Boncho Genchev ( bg, Бончо Генчев; born 7 July 1964) is a Bulgarian retired professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, and a current manager. He started in his home country in the lower leagues before moving to Lokomotiv Gorna and Etar. After one year in Portugal with Sporting, he went to England in 1992 and played in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

with

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

and in the Football League for

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

. After a short spell in Bulgaria with

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 ...

, he played non-league football in England during three years, for Hendon and Carshalton Athletic. Genchev appeared with

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 Macedo ...

at the

1994 World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...

and

Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

tournaments.

Club career

Born in

General Toshevo General Toshevo ( bg, Генерал Тошево ; ro, Casim) is a town in northeastern Bulgaria, part of Dobrich Province. Located in the historic region of Southern Dobruja, it is the administrative centre of the homonymous municipality and ...

Dobrich Province Dobrich Province ( bg, Област Добрич, , former name Dobrich okrug) is a province in northeastern Bulgaria, part of Southern Dobruja geographical region. It is bounded on east by the Black Sea, on south by Varna Province, on west by ...

, Genchev started playing with

PFC Dobrudzha Dobrich FC Dobrudzha ( bg, ФК Добруджа) is a Bulgarian football club based in Dobrich, that competes in the Second League, the second tier of Bulgarian football. It plays its home matches at Stadion Druzhba with a capacity of 12,500 seats, ...

, switching to

PFC Litex Lovech Litex ( bg, Литекс) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Lovech, which currently competes in the Second League. The club was founded in 1921 as Hisarya Sports Club. The club's home ground is the Gradski Stadion ...

in 1982 for another sole season. In the following year he established himself in the

Bulgarian A Football Group 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

FC Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa Lokomotiv ( bg, Локомотив) is a Bulgarian association football club based in Gorna Oryahovitsa, which currently competes in the Third League, the third level of Bulgarian football. Established in 1932 as a sports association of the rai ...

and F.C. Etar, where he played three 1/2 and four 1/2 years respectively. After 22 league goals for Etar in two seasons combined, 27-year-old Genchev moved abroad, signing with Sporting Clube de Portugal in the summer of 1991 alongside compatriot

Ivaylo Yordanov Ivaylo Stoimenov Yordanov ( bg, Ивайло Стоименов Йорданов; born 22 April 1968) is a Bulgarian retired professional footballer who played mainly as a striker. During his career, he represented mainly Sporting in Portuga ...

, who previously had succeeded him at Lokomotiv GO. Unlike the forward, he had virtually no impact with the Lisbon side, leaving after one sole season and two Primeira Liga matches. Genchev revived his career in England, where he played for

and

, his three years with the ''Blues'' being spent in the

(with relegation in the last one), where he netted a total of six times. He then signed for Luton Town, who were relegated from Division One in his first season there, and were beaten in the Division Two playoff semi-finals in his second season. In 1997, after five years in England, Genchev returned to his country, with

PFC 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 ...

, winning the top scorer accolade in his debut campaign — although the club could only finish third – and the

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 tournamen ...

in his second. After that, he returned, at nearly 35, to England, playing non-league football for Hendon FC and Carshalton Athletic, and retiring three years after. Four years later, Genchev came out of retirement and rejoined Hendon, scoring his first goal in his second spell on 14 March 2007 against Hayes FC, in the

Middlesex Senior Cup The Middlesex Senior Cup is the most prestigious football cup competition in the historic county of Middlesex, England. The competition is run mainly for non-League clubs in the region, although league clubs have been known to enter the compe ...

. He retired for good in the following year, later going on to work for Ipswich as an international ambassador. In 2016, Genchev become the new manager of

OFC Etar Veliko Tarnovo Etar ( bg, Етър) is a Bulgarian sports football club based in Veliko Tarnovo, that plays in the Second League, the second level of Bulgarian football. Etar is the official successor of Etar 1924, which was dissolved for financial reasons ...

, but on 7 March of that year he was announced as chairman of the zonal council of the Bulgarian Football Union in the city.

International career

During six years, Genchev played 12 times for

, without scoring. He represented the nation at the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...

, replacing

Nasko Sirakov Nasko Petkov Sirakov ( bg, Наско Петков Сираков; born 26 April 1962) is a Bulgarian retired professional footballer who played mainly as a striker. He is the major shareholder of Levski Sofia. Part of the Bulgaria national t ...

for the second half of the round-of-16 match against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and scoring in his

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

attempt. Genchev was also picked for the squad at

UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

, playing one minute in the 1–0 group stage win against

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

Personal life

After his first retirement, Genchev ran a café/bar in

West Kensington, London West Kensington, formerly North End, is an area in the ancient parish of Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, England, 3.4 miles (5.5 km) west of Charing Cross. It covers most of the London postal area of W14, inclu ...

called 'Strikers', but it ceased trading shortly afterwards. Two of his sons, Lyubomir and Yavor, played for Lowestoft Town in the Isthmian League, and later joined their father at

Honours

Etar *

1990–91 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

Bulgaria *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

fourth place: 1994 Individual *

: Top scorer 1997–98

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Genchev, Boncho 1964 births Living people People from General Toshevo Bulgarian footballers Association football midfielders First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players FC Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa players FC Etar Veliko Tarnovo players PFC CSKA Sofia players Primeira Liga players Sporting CP footballers Premier League players English Football League players Ipswich Town F.C. players Luton Town F.C. players Hendon F.C. players Carshalton Athletic F.C. players Bulgaria international footballers 1994 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1996 players Bulgarian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Portugal Expatriate footballers in England Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in England Bulgarian football managers