Plamen Venelinov Nikolov ( bg, Пламен Венелинов Николов; born 12 June 1985) 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 Macedon ...

n former 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 defender.

Career

Spartak Pleven

Nikolov was born in

Pleven Pleven ( bg, Плèвен ) is the seventh most populous city in Bulgaria. Located in the northern part of the country, it is the administrative centre of Pleven Province, as well as of the subordinate Pleven municipality. It is the biggest ...

. After emerging through

Levski Sofia Levski Sofia ( bg, Левски София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system. The club was founded on 24 May 1914 b ...

's youth system, he made his professional debut in the second level with

Spartak Pleven OFK Spartak ( bg, ОФК Спартак) is a Bulgarian municipal association football club from the city of Pleven founded on 10 September 1919. It currently competes in the Second League, the second tier of Bulgarian football. The team's grea ...

, the club from his home town. He made his team début on 7 August 2004, in an 0–0 draw against Rilski Sportist Samokov. On 6 October 2004 Nikolov scored his first goal in a 6–0 drubbing of amateur side

Botev Lukovit FC Botev Lukovit ( bg, Ботев (Луковит)) is a Bulgarian football club from Lukovit, currently playing in the Bulgarian "A" RFG Lovech. The stadium of the club is The City Stadium in Lukovit with capacity of 3,000 people. History B ...

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 ...

. Plamen quickly became part of the main team and for two seasons earned 53 appearances, scoring two goals.

Litex Lovech

In June 2006, Nikolov agreed a deal to sign for

Litex Lovech Litex ( bg, Литекс) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Lovech, which currently competes in the Second League. The club was founded in 1921 as Hisarya Sports Club. The club's home ground is the Gradski Stadion ...

for an undisclosed fee. He has made his debut for Litex in

Rilski Sportist FC Rilski Sportist (ФК Рилски спортист Самоков) is a Bulgarian football club from the town of Samokov founded in 1947 and currently playing in the South-West Third League. Their home stadium is Iskar Stadium. Throughou ...

match on 13 August 2006 as an 85th-minute substitute. During his first season in Litex, Nikolov found regular starting positions in defence hard to find. He played only 5 matches in the domestic league. In 2007–08 A PFG season coach of Litex

Miodrag Ješić Miodrag Ješić ( sr-Cyrl, Миодраг Јешић, ; 30 November 1958 – 8 December 2022) was a Serbian football manager and player. Playing career Born in Osečenica, Ješić played for Partizan between 1974 and 1985, taking part in 342 m ...

decided to put Nikolov into the starting line-up as center back. In this season, he earned 22 appearances playing 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 ...

, scored one goal. In the

, he played three matches, and in 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 ...

, he played 6 matches. Nikolov also won his first trophy in his career - the

. In the final against Cherno More he played 90 minutes. In the 2008-09 season Nikolov won

for the second time. On 25 October 2010, he was

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

in the 2:1 home win against

after an altercation with

Darko Tasevski Darko Tasevski ( bg, Дарко Тасевски; born 20 May 1984) is a Macedonian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Bulgarian First League club Slavia Sofia. He holds also Bulgarian citizenship. Club career Prior to joini ...

FC Tom Tomsk

In February 2012 Nikolov signed for

FC Tom Tomsk FC Tom Tomsk (russian: Футбольный клуб Томь Томск) is a Russian professional football club, based in the Siberian city of Tomsk. The team plays in Trud Stadium (Tomsk). History The team was previously named ''Burevestnik'' ...

on loan until the end of the season, before joining the club permanently in the summer of the same year.

Return to Litex Lovech

In January 2014 Nikolov re-signed for

Botev Plovdiv

On 30 July 2014 Plamen Nikolov signed a contract with

Botev Plovdiv Profesionalen Futbolen Klub Botev, commonly referred to as Botev Plovdiv ( bg, „Ботев“ Пловдив, ) or simply Botev (within its associated city), is a Bulgarian professional football club based in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, that competes ...

until the end of the season. Four days later he made a debut for the club during the 2:1 win over

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 assoc ...

. Nikolov quickly became a key player for

and took part in a lot of important games, including the 0-2 away win over the local rivals

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 ...

. On 16 May, Nikolov was sent off with a direct red card after a conflict with Toni Silva from

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 ...

, who was also sent off. Despite his absence in the final 35 minutes Botev won the game with 3-2. On 17 June, Nikolov extended his contract with Botev until the end of 2015–16 season. Nikolov terminated his contract on mutual agreement and left

in January 2016.

Lokomotiv Plovdiv

On 10 July 2017, Nikolov signed with

Career statistics

Honours

;Litex Lovech * Bulgarian A Group (2): 2009–10, 2010–11 *

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 ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

(2): 2007–08, 2008–09

References

External links

Profile at pfclitex.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nikolov, Plamen 1985 births Living people Bulgarian expatriate footballers Bulgarian footballers Bulgaria international footballers First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players PFC Spartak Pleven players PFC Litex Lovech players FC Tom Tomsk players Botev Plovdiv players PFC Cherno More Varna players PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv players Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate footballers in Russia Association football defenders Russian Premier League players Sportspeople from Pleven