Krasimir Genchev Balakov ( bg, Красимир Генчев Балъков, ; born 29 March 1966) is a Bulgarian professional

football manager ''Football Manager'' (also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008) is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game bega ...

and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

who last served as the head coach of Bulgarian club CSKA 1948. A former

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

, he was a key member of the Bulgaria national team that finished fourth in the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...

. He is considered as second only to

Hristo Stoichkov Hristo Stoichkov Stoichkov ( bg, Христо Стоичков Стоичков, ; born 8 February 1966) is a Bulgarian former professional Association football, footballer who is a football commentator for TUDN. A prolific Forward (association ...

among Bulgarian footballers of his generation.

Club career

Balakov began his club career at the local Etar Veliko Tarnovo, before transferring to Portugal's

Sporting Clube de Portugal Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional fo ...

in 1990, playing alongside future

Ballon D'Or The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual football award presented by French news magazine ''France Football'' since 1956. Between 2010 and 2015, in an agreement with FIFA, the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year (fo ...

recipient

Luís Figo Luís Filipe Madeira Caeiro Figo (; born 4 November 1972) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a winger for Sporting CP, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Inter Milan. He won 127 caps for the Portugal national team, a one-ti ...

, his compatriot Yordanov, and future two-time Champions League winner

Paulo Sousa Paulo Manuel Carvalho de Sousa, CavIH (; born 30 August 1970) is a Portuguese football manager and former professional player who played as a defensive midfielder. Starting his career at Benfica, he also represented Sporting CP in his countr ...

. Though Sporting Clube de Portugal had a quality squad, Balakov only managed to win the 1994–95

Portuguese Cup Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

during his time at the club. In 1995, he transferred to Germany's

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. VfB Stu ...

where he won two

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...

s (2000 and 2002) and a

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considere ...

(1997), before retiring in 2003 - the same year that he called time on an international career which had spanned 15 years and 92 caps. As an

Balakov formed a successful attacking partnership with strikers

Fredi Bobic Fredi Bobic ( sl, Fredi Bobič, born 30 October 1971) is a German football executive and former player who played as a striker. He is the sporting director of Bundesliga club Hertha BSC. Club career Bobic was born in Maribor, SFR Yugoslavia, ...

and

Giovane Élber Élber de Souza (born 23 July 1972), commonly known as Giovane Élber, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a striker. A prolific goalscorer in various clubs, Élber's career was mostly spent in Germany, where he repres ...

at Stuttgart. The trio were known as the "magic triangle". He stayed at Stuttgart until retiring as a player in 2003, although he did make a comeback as a player two years later when he made a single appearance as player-manager of VFC Plauen.

Coaching career

The year after he retired, Krasimir became assistant coach of the club he had just retired from,

. He stayed in this position for two years before deciding to become a player-manager at

VFC Plauen VFC Plauen is a German association football club from the city of Plauen, Saxony. The club had to declare insolvency on 1 December 2014. __TOC__ History The club was founded as ''1. Vogtländischer Fußballclub Plauen'' and took part in the ...

, where he remained for just a short time. He had been appointed on 16 January 2006 as a manager of Grasshopper Club Zürich to replace

Hanspeter Latour Hanspeter Latour (born 4 June 1947 in Thun) is a Swiss football manager and former goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated p ...

who left for 1. FC Köln. Balakov managed to win the

Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...

, thus qualified the club to 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 ...

for 2006–07 season. He had been appointed on 29 October 2007 as a manager of

FC St. Gallen Fussballclub St. Gallen 1879, commonly known as St. Gallen, is a Swiss professional football club based in the city of St. Gallen, Canton of St. Gallen. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the Swiss Super League. History Founde ...

to replace

Rolf Fringer Rolf is a male given name and a surname. It originates in the Germanic name ''Hrolf'', itself a contraction of ''Hrodwulf'' ( Rudolf), a conjunction of the stem words ''hrod'' ("renown") + ''wulf'' ("wolf"). The Old Norse cognate is ''Hrólfr''. ...

