Gorica is fighting to stay in the Telemach First League, with a number of foreign investors bidding to join the club

Published on 29. November 2022 29. November 2022

Nova Gorica was once home to the best football club in Slovenia. Gorizia ‘s golden years were in the early years of the new millennium, when it was the country’s top club three times in a row. She won her first championship title already in 1996when it achieved a feat previously unimaginable: it broke Olimpija’s absolute reign. In the opening years of Slovenia’s independence, the Ljubljanaers demolished all before them and were national champions four times in a row. But the good results failed to mask the poor management of the club, which was first exploited by Gorica, led from the bench by the legendary Milan Miklavič in the 1995/96 season, then by Maribor and later by Domžale.

After almost three decades, farewell to the elite

After seven consecutive Maribor titles, Gorica returned to the Slovenian football throne in 2004, when they stretched their dominance until the 2005/06 season. During that time, the team won three more national titles before losing to Domžale in 2007. That was the end of the golden era of football in New Gorica and today Gorica is going through much less pleasant times. In the meantime, after the failed cooperation with Parma, the club also experienced a financial collapse, which had a negative impact on both the results of the youth team and, above all, on the performance of the junior team.

The Roses reached their lowest point in 2019, when they were relegated from the first Slovenian league after 28 years. Gorizia then went from 2. SNL returned in its first season in the second league, but quickly said goodbye to the elite again. Another express return to the top followed, then a recent change at the top of the club, but regardless of all that, Novogorica is not doing so well in this competition year either. The club is at the bottom of the Telemach First League standings, still struggling with organisational and financial problems.

Bozin’s candidate for Sports Director

As it is one of the most traditional Slovenian football environments with a realistic potential, it is quite expected that in the last period many potential investors from abroad have started to flock around the Sports Park.

Read also

It has recently been in the public eye
mainly referred to Bulgarians
who want to bring the legendary Valery Bozhinov, one-time Juventus and Manchester City player, to the club as sporting director. But as we have learned, the Bulgarian investor group is not the only one interested in taking over Gorica. A number of others are also flirting with a similar idea, and Gorizia has reportedly been approached by as many as six other business groups in recent years. One is from the United States, and there are also Germans, Swiss and others who would like to get involved in Gorica.

If anything, you can’t afford to make a mistake

There is no doubt that the new president of the club , Uroš Blažica, who recently succeeded the very unpopular Hari Arčon at the end of his career, is facing a decision that is anything but easy. A reminder of the failed cooperation with Italians, who brought the cup laurel to Nova Gorica, but at the same time brought a bunch of foreigners (some of them were also very good, it has to be admitted, among others they wore Gorica jerseys). Alex Cordaz and Gianluca Lapadula) and leaving devastation in their wake, is still very much alive in this border town. If anything, Blažica cannot afford to make a mistake. But when you have as many offers on the table as Gorica has at the moment, it’s not an easy decision. We all know what kind of investors (unfortunately) Slovenian club football attracts…

This text was automatically translated using AI.