Nogometni Klub Celje (English: Celje Football Club), commonly referred to as NK Celje or simply Celje, is an association football club from Slovenia. They are based in Celje, Slovenia's third largest city. They play in the Slovenian PrvaLiga. Together with Maribor and Gorica they are the only club that have participated in every season of the Slovenian PrvaLiga since its formation in 1991.
NK Celje was formed in 1919 as SK Celje. Soon after the World War II, in 1946, the club changed its name to NK Kladivar (expressionistic term in Slovene for a blacksmith). In 1964 they qualified for the Yugoslav Second League, where they played for one year.
In 1992, year after Slovenia gained independence from Yugoslavia, the club again changed its name, this time to Publikum. They reached the finals of Slovenian Cup in 1993 and 1995, but lost on both occasions, having been beaten by Olimpija and Mura. In 2003, Celje was in a title race with Maribor until the very last, but in the end finished second and also lost Slovenian cup finals against Olimpija in the same year. Two years later in 2005 the club reached Slovenian cup finals for the fourth time and this time they finally lifted their first trophy, defeating Gorica 1–0 in front of their own fans at the Arena Petrol. Celje were also in the finals the next year, but lost to Koper after the penalty shoot-out.
Celje (pronounced [ˈtsɛːljɛ]) is the third-largest town in Slovenia. It is a regional center of the traditional Slovenian region of Styria and the administrative seat of the City Municipality of Celje (Slovene: Mestna občina Celje). The town of Celje is located below Upper Celje Castle (407 m or 1,335 ft) at the confluence of the Savinja, Hudinja, Ložnica, and Voglajna rivers in the lower Savinja Valley, and at the crossing of the roads connecting Ljubljana, Maribor, Velenje, and the Central Sava Valley. It lies 238 m (781 ft) above mean sea level (MSL). The Celje region is frequently shaken by minor earthquakes.
Celje was known as Celeia during the Roman period. Early attestations of the name during or following Slavic settlement include Cylia in 452, ecclesiae Celejanae in 579, Zellia in 824, in Cilia in 1310, Cilli in 1311, and Celee in 1575. The proto-Slovene name *Ceľe or *Celьje, from which modern Slovene Celje developed, was borrowed from Vulgar Latin Celeae. The name is of pre-Roman origin and its further etymology is unclear. In the local Slovene dialect, Celje is called Cjele or Cele.