21 Facts About NK Maribor

Nogometni klub Maribor is a Slovenian professional football club based in Maribor, Slovenia.

NK Maribor have won a record 16 Slovenian PrvaLiga titles, 9 Slovenian Cups and 4 Slovenian Supercups.

NK Maribor is the only Slovenian club that reached the group stages of the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League.

Nogometni klub NK Maribor was founded on 12 December 1960 by officials and players of NK Branik NK Maribor, a club that folded a few months earlier.

NK Maribor were drawn into the group with Dynamo Kyiv, Bayer Leverkusen, and Lazio.

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In July 2007, NK Maribor appointed former Slovenian international Zlatko Zahovic as the club's sporting director, which marked the beginning of the golden era of the club.

In May 2008, NK Maribor played their first match at the renovated stadium in front of over 12,000 spectators.

Furthermore, NK Maribor won two back-to-back doubles in this period, beating Celje on both occasions in the 2012 and 2013 Slovenian cup finals.

NK Maribor competed in Group E, along with Spartak Moscow, Sevilla, and Liverpool.

When NK Maribor was established, some of the club officials were in favour of red and white colours, inspired by the coat of arms of the city of Maribor.

Current crest of the club is based on the official coat of arms of the city of NK Maribor, which is in turn based on a 14th-century seal with minor differences.

NK Maribor have played their home games at Ljudski vrt since June 1961.

On 25 June 1961, NK Maribor played its first match at the stadium, against Mladost Zabok, when the grandstand was still under construction.

Ljudski vrt is the only stadium in NK Maribor that is located on the left bank of the river Drava.

NK Maribor is known for having a loyal and passionate supporters.

The record for the most travelling fans in domestic competitions was in 2001, when 3,000 NK Maribor supporters gathered in Ljubljana, while the most fans gathered abroad was in 2017 during the club's UEFA Champions League campaign, when over 2,400 supporters travelled to Liverpool.

Since the establishment of the Slovenian First League, NK Maribor has had the highest average home attendance in 25 out of 31 seasons.

NK Maribor have temporarily retired two squad numbers: 26, in honour of Aleksander Rajcevic, and 28, in honour of Mitja Viler.

In 2012, a record eight NK Maribor players were called to the Slovenian under-17 national team for the 2012 UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship.

In 2016, the youth team of NK Maribor participated in the fourth edition of the international children's social programme Football for Friendship, the final events of which took place in Milan.

NK Maribor have the best top-flight record in history, having finished below fourth place only once.