Balzan F.C.

Balzan

Full name	Balzan Football Club
Founded	1937; 87 years ago (1937) (as Balzan Youths)
President	Anton Tagliaferro
Head coach	Oliver Spiteri
League	Maltese Premier League
2022–23	Maltese Premier League, 4th of 14
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

Balzan Football Club is a Maltese football club from the village of Balzan that competes in the Maltese Premier League, the top tier of Maltese football. The club was founded in 1937 and has been playing in the top division since 2010.

Balzan has qualified for the UEFA Europa League for five seasons in a row between 2015–16 and 2019–20. The club finished as runners-up in the Malta Premier League in the 2016–17 and 2017–18 seasons and were finalists of the 2015–16 Maltese FA Trophy, which they lost on penalties to Sliema Wanderers after a goalless draw in the regular time. In May 2019, the club finally won its first major honour, the 2018–19 Maltese FA Trophy, after defeating Valletta on penalties in the final.^[1]

Players

First-team squad

As of 4 February 2024^[2]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  MLT Rudi Briffa 2 DF  SRB Ivan Božović 4 DF  BRA André Fausto 5 DF  MLT Samir Arab 6 MF  MLT Marcus Grima 7 MF  MLT Tristan Caruana 8 MF  MLT Paul Fenech 9 FW  SSD Manyluak Aguek 10 MF  MLT Jan Busuttil 11 MF  MLT Benjamin Hili 12 GK  MLT Niklas Vella 14 FW  NGA Oluwatobiloba Awosanya (on loan from Domžale)

No. Pos. Nation Player 17 FW  KOR Han Eui-kwon 18 MF  JPN Ryohei Michibuchi 21 FW  SRB Aleksandar Katanić 22 MF  MLT Jake Grech 23 DF  SRB Nikola Žerjal 24 MF  MNE Nikola Braunović 27 MF  BEL Olivier Rommens 42 MF  MLT Gareth Buttigieg 44 DF  MLT Gianluca Cacciatore 77 MF  SRB Aleksa Andrejić 80 FW  AUS George Blackwood 99 GK  SRB Danilo Golović

Club officials and coaching staff

Club facilities

The Club's Administration Building 'Solerville' is located at Main Street, Balzan. A bar and garden restaurant on the ground floor are open to the public. The club's training facilities, located at Robert Mifsud Bonnici Street, Lija, include a clubhouse and a full-size pitch with synthetic turf. The clubhouse includes a conference room, a bar and a gymnasium and was officially opened on 13 March 2011. From September 2015, Balzan teams also commenced training at St Aloysius' College ground, after the ground underwent a major upgrade.

In 2019, Balzan FC started the construction of an additional two-storey clubhouse at its Lija ground which feature additional changing room facilities, as well as accommodation for visiting teams. The building was completed in late 2021.

Honours

• Maltese FA Trophy
  • Winners: 2018–19
• Maltese Second Division
  • Winners: 2008–09

European record

All results (home and away) list Balzan's goal tally first.

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2015–16	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Željezničar	0–2	0–1	0–3
2016–17	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Neftçi	0–2	2–1	2–3
2017–18	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Videoton	3−3	0−2	3−5
2018–19	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Keşla	4−1	1−2	5−3
		2Q	Slovan Bratislava	2–1	1−3	3−4
2019–20	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Domžale	3–4	0–1	3–5
2023–24	UEFA Europa Conference League	1Q	Domžale	1–3 (a.e.t.)	4–1	5–4
		2Q	Neman Grodno	0−0	0–2	0–2

Notes

• 1Q: First qualifying round
• 2Q: Second qualifying round

Managerial history

Manager	Period
Paul Barbara	1989–90
Jimmy Briffa	1990–93
Alberto Cristiano	1993–94
Ronnie Cocks	1994–95
France Scicluna	1995–97
Joe Attard	1997–98
Stephen Azzopardi	1998–02
Fatos Daja	2002–03
Jimmy Briffa	2003–05
Mario Monreal	2005–06
Charles Borg Sant	2006–07
Alfred Attard	2007–08
Ivan Zammit	2008–13
David Carabott	2009–10
Riccardo Tumiatti	2013
Jesmond Zerafa	2013–14
Oliver Spiteri	2014–17
Marko Mićović	2017–19
Jacques Scerri	2019–20
Mark Miller	2020–21
Paul Zammit	2021–22
Oliver Spiteri	2022–present

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Balzan F.C..

• Official website

This page was last edited on 12 March 2024, at 10:19