2015 | 29 October 2016 | |
| Nikola Spasov | | 29 October 2016 | 3 January 2018 | |
| Veselin Velikov | | 3 January 2018 | 8 May 2018 | |
| Velislav Vutsov | | 8 May 2018 | 1 June 2018 | |
| Nikola Spasov | | 1 June 2018 | 1 April 2020 | 1 Second League title |
| Vladimir Vutov | | 4 April 2020 | 30 April 2020 | |
| Lyuboslav Penev | | 30 April 2020 | 28 March 2021 | |
| Antoni Zdravkov | | 29 March 2021 | 8 October 2021 | |
| Lyuboslav Penev | | 13 October 2021 | 1 January 2022 | |
| Vladimir Vutov (interim) | | 7 January 2022 | 27 January 2022 | |
| Andrea Sassarini |  | 27 January 2022 | 5 March 2022 | |
| Stefano Maccoppi | | 5 March 2022 | 22 May 2022 |
