Eighty years of experience – welcome, Spartak Pleven!
- marisnoviks
- May 14
- 2 min read
The two time Bulgarian champions Spartak Pleven will play in the European North Basketball league for a fourth consecutive season.
Spartak Pleven is the fifth club in league history, who has registered for four consecutive seasons.
The list includes Valmiera Glass ViA, Basket Brno, Tartu University and the Bristol Flyers.
Spartak Pleven recently ended their 79th season with a 1-2 loss at the Bulgarian quarterfinals against the 2025 and 2026 Bulgarian Cup winners, third seeded Cherno More Varna.
First year coach Todor Todorov and his men stayed in the ENBL playoff race until February 11, 2026, when they suffered a 78-83 defeat at Riga Zelli.
Spartak Pleven posted a 3-5 record – their best result in competition after a 2-13 win and loss ratio in their first two seasons.
Highlight of the season was a 95-91 home success over the 2025 ENBL finalists, Newcastle Eagles.
Spartak Pleven scored 38 points in the first quarter, matching second best result in league history.
Three players – Jalan McCloud, Martin Sotirov and Noel Brown – had 25 or more points.
Spartak Pleven previously defeated Dubrava Zagreb, 83-82, behind 35 points by McCloud and BK Olomoucko, 91-84, eventually achieving a 3-1 record on the home floor.
Pleven is a historic city located 170 kilometres northeast of capital Sofia and approximately 160 kilometres south of Bucharest, Romania.
Basketball club Spartak Pleven was founded in 1947 and will mark its eighty years anniversary in 2027.
It was known under names of Spartak (1947-1993) and Plama (1993-1997) before rebranding itself as Spartak Pleven in 1997.
Pleven won two consecutive Bulgarian championships in 1995 and 1996.
They also won Bulgarian Cup in 1996.
Spartak Pleven reached the Bulgarian league semifinals in 2022, 2024 and 2025, and a Bulgarian Cup final in 2024.
The club has seven European campaigns under its belt.
Plama Pleven played in the FIBA European Cup (1994-1997), named after Raimundo Saporta, a former Real Madrid director.
The club also played at the EuroChallenge qualifiers in 2008.
Spartak has posted glorious victories over basketball giants like Real Madrid, Partizan Belgrade and Bešiktaš Istanbul.
Bulgaria is a full Schengen area member from 2025 and a Eurozone member from 2026.
