Ilia Iliev Gruev ( bg, Илия Илиев Груев; 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 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

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 ...

. He has represented Bulgaria internationally at various youth levels.

Club career

Gruev made his professional debut for

in the second round of the 2020–21 DFB-Pokal on 23 December 2020, coming on as a substitute in the 87th minute for

Jean-Manuel Mbom Jean-Manuel Mbom (born 24 February 2000) is a German professional association football, footballer who plays as a midfielder for SV Werder Bremen, Werder Bremen. He has represented Germany internationally at various youth levels. Career Mbom mad ...

against

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

. The away match finished as a 3–0 win for Bremen.

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 a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...

games against

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

and

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...

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 ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

, but also holds German citizenship. He is the son of

Iliya Gruev Iliya Hristov Gruev ( bg, Илия Христов Груев; born 30 October 1969) is a Bulgarian retired professional footballer. Until 2022 he was assistant manager at Arminia Bielefeld. Playing career Gruev has played for Levski, Lokomoti ...

, former

Bulgarian international The Bulgarian Open Championship is an annual international badminton championships held in Bulgaria since 1985, by then known as Bulgarian International. It was halted between 1996 and 1998, and in 2000. The tournament belongs to the Badminton Europ ...

footballer and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

* * * 2000 births Living people Footballers from Sofia Bulgarian footballers German footballers Association football midfielders Bulgaria youth international footballers Bulgarian emigrants to Germany Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Regionalliga players SV Werder Bremen II players SV Werder Bremen players {{Bulgaria-footy-bio-stub