Iliya Hristov Gruev ( bg, Илия Христов Груев; born 30 October 1969) 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 le ...

. Until 2022 he was assistant manager at

Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia offers the sports of ...

Playing career

Gruev has played for Levski, Lokomotiv Sofia and Montana. After that he moved to Neftochimic Burgas where he played for almost five years, before leaving for Germany to represent

MSV Duisburg Meidericher Spielverein 02 e. V. Duisburg, commonly known as simply MSV Duisburg (), is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia. Nicknamed ''Die Zebras'' for their traditional striped jers ...

from 2000 to 2004. Following that he played for

KFC Uerdingen 05 KFC Uerdingen 05 is a German football club in the Uerdingen district of the city of Krefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. The former Bundesliga side enjoyed its greatest successes in the 1980s but now plays in the fifth-level Oberliga. History The ...

before finishing his active career in Rot-Weiß Erfurt. Gruev has 13 caps for

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 ...

, scoring once – on 11 October 1997, in the 2–4 away loss in a 1998 World Cup qualifier against

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Managerial career

Assistant manager

He was assistant coach in

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 ...

Hajduk Split Hrvatski nogometni klub Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split () or simply Hajduk, is a Croatian professional football club based in Split, that competes in the Croatian First League, the top tier in Croatian football. Since 1979, t ...

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in Nor ...

, 1. FC Kaiserslautern and

from 2009 to 2015.

MSV Duisburg

After

's bad results and following the release of their manager

Gino Lettieri Gino Lettieri (born 23 December 1966) is a professional football manager who is the current manager of Lithuanian club FK Panevėžys. He is an Italian national, but was born in Switzerland. Coaching career 1994–2006: Early career Lettieri wa ...

, Gruev was announced as the new manager of the team, signing a contract until 2017, becoming a first team manager for the first time. In the 2016–17 season, Duisburg won the 3. Liga and got promoted to the 2. Bundesliga. Gruev was sacked on 1 October 2018 after the team scored only two points out of the first eight matches.

Torsten Lieberknecht Torsten Lieberknecht (born 1 August 1973) is a retired German football player and manager, who manages Darmstadt 98. Career Lieberknecht began his senior career at 1. FC Kaiserslautern, where he made his Bundesliga debut on 26 August 1992 in a ...

became the new head coach.

Werder Bremen

In summer 2019, Gruev joined

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, Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are be ...

as an assistant coach with a focus on set pieces.

Personal life

Gruev's son Ilia is also a professional footballer for

Career statistics

International goal

:''Scores and results list Bulgaria's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Gruev goal''.

Managerial statistics

References

External links

*
Profile at LevskiSofia.info
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gruev, Iliya Living people 1969 births Footballers from Sofia Association football midfielders Bulgarian footballers Bulgaria international footballers PFC Levski Sofia players PFC Slavia Sofia players FC Lokomotiv 1929 Sofia players Neftochimic Burgas players Altay S.K. footballers MSV Duisburg managers MSV Duisburg players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players 2. Bundesliga players Bulgarian football managers HNK Hajduk Split non-playing staff 2. Bundesliga managers 3. Liga managers Bulgarian expatriate footballers Bulgarian expatriate football managers Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate football managers in Germany Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Turkey SV Werder Bremen non-playing staff