Vardar was formed in 1911 as Sports Club Vardar. In the beginning of 1912 it was registered and started to play matches until the war break (1914–18). In 1918 when the British and French entered
Skopje they introduced sports activities including football. In 1919 Vardar started to compete again in the Skopje division, winning two championships in the first years of the 1920s,
1922 and
1923. In 1924 Vardar merged into
Gragjanski, taking all the players and the coach to the newly made club including Vardar's city park ground. Gragjanski won three subdivision championships in a row
1936,
1937 and
1938. In 1926 Vardar was re-established by former players and continued to compete. During
World War II, in 1941 Vardar merged with Gragjanski, Jug Skopje, Sparta and Slavia to form FK Makedonia, who started competing at the first federal championship in 1945. Next year the
Macedonian Republic League was formed and the national team won the league as FK Makedonija.
First Federal League After
World War Two, FK Vardar was established with the merger of city rivals FK Pobeda (1919) and
FK Makedonija (1922), in the hall of cinema "Vardar" on 22 July 1947. In their history, FK Vardar has had many memorable matches. The first big one came in 1961 against Dunfermline from Scotland, victory at home ground 2:0 glorious moments in Cup winners Cup. Among those, the one that stands out the most was defeating
FK Partizan by a score of 5–0. In early history, the 2–1 victory over
Varteks in the
Yugoslav Cup final is remembered by the club as its first major trophy win. A game that had the highest attendance was a matchup against
Trepča where FK Vardar won 2–1 and earned promotion to the
Yugoslav First League. Other matches to remember came against the great four
Red Star Belgrade,
Partizan Belgrade,
Dinamo Zagreb and
Hajduk Split. Then 1985 home ground victory over Dinamo București from Romania 1:0 in UEFA Cup competition.
New Age 1st league Vardar celebrated
Macedonia's independence by winning three consecutive titles including going unbeaten in the
inaugural season. During the 90's they remained at the top of
Macedonian football reaching five
Macedonian Cup finals and winning four. After a lean spell by their standards, they brought the league again in
2001–02 and the following season just missed out on qualifying for the
2003–04 UEFA Champions League group stage. A remarkable achievement, in the
Second qualifying round they eliminated
CSKA Moscow and came within a goal of getting past
Sparta Prague. In 2011, Vardar was originally relegated from the
Macedonian First Football League, but after buying the license from
Miravci it stayed. The following season they brought the
league again after nine years. To date they have 17 major honors to their name. In 2012, with the new transformation, FK Vardar became the first team in Macedonia (now North Macedonia) organized as a joint stock company incorporated under the Companies Act.
Memorable moments At the beginning of the
Macedonian First Football League the most memorable matches were all the wins against rival
Pelister, including the first-ever
Macedonian Football Cup final in 1993 where FK Vardar won 1–0 at the old
City Stadium. The biggest international achievement of the club came in 2003 when FK Vardar came one goal short of qualifying for the
UEFA Champions League group stage. and won the second leg in
Strumica (3–1), with the goals of
Boban Grncharov,
Tigran Barseghyan and
Boban Nikolov. In the
third qualifying round, Vardar was played against Danish side
F.C. Copenhagen, they won first leg at the home in
Skopje (1–0), with the goal of Jonathan Balotelli. In the second leg in
Copenhagen, Vardar had a result which would lead to the play-off round of Champions League, but in last 15 minutes, Copenhagen scored two goals, and Vardar lost the match (4–1), and its eliminated from the Champions League. :But, the participation in the European competitions in that season Vardar continued in the
Europa League play-off round, in whom were drawn against Turkish giants
Fenerbahçe. Surprisingly, Vardar won both matches against them, in the first leg in Skopje won 2–0, with the goals of Barseghyan and the bizarre own goal of
Mehmet Topal, and in the second leg in
Istanbul 2–1, with a goals of
Jaba Jighauri and
Nikola Gligorov, and Vardar qualified for the group stage of the Europa League for the first time in its history and became the first Macedonian club to qualify for the group stage of a European competition. In the
group stage, Vardar were drawn in Group L against
Zenit Saint Petersburg,
Rosenborg and
Real Sociedad. In the debut match, Vardar were outclassed by Zenit in Skopje (0–5) and lost the match in
Trondheim against Rosenborg (3–1), but was scored first goal in the group stages of European competition by
Juan Felipe. In third match Vardar was again trashed by Real Sociedad at home (0–6), which was a highest defeat in the European competition matches. However, FК Vardar later won a historic first point in European Cups with a 1:1 draw in the home match against Rosenborg BK. ==Grounds==