Dominik Ivilin Yankov ( bg, Доминик Ивилин Янков; born 28 July 2000) is a 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 le ...

who plays as a

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 ...

for Ludogorets Razgrad. Born in Canada, he represents Bulgaria on international level. Yankov played in the Power FC Soccer Academy in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

until age 13, when joined Sunderland's Academy. Three years later he moved to Bulgaria, joining Ludogorets, where he made his senior debut.

Career

Ludogorets Razgrad

Academy and second team

Before joining Ludogorets, Yankov spent 5 years playing for Power FC, a private Canadian academy. After that he moved to

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

where he spent 3 years, but after his parents decided to return to Bulgaria, they chose the Ludogorets academy as the best place for him to continue his career. Yankov made his debut in the UEFA Youth League for Ludogorets on 27 September 2017 in the first round of

Domestic champions path Domestic may refer to: In the home * Anything relating to the human home or family ** A domestic animal, one that has undergone domestication ** A domestic appliance, or home appliance ** A domestic partnership ** Domestic science, sometimes cal ...

against Željezničar Sarajevo. On 27 May 2017, in the last league match of the season, Yankov was set on bench in the match against

Spartak Pleven OFK Spartak ( bg, ОФК Спартак) is a Bulgarian municipal association football club from the city of Pleven founded on 10 September 1919. It currently competes in the Second League, the second tier of Bulgarian football. The team's grea ...

, but remained on bench the whole match. He completed his debut for the doubles on 13 August 2017 in a league match against Nesebar.

First team

In February 2018 Ludogorets manager Dimitar Dimitrov took Yankov in the first team. Yankov made an unofficial debut for the team in a winter break friendly against the Romanian club

Botoșani Botoșani () is the capital city of Botoșani County, in the northern part of Western Moldavia, Moldavia, Romania. Today, it is best known as the birthplace of many celebrated Romanians, including Mihai Eminescu, Nicolae Iorga and Grigore Antipa. ...

. He completed his debut for the team on 12 May 2018 in a league match against Levski Sofia.

Loan to Botev Vratsa

On 1 August 2019 Yankov was sent on loan to the fellow First League team

Botev Vratsa Botev ( bg, Ботев) is a Bulgarian professional football club based in Vratsa, that competes in the First League, the top division of Bulgarian football. The club was founded in 1921. Since 1948, Botev have played their home games at St ...

until end of the year with an option to extend the loan until the end of the season. He made his debut for the team three days later in a league match against CSKA Sofia, coming on as a substitute in the 84th minute. In his first match as a starter on 16 August against

Slavia Sofia PFC Slavia Sofia ( bg, ПФК Славия София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which currently competes in the top tier of the Bulgarian football league system, the First League. Slavia's home ground ...

, Yankov scored his first goal for the team and also assisted another.

Return to Ludogorets

After his successful spell in Botev, Ludogorets coach

Pavel Vrba Pavel Vrba (born 6 December 1963) is a Czech football manager and former player. He is known for applying an offensive football philosophy in the teams he coaches. As a player, Vrba played for several clubs including Baník Ostrava. As a coach, ...

decided to include Yankov in the first team. He returned in play in the

Supercup A super cup is a competition, usually but not exclusively in association football, which often forms the 'curtain raiser' to a season, and typically involves only two teams who have qualified through success in other competitions during the prev ...

match against

Lokomotiv Plovdiv PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv ( bg, ПФК Локомотив Пловдив), commonly known as Loko Plovdiv, is a Bulgarian professional football club based in Plovdiv. Lokomotiv's home ground is the Lokomotiv Stadium which is situated in Lauta Park ...

on 2 August. On 19 August he compleated his debut in the Champions League match against

FK Budućnost Podgorica Fudbalski Klub Budućnost Podgorica (Cyrillic: Будућност Подгорица, , lit. "Future") is a Montenegrin football club from Podgorica, Montenegro. It is competing in the Montenegrin First League. Its colours are blue and white. ...

. On 25 August, before the Champions League match against FC Midtjylland, he tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. He returned in play on 12 September 2020, scoring his debut league goal and helping his team to a win over

. On 24 September 2020 he signed a new long-term contract with the team.

International career

Yankov was born in Canada to Bulgarian parents, which makes him eligible for both

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and

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 ...

national teams. He represented Canada U15, but later represented Bulgaria on U17, U19 and U21 levels although he received several invites for Canada's youth teams, including a call for the U23 for the 2020 CONCACAF Olympic qualifying. In an interview in June 2020 he explained that he would represent the country that contacts him first. In October 2020 he was called for Bulgaria U21 team, but after an injury of Borislav Tsonev, Yankov received his first call up for the senior team of Bulgaria, declaring he will represent the nation on international level. He completed his debut on 8 October in the UEFA Euro 2020 Play-off match against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

, coming as a substitute in the 79th minute. In 2021 he was recalled for the U21 team of Bulgaria for the friendly tournament Antalya Cup, where he was named the team captain. Bulgarian team finished as a runner-up, losing the final game against North Macedonia U21. Yankov scored 2 goals and was named as the best midfielder.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Club

;Ludogorets *

First Professional Football League 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 ...

(4): 2017–18, 2018–19,

2020-21 The hyphen-minus is the most commonly used type of hyphen, widely used in digital documents. It is the only character that looks like a minus sign or a dash in many character sets such as ASCII or on most keyboards, so it is also used as such. ...

, 2021–22 *

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 ...

(3):

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

Individual

*Best Progressing Player in the

Bulgarian First League 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 ...

: 2020 Доминик Янков получи приза за най-прогресиращ млад играч на България
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References

Power FC

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yankov, Dominik 2000 births Living people Soccer players from Toronto Men's association football midfielders Bulgarian footballers Bulgaria men's youth international footballers Bulgaria men's under-21 international footballers Bulgaria men's international footballers Canadian soccer players Canadian people of Bulgarian descent POFC Botev Vratsa players PFC Ludogorets Razgrad II players PFC Ludogorets Razgrad players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Second Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players