Ilko Emilov Pirgov ( bg, Илко Емилов Пиргов; born 23 May 1986) is a

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 ...

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 plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for

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 ...

. He is the older brother of Dimitar Pirgov.

Career

Pirgov is an ex-

Pirin Blagoevgrad Futbolen klub Pirin ( bg, Футболен клуб „Пирин“), also known as Pirin Blagoevgrad is a Bulgarian football club based in Blagoevgrad, which currently competes in the First League, the top division of Bulgarian football. Th ...

player, where he played from 2002. He moved to

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 2005. As a player of

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 ...

he is a

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 ...

winner in 2006. In 2008, he played for six months for Romanian club

CS Otopeni CS Otopeni was a Romanian professional football club from Otopeni, Ilfov County, founded in 2001 and dissolved in 2013. Its greatest performance was that it played for one season in the Liga I in the 2008–09 season. History The club was fo ...

. On 10 January 2009 he signed for

Cherno More Varna Cherno More ( bg, Черно Море) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in the city of Varna, which currently competes in Bulgaria's primary football competition, the First League. Founded on March 3, 1913, as an asso ...

. During the 2011–12 season Pirgov became the first player in

who earned 31 league appearances in 30 rounds. In the first half of the campaign he played in all 15 matches for Cherno More. In December 2011, Pirgov joined Litex Lovech. During a second half of the season he played in all 15 matches of his new club and in the Litex's delayed game of the autumn against Kaliakra Kavarna. He has developed a reputation as a goalkeeper who is adept in saving penalty kicks, managing the feat on 11 occasions in the

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 ...

(in two other instances, the penalty takers who faced him did not hit the target) in the period from 2006 to 2020. On 1 July 2020, during the Bulgarian Cup final Pirgov came on as a substitute for Martin Lukov just prior to the commencement of the penalty shootout and was able to save

Ali Sowe Ali Sowe (born 14 June 1994) is a Gambian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Turkish club Ankaragücü, on loan from Russian club Rostov, and the Gambia national team. Club career Early years Ali was made under contract in e ...

's kick from the spot, making a decisive contribution towards Lokomotiv Plovdiv's victory. He was subsequently one of a number of Lokomotiv Plovdiv players who developed symptoms and 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 identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

, though he recovered for the new season. On 29 July 2021, Pirgov saved three out of five penalty kicks against

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

team

1. FC Slovácko 1. FC Slovácko is a Czech football club based in Uherské Hradiště. The team was established in 1927 as SK Staré Město and on 1 July 2000 as 1. FC Synot, which was a merger of the original club with ''FC Slovácká Slavia Uherské Hradiště' ...

in the second leg of a Europa Conference League qualifying phase match, enabling Lokomotiv Plovdiv to prevail in the penalty shootout.

Career statistics

Honours

Club

;CSKA Sofia * Bulgarian League: 2007–08 *

: 2005–06 ;Lokomotiv Plovdiv *

(2): 2018–19, 2019–20 *

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 an ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

References

1986 births Living people Bulgarian footballers OFC Pirin Blagoevgrad players PFC CSKA Sofia players CS Otopeni players PFC Cherno More Varna players PFC Litex Lovech players PFC Beroe Stara Zagora players PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv players Men's association football goalkeepers Expatriate footballers in Romania First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Liga I players {{Bulgaria-footy-goalkeeper-stub