Ilia Iliev Gruev (; born 6 May 2000) is a Bulgarian 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 lea ...

who plays as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for club

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

and the Bulgaria national team.

Club career

Werder Bremen

After playing youth football for Rot-Weiß Erfurt, Gruev moved to

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen, Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, Werder are best known for their professional association foo ...

in 2015. Gruev progressed through Bremen's youth teams, eventually becoming captain of the club's under-19 side before signing his first professional contract with the club in April 2019. Gruev made his professional debut for

in the second round of the

2020–21 DFB-Pokal The 2020–21 DFB-Pokal was the 78th season of the annual German Association football, football cup competition. Sixty-four teams participated in the competition, including all teams from the previous year's Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga. The compe ...

on 23 December 2020, coming on as a substitute in the 87th minute for Jean-Manuel Mbom against

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), is a German professional association football, football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years between 19 ...

. The away match finished as a 3–0 win for Bremen. He scored the first goal of his senior career in a 4–1 win over

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as Schalke 04 (), and abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional sports club from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its football team, w ...

in April 2022, with a close-range header to put Bremen 1–0 up. Werder Bremen were promoted to the Bundesliga at the end of the season, after finishing 2nd with 63 points. Gruev extended his contract with Werder Bremen in summer 2022. The start of the 2022–23 season saw Gruev continue to play regularly for Bremen, appearing in 11 of their first 12 Bundesliga matches.

Leeds United

2023–24 season

On 31 August 2023, Gruev signed for

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, it is the highest divi ...

club

on a four-year deal for an undisclosed fee. Gruev struggled to break into Leeds' first team in the first half of the season, being limited to just two league starts in 2023, both of which were in a box-to-box midfielder role rather than as a deep-lying midfielder, due to the form of Ethan Ampadu in that role. In his third league start of the season, an injury to centre-back Pascal Struijk allowed Gruev to be given a start as a deep-lying midfielder in a 3–0 win against

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It currently competes in , the third tier of the English football league system in the 2025–26 season following relegation. Founded in 1899 a ...

in January 2024 - Gruev was voted man of the match, having completed 68 out of 70 passes, giving him a 97% passing accuracy, a record for a Leeds player (who recorded 50+ passes) since the statistic was first measured in the 2013–14 season. Gruev scored his first and only goal of the season, a free kick in the second leg of Leeds' 4–0 play-off semi-final win against

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club is a professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their h ...

Elland Road Elland Road, or Elland Road Stadium, is a football stadium in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, which has been the Home (sports), home of Leeds United F.C., Leeds United since the club's formation in 1919. The stadium is the List of foot ...

. However, Leeds were unable to secure promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt following a defeat to

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

in the play-off final in May 2024.

2024–25 season

Having been named in the starting line-ups for most of the season so far, Gruev sustained an injury at Norwich City necessitating surgery to repair meniscus damage in early October 2024. Gruev returned to play as a late substitute in an FA Cup third round home win over Harrogate Town in January 2025. In May, Gruev won the 2024–25 EFL Championship title with Leeds following a late win over Plymouth Argyle at

Home Park Home Park is a football stadium in the area of Milehouse, Plymouth, Devon, England. With a capacity of 17,900, the ground has been the home of Plymouth Argyle Football Club since 1903, and was also used between 1900 and 1903 by Argyle Athlet ...

. Gruev finished the season with two assists, appearing in 23 league matches.

International career

Gruev has appeared for the Bulgaria under-17, under-18, under-19 and under-21 national teams. He received his first call-up for the senior national team on 5 September 2022, for the games of the

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is an international European football competition played by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The competition was devised to minimise friendlies a ...

games against

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

and

North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

on 23 and 26 September 2022. He made his debut in the match against Gibraltar on 23 September, won 5–1 by Bulgaria.

Personal life

Gruev was born in

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

, but also holds German citizenship. He is the son of Iliya Gruev, former footballer and current

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Leeds United *

: 2024–25
Individual * Bulgarian Footballer of the Year runner-up: 2022, 2023, 2024

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gruev, Ilia 2000 births Living people Footballers from Sofia Bulgarian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Regionalliga players SV Werder Bremen II players SV Werder Bremen players Leeds United F.C. players Bulgaria men's youth international footballers Bulgarian expatriate men's footballers Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England English Football League players Bulgarian emigrants to Germany 21st-century Bulgarian sportsmen