Longest championship streak in Europe: Ludogorets’ run with 14 titles to go

Longest championship series in Europe

With 14 titles in a row, Ludogorets Razgrad holds the longest championship streak in the European leagues. But this will come to an end in the next few days. On Saturday, Levski Sofia can be crowned the new champion in Bulgaria’s efbet league, breaking Ludogorets’ years of dominance. To do this, the capital club has to beat CSKA 1948. For Levski it would be the first championship title since 2009 and the 27th overall.

A look at all maintained competitions in the Transfermarkt database shows that historically only two other clubs in Europe come close to the series of the northeast Bulgarians: Skonto Riga from Latvia, which was declared bankrupt in 2016, and Lincoln Red Imps FC from Gibraltar. Both also have 14 national trophies in a row, but their series dates back a few years.

Ten other clubs have won at least ten titles in a row. There are also two German representatives. BFC Dynamo became GDR champions ten times in a row between 1979 and 1988 and FC Bayern has the record in the Bundesliga with eleven championship cups between 2013 and 2023. Between the Munich team and the leading trio are BATE Borisov (Belarus; 2006-2018) and Rosenborg BK (Norway; 1992-2004).

The reasons for the end of the Ludogorets Razgrad championship series

But every run comes to an end, as will the one of Abochampion Ludogorets shortly. According to data scout “B0stonian”, the reason is simple: “Levski is the better and more consistent team and is supported by the fans regardless of whether they play at home or away. Levski is a team, while Ludogorets consists of individuals.”

Razgrad basically has the best conditions in the league because they have the highest transfer budget. “So they have no problem signing the players they want, both domestically and internationally,” says “B0stonian”. They also have the most valuable squad at 45.65 million euros – this also includes the German goalkeeper, the former Schalke player Bernard Tekpetey and the former Nuremberg player Kwadwo Duah. However, the value has decreased significantly by 16.2 percent since July 1, 2025, while Levski Sofia caught up and climbed from 23.08 million to 28.5 million euros.

This season the club spent 8.57 million euros on new signings, in return professionals went for 6.15 million euros. “I would say that the newly signed players are not playing at the same level as the ones sold. An example is Filip Kaloc, who was brought in from 1. FC Kaiserslautern for 2.8 million euros as a replacement for Jakub Piotrowski. Of the new signings, only Petar Stanic is performing at the expected level.” The team has also had an increasing number of injuries recently. There are currently three defeats across all competitions. “In contrast to Levski, which loses points in one game and then wins again and does not allow a losing streak, Ludogorets often plays several quite weak games and often loses points against teams that are in the middle of the field or below.”

The coach has also been changed this season. The Portuguese Rui Mota took over in the summer, but had to leave after 23 games and an average of 1.65 points. Todor Zhivondov then sat on the bench on an interim basis (1.00 PPS in four games) before Norwegian Per-Mathias Høgmo was introduced as the new head coach at the end of November. The 66-year-old has so far averaged 2.04 points in 27 games.

Levski Sofia was facing ruin in 2020

The situation is completely different at Levski Sofia, which has experienced extraordinary development in recent years. The club was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2020 with debts of around 18 million euros, as data scout “Iv11n” reports. “Then the club was taken over by Nasko Sirakov, who came from the academy, had a great football career and was involved in the greatest success in the club’s history – he was sports director when they reached the quarter-finals of the European Cup in 2005/06 and Levski became the first Bulgarian club in the group stage of the Champions League the following season. Sirakov had no financial resources, neither his own money nor that of others, but only passion and the will to help the club.”

The fans also helped the club out of its misery back then. They donated money in a variety of ways, bought tickets for games that were played behind closed doors due to the Covid pandemic, made transfers directly to the club’s private bank account and purchased fan merchandise, as “Iv11n” further describes. In addition, the footballers are said to have played for minimum wages and the employees also worked almost without pay. “Over the years, as the debt has been reduced, the club has been able to afford better players and a better organization overall. It is now expected that the debt will be paid off towards the end of this year.”

In keeping with this, there should be another reason to celebrate with the championship. “B0stonian” emphasizes: “Levski has gotten back on its feet with a limited budget, clever transfers of mainly Brazilian players and their subsequent resale. Three days ago a new owner was announced and it was announced that construction of a new stadium for 120 million euros will begin in the spring of next year.” The future looks bright for Levski, Ludogorets has to prepare for a permanent opponent on equal terms again.