Nikolay Dimitrov ( bg, Николай Димитров; born 15 October 1987) is a former

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 ...

n 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 played as a winger.

Career

Levski Sofia

Born in

Ruse Ruse may refer to: Places *Ruse, Bulgaria, a major city of Bulgaria **Ruse Municipality ** Ruse Province ** 19th MMC – Ruse, a constituency *Ruše, a town and municipality in north-eastern Slovenia * Ruše, Žalec, a small settlement in east-ce ...

, Nikolay Dimitrov started growing his football abilities in Levski Sofia's Youth academy. Dimitrov took his league bow for Levski in 2004–05 season, making seven substitute appearances in his first campaign. He made his senior debut on 6 August 2004, in a 3–1 win over

Slavia Sofia PFC Slavia Sofia ( bg, ПФК Славия София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which currently competes in the top tier of the Bulgarian football league system, the First League. Slavia's home ground ...

, as an 89th-minute substitute for Emil Angelov. In the following season Dimitrov scored his first and second goals for the club, during a 6–1 win over

Rodopa Smolyan FC Rodopa (ФК Родопа) is a Bulgarian football club based in Smolyan, which currently plays in the South-East Third League, the third tier of Bulgarian football league system. The team was named after the Rhodope Mountains and plays it ...

on 30 April 2006. His first start came against

Belasitsa Petrich OFC Belasitsa ( bg, ОФК Беласица Петрич) is a Bulgarian football club from the town of Petrich, currently playing in the Second League. The team was founded in 1923. They play at the Stadion Tsar Samuil in Petrich, which has a ...

in the final game of the A PFG season on 30 May. Dimitrov became a regular starter during the 2007–08 season. He ended that season with 8 league goals in 29 matches. With Levski Dimitrov has won three A PFG titles, two

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 tournament ...

s and three

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 and ...

Kasımpaşa S.K.

On 17 May 2010, Dimitrov together with his teammate

Georgi Sarmov Georgi Sarmov ( bg, Георги Сърмов; born 7 September 1985) is a Bulgarian former professional footballer who played as a central midfielder. Career Naftex Between 2004 and 2006 Sarmov played for Naftex Burgas, making 43 league appeara ...

signed for

Kasımpaşa S.K. Kasımpaşa Spor Kulübü. (, Kasımpaşa Sports Club), commercially registered as Kasımpaşa Sportif Faaliyetleri A.Ş., colloquially known Kasımpaşa, is a Turkish professional football club located in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul. The c ...

for five years. He made his

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

debut on 14 August 2010, in a 0–0 away draw against Gaziantepspor. On 27 October, Dimitrov scored a penalty in a 4–1

Turkish Cup The Turkish Cup ( Turkish: ''Türkiye Kupası'') is a football cup competition in Turkish football, run by the Turkish Football Federation since 1962. During a brief sponsorship period with Fortis, its sponsored name was ''Fortis Türkiye Kupası ...

win over Menemen Belediyespor. On 20 November, he scored his first Süper Lig goal against Gençlerbirliği. During the season, he earned 23 league appearances and scored two goals. However, Dimitrov and his Kasımpaşa team mates were relegated at the season's end. During 2011–12 season he scored 12 goals in the

TFF First League The TFF 1. Lig, officially known as Spor Toto 1. Lig for sponsorship reasons, is the second level of the Turkish football league system. The league was founded in 2001 as the ''Turkish Second League Category A'' after the reorganization of the ...

. His goals helped the team reach the promotion playoffs for the Süper Lig. On 19 May 2012, Dimitrov scored in a 2–0 away win against Konyaspor in the first leg of the play-offs semi-final. Four days later, en route to the play-off final, he scored the first goal, his fourteenth of the season, in Kasımpaşa's 3–0 home win over Konyaspor. On 27 May he played 120 minutes in the play-off Final against Adanaspor. Kasımpaşa won the match 3–2 after extra time with goals from Gökhan Güleç,

Adem Büyük Adem Büyük (born 30 August 1987) is a Turkish professional footballer who plays primarily as a Forward (association football), striker but also as a Midfielder, left winger for Manisa F.K., Manisa. He is a former international for Turkey, also ...

and

Azar Karadas Azar Karadas ( tr, Azar Karadaş; born 9 August 1981) is a Norwegian former footballer. Although he could also play as a central defender, he operated primarily as a centre forward. He had three spells with Brann, where he began and ended his ...

sending them back to the Süper Lig after a one season absence.

Slavia Sofia

Dimitrov joined

on 29 September 2016.

Ural Yekaterinburg

On 10 June 2020, his club FC Ural Yekaterinburg announced that his contract was terminated by mutual consent as Dimitrov decided to retire from playing.

International career

He made his debut for

Bulgaria national football team The Bulgaria national football team ( bg, Български национален отбор по футбол, Bǎlgarski natsionalen otbor po futbol) represents Bulgaria in men's international Association football, football and is administere ...

on 6 February 2008 in a friendly match against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, a game in which Bulgaria won with a score of 0–1. Dimitrov came on as a substitute and played during the second half of the match. In November 2016, he was recalled to the national side (after a long absence from international duty) for a 2018 World Cup qualifier against

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

, during which he remained on the bench.

Career statistics

Club

:¹ Includes

matches, promotion playoffs for the Turkish Süper Lig and relegation playoffs for the Russian Premier League

International goals

:''Bulgaria score listed first, score column indicates score after each Dimitrov goal.''

Honours

Club

;Levski Sofia * A PFG: 2005–06, 2006–07, 2008–09 *

: 2006–07 *

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

References

External links

* *
Nikolay Dimitrov
at LevskiSofia.info {{DEFAULTSORT:Dimitrov, Nikolay 1987 births Living people Bulgarian footballers Association football midfielders Bulgaria under-21 international footballers Bulgaria international footballers First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Süper Lig players TFF First League players Super League Greece players Russian Premier League players PFC Levski Sofia players Kasımpaşa S.K. footballers Samsunspor footballers Boluspor footballers Manisaspor footballers Xanthi F.C. players PFC Slavia Sofia players FC Ural Yekaterinburg players Bulgarian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Turkey Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Greece Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate footballers in Russia Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Sportspeople from Ruse, Bulgaria