Apostol Popov ( bg, Апостол Попов; born 22 December 1982) is a

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

n former professional footballer and currently assistant manager of CSKA 1948 III.

Career

Early career

Popov began his career with

Spartak Plovdiv PFC Spartak Plovdiv ( bg, ПФК Спартак Пловдив) is a Bulgarian football club based in Plovdiv, which currently plays in the third tier of Bulgarian football, the Third League. The club was established in 1947 and folded its senio ...

and made his first team debut in 2001. Then he played two and a half years in the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

with

Belite Orli Belite Orli Pleven ( bg, ПФК Белите орли Плевен) is a Bulgarian football club from the town of Pleven, currently playing in the Regional Football Groups, A RFG Pleven, the fourth division of Bulgarian football. The team was d ...

and

Haskovo Haskovo ( bg, Хасково ) is a city in the region of Northern Thrace in southern Bulgaria and the administrative centre of the Haskovo Province, not far from the borders with Greece and Turkey. According to Operative Program Regional Develo ...

, before joined

Botev Plovdiv Profesionalen Futbolen Klub Botev, commonly referred to as Botev Plovdiv ( bg, „Ботев“ Пловдив, ) or simply Botev (within its associated city), is a Bulgarian professional football club based in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, that competes ...

in December 2007.

Botev Plovdiv

Popov signed with

as a free agent on 27 December 2007 on a two-and-a-half-year deal. He was signed to replace

Nikolay Domakinov Nikolay Domakinov ( bg, Николай Домакинов; born 11 July 1980) is a Bulgarian footballer who played as a defender. International career Domakinov played in two matches on the Bulgaria national football team in 2005 - with Ecuador ...

at Botev and added an extra dimension with his heading ability from set-pieces. He made his official debut in the

A PFG The First Professional Football League ( bg, Първа професионална футболна лига, Parva Profesionalna Futbolna Liga), also known as the Bulgarian First League or Parva Liga, currently known as the efbet League for spon ...

with

in a match against Spartak Varna on 1 March 2008, playing full 90 minutes. The result of the match was a 2–0 win for Botev. He scored his first goal on 27 September 2008, opening the scoring in a 5–0 home win over

Belasitsa Petrich OFC Belasitsa ( bg, ОФК Беласица Петрич) is a Bulgarian football club from the town of Petrich, currently playing in the Second League. The team was founded in 1923. They play at the Stadion Tsar Samuil in Petrich, which has a ...

. On 14 March 2009, Popov played as a goalkeeper for the final minutes in the league game against

Levski Sofia Levski Sofia ( bg, Левски София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system. The club was founded on 24 May 1914 b ...

after regular goalkeeper Lilcho Arsov was sent off in the 86th minute. He made one good save during the minutes to the end of the game, but Botev lost 0–1.

CSKA Sofia

On 24 July 2009, Popov joined

CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia ( bg, ЦСКА София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sport ...

on a three-year contract. He made his debut on 23 August, in a 2–0 away win against Sportist Svoge. His first goal came on 10 April 2010, netting the third in a 4–2 win over Sliven 2000 at

Hadzhi Dimitar Stadium Stadion Hadzhi Dimitar ( bg, Стадион „Хаджи Димитър“, en, 'Hadzhi Dimitar Stadium' ) is a multi-purpose stadium in Sliven, Bulgaria. It is currently used for football matches and is the home ground of OFC Sliven 2000. The ...

. On 13 August 2011, in the second league game of 2011–12 season, against

Chernomorets Burgas PSFC Chernomorets Burgas ( bg, ПСФК Черноморец Бургас) or simply Chernomorets ( bg, Черноморец) was a Bulgarian football club from the city of Burgas. The club never won any major competition, its most notable achie ...

, Popov ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament and received surgery a week later. His recovery was said to take up to six months. He made his comeback for CSKA from a serious knee injury on 22 April 2012, in a 4–1 win over

Cherno More Varna Cherno More ( bg, Черно Море) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in the city of Varna, which currently competes in Bulgaria's primary football competition, the First League. Founded on March 3, 1913, as an assoc ...

