FK Ljuboten ( mk, ФК Љуботен) is a North Macedonian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club based in

Tetovo Tetovo ( mk, Тетово, , sq, Tetovë/Tetova) is a city in the northwestern part of North Macedonia, built on the foothills of Šar Mountain and divided by the Pena River. The municipality of Tetovo covers an area of at above sea level, w ...

. They are recently competing in the Macedonian Third League (West Division).

History

Founded in 1919, FK Ljuboten is the oldest club in

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...

. FK Ljuboten was based in northern Tetovo, built and supported by the locals. The name was derived from the mountain peak of the

Šar Mountains The Šar Mountains ( Serbian and mk, Шар Планина, Šar Planina, colloquially also ) or Sharr Mountains ( sq, Malet e Sharrit), form a mountain range in the Balkans that extends from Kosovo and the northwest of North Macedonia to nort ...

Ljuboten Ljuboten ( Serbian and mk, ) or Luboten (in Albanian) is a peak of the Šar Mountains located on the border between Kosovo and North Macedonia. Its elevation is . Ljuboten, although not the highest peak of the range, is somewhat isolated fr ...

. Through most of the football period under both the

Kingdom Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...

and

Socialist Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II in Yugoslavia, World War II, and ...

, the club relied on local talent and were funded by the locals and the city of Tetovo. For the 100th birthday of the club, they joined the

Club of Pioneers The Club of Pioneers is a worldwide network of the oldest continuing association football clubs from each country. The Club of Pioneers was founded in 2013 by Sheffield FC, the first and oldest association football Association football, mor ...

Rivalry

FK Ljuboten's rival is

FK Teteks FK Teteks ( mk, ФК Тетекс) is a football club from the city of Tetovo in North Macedonia. They are currently competing in the Macedonian Second League. History In 1946, there was a club from Tetovo called Šar Tetovo, and it compete ...

. The rivalry reflected the social and class differences of the respective club's supporters. Ljuboten's supporters are only the citizens of Tetovo, predominantly of Macedonians. Teteks supporters were the working class, as the club was founded by the Teteks company and had supporters from Macedonians in Tetovo and all around North Macedonia.

Honours

Macedonian Second League The Macedonian Second Football League ( mk, Втора македонска Фудбалска Лига, ''Vtora Makedonska Fudbalska Liga''; also called Macedonian Second League, 2. MFL and Vtora Liga) is the second-highest professional footbal ...

: *Winners (1): 1992–93

Current squad

Recent seasons

¹The 2019–20 and 2020–21 seasons were abandoned due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in North Macedonia The COVID-19 pandemic in North Macedonia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The virus was confirmed to have reached North Macedonia in Feb ...

References

External links

FK Ljuboten Blog

FK Ljuboten Facebook

Club info at MacedonianFootball

Football Federation of Macedonia

FK Ljuboten FK Ljuboten ( mk, ФК Љуботен) is a North Macedonian football club based in Tetovo. They are recently competing in the Macedonian Third League (West Division). History Founded in 1919, FK Ljuboten is the oldest club in North Macedonia ...

Football clubs in North Macedonia Association football clubs established in 1919

{{RMacedonia-footyclub-stub