2005 - 2011
New era
During the so-called “black season”, in February 2005, parents expressed great concern about the possibility of their children continuing in the first Slovenian leagues. Due to all the problems that plagued the club at the time, the young players were also threatened with relegation to the lower leagues. To avoid this, enthusiasts (Aleš Remih, Miloš Junkar, Darko Škerl), who were previously associated with the club, and parents founded the club NK Bežigrad, which would enable the young prospects of Olimpija to continue the season without any problems and remain in the leagues. The board of directors of the then Olimpija also agreed with this. Despite great efforts, the executive board of the NZS decided to relegate both members and junior selections to the lower leagues. It was originally planned that NK Bežigrad would include only young Olimpija footballers, but due to the relegation and all the problems of the old club, a completely new chapter began, a new project, which in the next five years also led the member Olimpija back to the first league.
The beginnings were difficult. Most of the young players did not want to play in the lower leagues, which is why the juniors and cadets were not able to play in the first year. The main players in the new story invited Primož Gliha to participate in the composition of the team, who brought a number of well-known names in Slovenian football to the club (Janez Pate, Zoran Ubavič, Nenad Podgajski, Ilija Kitič, Stane Komočar, Miran Pavlin and later also Aleš Čeh, Mladen Rudonja, Amir Karič, Sebastjan Cimerotič …). These players won first place in the fifth league in the first year and later successfully performed in the higher leagues. The story also included the most loyal fans, the Green Dragons, who supported the idea of a new rise from the very beginning. Regardless of the fact that the team played in the fifth league for the first year, they regularly attended home and away matches and supported the players until they returned to the first league. The good attendance at both home and away games proved that the idea was right. The clubs against which the team played probably still do not have as many visitors today as they did then.
The transition to the higher leagues was quick and largely unproblematic. In the 5th league, the team drew only once and won all other matches. The fourth league was even less problematic, the team did not lose a single match. As a member of the Olimpija Academic Sports Association, the club acquired the right to use the name Olimpija in 2007 and began playing under the name NK Olimpija Bežigrad. A year later, it was renamed NK Olimpija Ljubljana. In the third league, Gliho, who left for Drava in Ptuj, replaced Pate as coach. During this period, the Slovenian Cup derby against Maribor was highly acclaimed. The match was watched on TV screens by more viewers than the Euroleague match that same evening. On 3 May 2009, Olimpija defeated Zagorje in a second league match and thus qualified for the first Slovenian league.