Aluminij KidricevoNK Aluminij takes its name from the factory around which its home town grew. Kidričevo, formerly called Strnišče, developed around an aluminium plant after the Second World War and was renamed after the Slovenian communist leader Boris Kidrič. The football club was founded in 1946 as a works team, a section of the Aluminij sports society. It is known as Šumari (the Foresters) and Rdeče-beli (the Red and Whites), its colours are red, and its badge still carries a five-pointed star. Its home is the Aluminij Sports Park, a modest ground that Slovenians call “the forest”, with room for only a small crowd in a town of a few thousand people.
The club's first trophies came under Yugoslavia. It won the Slovenian Republic Cup in 1965 and the Slovenian Republic League in 1965/66, two titles in consecutive seasons rather than a single double. Aluminij also gained experience in the Yugoslav Second League, but for most of the following decades it stayed outside the circle of clubs competing for national honours.
In independent Slovenia the club built its place gradually. For years it shared the local cup with its neighbour Drava Ptuj, and the local trophy gave Aluminij entry to the national cup most seasons. In 2002 it reached the Slovenian Cup final and lost to Gorica 6–1 on aggregate over two legs. It promoted itself to the top flight in 2016 and stayed there for eight seasons. A second cup final in 2018 ended in a 6–1 defeat to Olimpija, but the following season brought a 6–2 league win over the same opponent, which the club still remembers.
The present generation has taken the story further. Aluminij won the Slovenian Second League in 2024/25 and returned to the top flight. In the 2025/26 cup it won its early ties heavily, beating Hajdina 5–0, Bukovce 7–1, Žiri 6–1, Polana 7–1 and Fužinar 4–0. The final took place in Celje on 13 May 2026 against Brinje Grosuplje, a second-division side that had knocked out Maribor on penalties and Olimpija 1–0. Aluminij won 1–0 in front of 3,892 spectators, with the veteran goalkeeper Matjaž Rozman, back at the club after 19 years, keeping a clean sheet. It was Aluminij's first Slovenian Cup, the third final it had reached, and the club's first trophy since Yugoslav times. The sports director Robert Koderman had assembled the squad.
The cup brought the club's first European campaign. In the Europa League first qualifying round of 2026/27 Aluminij drew Sheriff Tiraspol, the Moldovan club known for its 2021 Champions League win over Real Madrid. The home leg was moved to Ljudski vrt in Maribor, because the home ground in Kidričevo was not suitable. Aluminij drew 0–0 in Tiraspol on 9 July 2026 and lost 1–0 in Maribor on 16 July, going out 1–0 on aggregate. The defeat dropped the club into the Conference League second qualifying round, where it drew 1–1 at home with Dinamo City and lost 3–0 away.
The European summer came in the club's 80th year. In 2025/26 Aluminij finished seventh among the ten teams of the PrvaLiga under coach Jura Arsić, and survival in the top flight remains the club's main target. A works team from a one-factory town has now won a national trophy and played in Europe, which is the clearest measure of how far Aluminij has travelled since 1946.
