Founded on 25 July 1926, Lokomotiv is one of the most popular teams in Bulgaria and currently competes in the top-flight First Professional Football League, which they have won once (in 2004).

The biggest success of the club in Europe is reaching the third round of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1965, after narrowly losing to the Italian Juventus in a play-off match.

These were in part due to the political environment in Bulgaria during the communist period (1944–1989) which led to enforced changes in the nature of sporting clubs throughout the country in order to follow the "Soviet model".

Most notably, the powerful national railway company, through ZSK Plovdiv, was the main benefactor for the creation of a state-of-the-art multi-purpose stadium that opened in 1943.

Being from an area with a diverse ethnic and religious population, the club was first merged with several lower-division so-called Armenian teams, such as Shant and Erevan.

However, due to the non-Slavic background of the words "sport" and "club", the team was officially renamed again before the start of the season to Slavia Plovdiv.

After the separation in 1945, ZSK was renamed to Lokomotiv Plovdiv similar to other teams in various Eastern bloc countries which were connected with the railways.

Furthermore, the club was the smallest in Plovdiv in terms of members and attracted only a modest number of spectators for its games, despite its large, state-of-the-art stadium.

For the 1950 season, Torpedo Plovdiv took the place of Slavia-Chengelov at the top level of the Bulgarian football league system (A RFG).

Before the 1951 season began, the railway union established a new club, DSO Lokomotiv (Plovdiv), which shared Torpedo's colours and stadium.

The labour union thus effectively legitimised the new club without needing to limit the access of the members of Torpedo to the sports facilities.

In 1955 DSO Lokomotiv's playing squad changed entirely – many aging key players were transferred to other teams, but their replacements seemed to be unable to collaborate and were not of the same quality.

In 1957 another sport reorganisation occurred and clubs were no longer required to be affiliated with national enterprises; instead, teams returned to geographical regions.

In the 1964–65 season, Lokomotiv Plovdiv reached the third round of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, where after two draws with the Italian team Juventus, a third play-off match was chosen by UEFA to be played in Torino.

Before reaching the third round, Lokomotiv had previously eliminated the Serbian FK Vojvodina and the Romanian FC Petrolul Ploieşti.

Key players during this period include forward Gocho Vasilev, star midfielder Hristo Bonev, defender Ivan Boyadzhiev and goalkeeper Stancho Bonchev.

Coach and former legendary player Eduard Eranosyan started well, with Lokomotiv leading the league by six points halfway through the season and remaining unbeaten.

In the penultimate 29th round, the team defeated Slavia Sofia in Plovdiv by 3:2 in front of more than 17,000 spectators and won the Bulgarian championship.

Key players during the season included Vasil Kamburov, Georgi Iliev, Aleksandar Tunchev, Kiril Kotev, Vladimir Ivanov, Metodi Stoynev and Macedonians Boban Jančevski, Vančo Trajanov and Robert Petrov.

[10] In the next few months the club had significant financial problems causing many of the champions' team players such as Aleksandar Tunchev, Martin Kamburov, Ivan Paskov, Georgi Iliev, Darko Spalević, Kiril Kotev and Boban Jančevski to leave.

[12] Winning the Bulgarian Cup enabled the team to play in the Europa League second qualifying round for the 2019–20 season.

[21] In the third qualifying round Lokomotiv were eliminated by Copenhagen of Danmark, following a 1–1 draw in Plovdiv and a 4–2 loss in the return leg at Parken Stadium.

[22] In the league, Lokomotiv won the silver medals for the second time in club's history, finishing the season with 61 points.

[23] The configuration of the crest consists of a shield colored in red and black and a golden letter 'L' (Bulgarian: Л) placed in the center.

The record attendance was back in 1983 when Lokomotiv played against Chernomorets Burgas in a playoff game for entering the Country's top-tier league.

On 25 July 2019, the stadium hosted its first ever European competition game, as Lokomotiv defeated Spartak Trnava 2–0 in a Europa League fixture in front of nearly 10,000 spectators.

[27] In 2020 after a government funding for the Plovdiv city football infrastructure the works on the new Bessica stand started with the completion date set for the summer of 2022.

[36] At the start of the reconstruction of Lokomotiv Stadium, the section for the most devoted fans was to be called Bessica Tribune after the ancient Thracian tribe whose artefacts were discovered nearby.

Lauta Hools, also called Usual suspects, founded in 1992,[38] adhere to the British form of support and are casuals, and it is not uncommon to see the Union Jack in the stands as a result.

[42] As of 10 February 2025[update] [43] Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply.