Among the most successful Kassai AC players were Szaniszló, Šiňovský, the Drotár brothers, Klein, Lebenský, Dráb, and Pásztor.

FC Košice into a top European club never came true, he managed to lift an average second division team to the first group stage of the UEFA Champions' League in 1997–98.

However, the next year's failure to make the same stage of the major European competition, and failure to defend the league title, combined with the change of government which undermined the position of the Rezeš clan (Alexander Rezeš was economy minister of Vladimír Mečiar's government in 1994–97) represented the beginning of the end of the "millionaires".

FC famously became the first Slovak club to reach the lucrative UEFA Champions League Group Stages when they did so in the 1997–98 season.

FC Košice became the first club in the Champions League history to record no points at all in the group stage, losing all their six games.

FC Košice are best known outside their homeland for their two clashes with Manchester United in the 1997–98 European Champions League group stages.

During this brief campaign in Europe's most prestigious club competition, Košice suffered a tragedy when midfielder Milan Čvirk was killed and striker Albert Rusnák was seriously injured in a car crash.

FC, were offered help by the president of Steel Trans Ličartovce Blažej Podolák,[6] one of the favourites to advance to the premier league that season.

In 2004–05 season 1.FC Košice in effect became reserve team of Steel Trans Ličartovce, playing in the third division, group East.

Košice, the second largest city in Slovakia, now had no club in the top two divisions (although many can remember two in the Czechoslovak federal league).

In 2008/09 season, the club won its first trophy in some 11 years, by beating Artmedia Petržalka in the final match of the Slovak Cup, in Senec.

The win granted Košice the right to compete in 2009-10 UEFA Europa League, which they entered in the Third qualifying round, in which they defeated FK Slavija Sarajevo 5–1 on aggregate, with Novák scoring two goals.

The relegation was caused as, then MFK Košice, failed to obtain a license, after financial difficulties and debts.

The change of the name occurred to popularity of the "VSS" acronym from the Communist era, when it represented "Východoslovenské Strojárne" (Easter Slovak Engineering Works - a large employer in Košice and the nearby region).

While winning the Eastern Group of 2015-16 DOXXbet liga with 2 points lead over Tatran Prešov, the club finished 2nd overall (Championship Group), only 2 points behind their archrivals Tatran Prešov, which celebrated the return to the top division after three seasons in the DOXXbet Liga.

The Slovakia national football team has hosted a few matches at this stadium which now no longer meets UEFA criteria for international games.

VSS Košice supporters maintain friendly relations with fans of MFK Zemplín Michalovce, Czech Sparta Prague and Slavia Sofia.

Over the last period there has been a steady increase of young players leaving Košice after a few years of first team football and moving on to play football in leagues of a higher standard, with the Czech First League (Szilárd Németh and Miroslav Sovič to AC Sparta Prague, Vladimír Labant, Dávid Škutka and Matúš Kozáčik to SK Slavia Prague, Kamil Čontofalský to Bohemians 1905 in 1999; Marek Špilár to FC Baník Ostrava in 2000), Greece Superleague (Vladimír Janočko to Xanthi in 2000), German 2.

Bundesliga (Jozef Kožlej to SpVgg Greuther Fürth in 1998), Israel League (Ruslan Lyubarskyi to Maccabi Netanya F.C.

in 2000), Polish Ekstraklasa (Ondrej Duda to Legia Warsaw in 2014), Portugal Primeira Liga (Uroš Matić to S.L.

The top transfer was agreed in 2009 when Nemanja Matić joined English FC Chelsea for a fee of €1.75 million,.