, coming on for the last 2 minutes. This season he played only 6 matches. In the following campaign, Popov formed a partnership with

Plamen Krachunov Plamen Krachunov ( bg, Пламен Крачунов; born 11 January 1989) is a Bulgarian professional footballer who currently plays as a defender for Arda Kardzhali. Career Maritsa Plovdiv Krachunov started playing football with Maritsa Pl ...

in the centre of defence, appearing in 26 league matches. He was substituted only once during the entire league season. On 26 July 2012, he scored his first-ever European goal in a 1–1 home draw against Slovenian side

ND Mura 05 Nogometno društvo Mura 05, commonly referred to as ND Mura 05 or simply Mura 05, was a Slovenian football club from the town of Murska Sobota. The club was established on 16 June 2005. The club's home ground was Fazanerija City Stadium. During ...

in the Second qualifying round of 2012–13 Europa League. On 17 July 2013, Popov signed a new two-year contract with CSKA. After serving mainly as a centre back for the majority of his career, during 2013–14 season he started to be employed as the regular right back by CSKA head coach,

Stoycho Mladenov Stoycho Dimitrov Mladenov ( bg, Стойчо Димитpoв Младенов; born 12 April 1957 in Ploski, Blagoevgrad Province) is a Bulgarian former football player and manager. Career Mladenov started from small teams like Dimitrovgrad an ...

. On 8 March 2014, Popov again played as a goalkeeper for a few minutes in the 1:0 win over

after

Raïs M'Bolhi Adi Raïs Cobos Adrien Ouahab M'Bolhi ( ar, عدي رايس كوبوس أدريان وهاب مبولحي; born 25 April 1986), known as Raïs M'Bolhi, is a professional footballer who currently plays as a goalkeeper for Saudi First Division Leag ...

had been sent off in the closing stages of the match. On 27 July 2014, Popov made his 100th league appearance for CSKA in a 2–0 win against

Universitatea Craiova

On 6 June 2015, Popov signed a two-year contract with Universitatea Craiova.

CSKA 1948

On 13 June 2018, Popov joined Second League club CSKA 1948.

International career

In August 2011, Popov was named in the Bulgarian squad for the first time for a friendly against

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

. He made his debut in the game on 11 August, coming on for the last 7 minutes in place of

Chavdar Yankov Chavdar Yankov ( bg, Чавдар Янков; born 29 March 1984) is a Bulgarian retired footballer. He played as a midfielder. Club career Yankov began his football career as a youth at Slavia Sofia. He made his debut in professional football ...

as Bulgaria loss 1–0 at Dinamo Stadium in

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

. Three years later, on 9 September 2014, in Bulgaria's first match of

UEFA Euro 2016 qualification The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from September 2014 to November 2015 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams joining the automatically qualified host team France in the UEFA Euro ...

, Popov made his competitive debut in a 2–1 victory away to

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

Bakcell Arena Eighth Kilometer District Stadium, ( az, 8-ci Kilometr Qəsəbə Stadionu) is a soccer-specific stadium located in Nizami raion, Baku, Azerbaijan. It was opened in 2012 and has a capacity of 11,000 spectators. In 2013 it was renamed to Bakcell A ...

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

, playing full 90 minutes in the centre of defence.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Club

Bulgarian Cup The Bulgarian Cup ( bg, Купа на България, Kupa na Bulgaria) is a Bulgarian annual football competition. It is the country's main cup competition and all officially registered Bulgarian football teams take part in it. The tournament ...

(1):

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

Bulgarian Supercup The Bulgarian Supercup ( bg, Суперкупа на България) is the trophy won in a football match held between the football club that has won the Bulgarian first football division in the season that ended in the year of the match and ...

(1):

* Universitatea Craiova **

Cupa României The Cupa României ( en, Romanian Cup) is a Association football, football cup competition for List of football clubs in Romania, Romanian teams which has been held annually since 1933–34 Cupa României, 1933–34, except during World War II. I ...

(1):

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

References

External links

*
Apostol Popov
at Footmercato.net * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Popov, Apostol 1982 births Living people Footballers from Plovdiv Bulgarian footballers Association football defenders FC Spartak Plovdiv players PFC Belite Orli Pleven players FC Haskovo players Botev Plovdiv players PFC CSKA Sofia players CS Universitatea Craiova players FC CSKA 1948 Sofia players FC Botev Vratsa players FC Vitosha Bistritsa players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Liga I players Bulgarian expatriate footballers Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Romania Expatriate footballers in Romania Bulgaria international footballers