Hristo Atanasov Bonev ( bg, Христо Aтанасов Бонев; born 3 February 1947), also known as Zuma ( bg, Зума), is a Bulgarian

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 ...

manager and former player who last managed

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 ...

in the

Bulgarian 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 ...

. One of the greatest Bulgarian footballers, Bonev was renowned for his vision and technique.

Club career

Bonev started his career at

in 1964 where he played until 1981 with a brief spell at

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 ...

in 1967. During his spell at Lokomotiv Plovdiv, he became their star player, while also was called to play for the national team. In 1981 he moved to

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

to play for

AEK Athens A.E.K ( el, AEK , formally Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople''), known as A.E.K, is a major Greece, Greek multi-sport club based in Nea ...

. In AEK, his offer was meager, due to his knee injury, which, among other things, cost him his career. He stayed at AEK for 1 and a half years completing 10 official appearances. He left in the summer of 1982 suffering from a knee injury, although events proved that he wanted to try his luck in England and

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and th ...

offered him a trial but with a better-paying contract option. In order to obtain his freedom then, he convinced the president of the club Zafiropoulos by proposing his compatriot Angel Kolev with a small amount of money, but just like Bonev, he didn't help the team. The experiment in England did not catch on, as Bonev was betrayed by his knee and so he left Oxford with just 3 appearances in pre-season friendlies. He returned to Lokomotiv Plovdiv to end his career in 1984 at the age of 37. Bonev has played in 404 games and has scored 180 goals in the

A 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 ...

for Lokomotiv Plovdiv. He has played also 14 games and has scored 6 goals in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

with the smurfs. Bonev won the Cup of the Soviet Army in

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

, he is also vice-champion of Bulgaria for 1973, with two more bronze medals won - in 1969 and 1974.

International career

Bonev played for the Bulgaria national team 96 times, scoring a record 48 goals, between 1967 and 1979. He played for his country at the

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

and

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

Managerial career

Before ending his career at Lokomotiv Plovdiv Bonev played as a player-coach for a season. After his retirement he became a manager and initially went to

and became coach of

Panathinaikos Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos ( el, Παναθηναϊκός Αθλητικός Όμιλος, literally in English: "Panathenaic Athletic Club" or Panathinaikos A.C.), also known simply as Panathinaikós , is a major Greek multi-sport club ba ...

in 1988, where he won the

Greek Championship The Super League Greece 1 ( el, Ελληνική Σούπερ Λιγκ 1), or Super League 1, is the highest professional association football league in Greece. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and replaced ''Alpha Ethniki'' at the top of ...

in 1990 and he is chosen for the Manager of the season in

. Then he managed AEL for 3 seasons following a year at Ionikos, where he won 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 ...

league and got his club promoted to the first division. After Greece, he became manager of the Cypriot team

APOEL APOEL FC ( el, ΑΠΟΕΛ; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', literally "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") ...

in 1995 and until 1996 when he quit from his team, he won the

Cypriot Cup The Cypriot Cup () is the main cup competition in Cypriot football, run by the Cyprus Football Association (CFA). It began in 1934, the same season with the Cypriot Championship. It is the second most important competition for Cypriot club team ...

in his first year in Cyprus in 1995 and the Double the following season. He went back to his home country to become manager of

Lokomotiv Sofia Lokomotiv 1929 ( bg, Локомотив 1929) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which currently plays in the First League, the top tier of Bulgarian football. Founded as Railway Sports Club in 1929, and refou ...

and then he was appointed as head coach to his country's national team for the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

. Despite a disappointing showing in France, with only one point achieved from three games, he continued as national coach, but after a 3–0 defeat to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

in the first qualifying match for

Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament wa ...

in September 1998, he decided to resign from his post, stating "I believe I have taken the team as far as I am able, and now it is time for the players to respond to someone else who, I hope, can improve our results."

Honours

As a player

;Lokomotiv Plovdiv * Cup of the Soviet Army (1):

As a manager

;Panathinaikos *

Alpha Ethniki The Super League Greece 1 ( el, Ελληνική Σούπερ Λιγκ 1), or Super League 1, is the highest professional association football league in Greece. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and replaced ''Alpha Ethniki'' at the top of ...

: 1989–90 ;Ionikos *

Beta Ethniki The Football League ( el, Φούτμπολ Λιγκ) was the second highest professional football league in Greece since its inception in 1962 as ''Beta Ethniki'' and until 2019. It then served as a third tier after the creation of the Super Lea ...

: 1993–94 ;APOEL *

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division ( el, Πρωτάθλημα Α΄ Κατηγορίας) is the top tier football league competition in Cyprus, run by the Cyprus Football Association. Since February 2016, it is sponsored by Cyta and is thus officially ...

: 1995–96 *

: 1995–96, 1994–95 ;Individual *

Bulgarian Footballer of the Year Bulgarian Footballer of the Year ( bg, Футболист №1 на България, ''Futbolist №1 na Balgariya'') is an annual title awarded to the best Bulgarian association football player of the year. The award has been given since 1961, an ...

(3): 1969, 1972, 1973 *Best Bulgarian Footballer of 20th century: Third place *Best Footballer of

Plovdiv Plovdiv ( bg, Пловдив, ), is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. It has a population of 346,893 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is the c ...

for 20th century * Stara Planina Orden – 1st Class *Honorary citizen of

*Manager of the year in

: 1989–90 Source:

International goals

:''Scores and results list Bulgaria's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Bonev goal.'' ;Notes: : Some sources credit Bonev's second goal as an own-goal by

Nikos Kovis Nikos Kovis (born 6 January 1953), known as Niko Kovi in Turkey, is a Turkish-Greek football player and manager. He was a central defender. He was born in Istanbul. Nikos Kovis was the Technical Director of the youth academies of Panathinaiko ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonev, Hristo 1947 births Living people Footballers from Plovdiv AEK Athens F.C. players Expatriate football managers in Cyprus Bulgarian football managers Bulgarian footballers PFC CSKA Sofia players PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Panathinaikos F.C. managers 1970 FIFA World Cup players 1974 FIFA World Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup managers Bulgaria international footballers Bulgarian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Greece Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Super League Greece players Bulgaria national football team managers Bulgarian expatriate football managers Ionikos F.C. managers APOEL FC managers PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv managers FC Lokomotiv 1929 Sofia managers Association football midfielders Expatriate football managers in Greece