Lachezar Hristov Kotev ( bg, Лъчезар Христов Котев; born 5 January 1998) 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 for

Arda Kardzhali FC Arda 1924 Kardzhali ( bg, ПФК Арда Кърджали) is a Bulgarian association football club based in Kardzhali, which currently competes in the First League, the top tier of the Bulgarian football league system. It was founded on 13 ...

Club career

On 11 February 2023, Kotev signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with Russian Premier League club

Khimki Khimki ( rus, Химки, p=ˈxʲimkʲɪ) is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, 18.25 kilometres northwest of central Moscow, and immediately beyond the Moscow city boundary. History Origins and formation Khimki was initially a railway station tha ...

. Khimki were relegated to the Russian First League at the end of the 2022–23 season, and First League has much stricter restrictions than RPL on the number of foreign players allowed on the squad. On 28 June 2023, Kotev returned to

on a season-long loan. On 20 August 2024, Kotev returned to

on a permanent basis and signed a three-year contract.

International career

Youth levels

In August 2018 he was called up for the Bulgaria U21 team for the

2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification The 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-21 football competition that determined the 11 teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Italy in the 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship final tour ...

matches against France U21 and Montenegro U21 to be held on 7 and 11 September 2018.

Senior level

Kotev received his first call up for the Bulgaria national team on 14 May 2021 for the friendly games against Slovakia, Russia and France between 1 June and 8 June.Ясен Петров викна 31 играчи в националния
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Career statistics

Club

References

1998 births Footballers from Sofia Living people Bulgarian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Bulgaria men's under-21 international footballers PFC Septemvri Sofia players FC Vitosha Bistritsa players FC Oborishte Panagyurishte players FC Arda Kardzhali players FC Khimki players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Second Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Russian Premier League players Bulgarian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Russia {{Bulgaria-footy-midfielder-stub