The first football club in Koprivnica was founded in June 1907, when a student team was formed and named
Đački nogometni klub, which is
Croatian for ''Students' Football Club
. The name Slaven first appeared when a sports club named HŠK Slaven
was founded by the members of the Friedrich family on 20 August 1912 and this is considered to be the foundation date of the present-day club. The club won the Croatian championship in 1920, which was one of the Yugoslav regional championships. Slaven was subsequently renamed HŠK Victorija'', but disbanded six years later due to financial difficulties. Subsequently, the city of Koprivnica was without a football club for four years, between 1926 and 1930. Between 1930 and 1945, the club was known as
HŠK Koprivnica,
HŠK Danica and
RNHŠK Sloga, before the name Slaven returned with the foundation of
FD Slaven. From 1953, the club was known as
SD Podravka, before being renamed to
NK Slaven in 1958. The name Slaven remains until today, with occasional changes to the name of the club's principal sponsors. The club was thus known as
NK Slaven Bilokalnik between 1992 and 1994, after which it was changed to its current name following a sponsorship agreement with the Koprivnica-based
pharmaceutical company Belupo. Slaven gained their first promotion to the
Prva HNL in 1997 and have never been relegated. In 2000, they finished fifth in the Prva HNL and qualified for the
UEFA Intertoto Cup. In their first Intertoto Cup appearance, they managed to reach the third round of the competition before being eliminated by
Czech club
Sigma Olomouc after losing 2–0 at home and getting a goalless draw on the road. One year later, they repeated the success and were eliminated by renowned English club
Aston Villa with a 3–2
aggregate defeat. In their next two Intertoto Cup appearances, they were even more successful as they reached the semifinals of the competition on both occasions. They were eliminated after losing to renowned clubs
Stuttgart from Germany and
Lille from France, respectively. Their last Intertoto Cup appearance in 2005 ended in the third round with a 4–0 aggregate defeat to Spanish club
Deportivo La Coruña, having lost the first leg by 1–0 and the second leg by 0–3. Slaven Belupo heads the all-time Intertoto Cup table being the most successful team in history of this tournament. In 2007, the club reached the
Croatian Cup final for the first time, after defeating defending Cup holders
HNK Rijeka 3–2 on aggregate. In the final, they lost to
Dinamo Zagreb 2–1 on aggregate. Despite having lost the final, Slaven qualified for the
UEFA Cup for the first time in their history, since Dinamo had already qualified for the
UEFA Champions League by virtue of having won the Prva HNL. Slaven reached the second qualifying round of the
2007–08 UEFA Cup, defeating
Albanian side
Teuta Durrës 8–4 on aggregate before being eliminated after a 4–2 aggregate defeat to Turkish club
Galatasaray. In 2008, Slaven finished runners-up in the Croatian league, which remains their best domestic result to date. On 28 August 2008 Slaven Belupo qualified for the
2008–09 UEFA Cup by beating
Aris of
Greece 2–1 on aggregate, thereby achieving arguably the best result in the history of the club. Slaven finished 3rd in the 2011–12 1. HNL, qualifying for the
2012–13 UEFA Europa League. After defeating
Portadown 10–2 on aggregate they bowed out to Spanish giants
Athletic Bilbao 4–3 on aggregate. In 2016, Slaven defeated HNK Rijeka 4–2 on aggregate in the
2015–16 Croatian Football Cup semi-final, reaching the final for the second time in their history. ==Supporters==