There are still five matchdays to play in Bulgaria, but the championship has already been decided and is synonymous with a new European record.
Kwadwo Duah and Olivier Verdon led Ludogorez Rasgrad to a 2-0 victory over Cherno More Varna on Sunday, securing another championship title. It is a very special title for the Bulgarians, as they set a new European record in the process.
Hendrik Bonmann is one of the championship players. The 31-year-old once played in the Regionalliga West for Rot-Weiß Essen and Dortmund II, before moving to 1860 Munich (19 third division games), Würzburger (34 appearances in the third division and 20 in the second division) and Wolfsberger AC in Austria, before finding his way to Bulgaria. In the current season, the goalkeeper has played in 24 games for the Bulgarian serial champions.
Ludogorez Razgrad is certainly not old; the club was only founded at the beginning of the millennium, in 2001 to be precise. Since 2010, the club has been owned by Bulgarian pharmaceutical entrepreneur and oligarch Kyril Domuschiev – and since then, it has written an unparalleled success story.
Once you’ve tasted success
In the 2011/12 season, the club from the administrative district of the same name in northeastern Bulgaria won the Bulgarian championship for the first time and got such a taste for success that it repeated the feat year after year.
In 2024/15, they are now celebrating their 14th consecutive title win. Such a long winning streak has only been achieved twice before in Europe – once in Latvia and once in Gibraltar. From 1991 to 2004, Skonto Riga was the team to beat in Latvia, while Lincoln Red Imps were unstoppable in Gibraltar from 2003 to 2016. Rasgrad, on the other hand, has the chance to become the sole record holder next season – but to do so, it needs to win its 15th title in a row.
Rasgrad is unrivalled nationally, but the club has been playing a minor role internationally for years. Its greatest success came over a decade ago, when it reached the round of 16 in the Europa League, where FC Valencia was the final hurdle. Otherwise, qualifying for the group stage of the Champions League in 2014/15 and 2016/17 are considered successes. This season, the team took part in the Europa League group stage and was eliminated at the same stage.