. Three days before the season ended, he was fired by the club management. In December 2008, he became manager of

PFC 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 achi ...

in his homeland, taking over from Dimitar Dimitrov, after also having considered an offer to coach the national team of his country. On 6 December 2010, he was released from

after mutual consent, following a change in the long-term vision for the club by the owner

Mitko Sabev Mitko Vasilev Sabev ( bg, Митко Василев Събев) (born October 8, 1961), is a Bulgarian businessman. Sabev graduated from the higher naval school "Nikola Vaptsarov" in Varna, and then served as chief of the Bulgarian maritime fleet. ...

. On 27 May 2011, it was announced that Balakov would take over the helm of Croatian club

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 ...

. On 22 March 2012, Balakov was appointed the manager of 1. FC Kaiserslautern. He was sacked on 17 May 2012, after being unable to prevent Kaiserslautern's relegation to the 2. Bundesliga. He subsequently continued his career as manager in his country. On 4 January 2018, he was announced as the new manager of Etar Veliko Tarnovo with Stanislav Genchev,

Iliyan Kiryakov Iliyan Ivanov Kiryakov ( bg, Илиян Иванов Киряков; born 4 August 1967) is a Bulgarian former professional footballer who played as a right or left back. During a professional career which spanned nearly 20 years, he played fo ...

and Kaloyan Chakarov as first team coaches. On 14 May 2019, he was named as the new manager of the Bulgaria national team. In October 2019, Balakov was replaced as manager of the national team by

Georgi Dermendzhiev Georgi Nikolov Dermendziev ( bg, Георги Николов Дерменджиев; born 4 January 1955) is a Bulgarian professional football manager and former player who played as a defender. Coaching career After managing Spartak Plovdiv a ...

after resigning from his role following the backlash over his denial of alleged fan racism aimed at members of the England team in a Euro 2020 qualifying match as well as a continued string of unsatisfactory results. He took over as manager of CSKA 1948 in June 2020. In late August 2020, Balakov's duties were extended to cover the organizational management as well, with assistant Yordan Yurukov becoming more actively involved in the training process. However, the latter resigned on 22 September, leaving Balakov to be the sole one in charge of the team. In June 2021, Balakov parted ways with CSKA 1948, with the club's management thanking him for establishing the team among the stronger sides in the top division of Bulgarian football.

International career

Balakov made 92 appearances for Bulgaria, between 1988 and 2003 (one of the best totals in national history) and scored 16 goals. He made his debut on 2 November 1988, in the 1–1 draw with

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in a qualifying match for the 1990 FIFA World Cup, coming on as a late second half substitute for

. Other than the

, he also played for his country at

Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

and 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 ...

. At age 37 he played in the qualifications for

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...

to help his teammates qualify but retired from football before the final stage in Portugal.

International goals

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

Managerial statistics

Honours

Etar Veliko Tarnovo *

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 ...

: 1990–91 Sporting CP *

: 1995 VfB Stuttgart *

: 1996–97 *

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

DFB-Ligapokal The DFL-Ligapokal (, officially Premiere Ligapokal , previously DFB-Ligapokal ) or the ''German League Cup'' was a German football competition that took place before the start of the Bundesliga season, featuring the top five teams of the previous ...

finalist: 1997, 1998 *

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

finalist: 1997–98 *

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

runner-up: 2002–03 Bulgaria *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

fourth place: 1994 Individual *

All-Star Team: 1994 *

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 ...

: 1995, 1997 *''

kicker Kicker or The Kicker may refer to: Sports * Placekicker, a position in American and Canadian football * ''Kicker'' (sports magazine), in Germany * Kicker, the German colloquial term for an association football player * Kicker, the word used i ...

Team of the Season: 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98 *

FIFA XI FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

(Reserve): 1996

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Balakov, Krasimir 1966 births Living people People from Veliko Tarnovo Association football midfielders Bulgarian football managers Bulgarian expatriate football managers Bulgarian footballers Bulgarian expatriate footballers Bulgaria international footballers Bulgaria youth international footballers 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players FC Etar Veliko Tarnovo players Sporting CP footballers UEFA Euro 1996 players VfB Stuttgart players Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Germany First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Bundesliga players Primeira Liga players Grasshopper Club Zürich managers FC St. Gallen managers HNK Hajduk Split managers 1. FC Kaiserslautern managers Expatriate football managers in Switzerland Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal 2. Bundesliga managers Expatriate football managers in Germany PSFC Chernomorets Burgas managers VFC Plauen players FC CSKA 1948 Sofia managers Sportspeople from Veliko Tarnovo Province