Trifon Marinov Ivanov ( bg, Трифон Маринов Иванов; 27 July 1965 – 13 February 2016) was 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 played as a defender. Ivanov made his debut for

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 ...

in 1988, earning 76 caps and scoring 6 goals over a ten-year international career. He appeared in the

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

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 ...

s, as well as the

1996 UEFA European Championship 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 ...

Club career

Ivanov started his career with Etar Veliko Tarnovo. He made his first team debut during the 1983–84 A Group season, and established himself as a regular player two years later. Ivanov played 62 games and scored 7 goals for Etar in the A Group. After five seasons at Etar, Ivanov joined

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 ...

where he won two A Group titles, one

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 ...

, and one

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 ...

. He made his debut in a 5–1 home league win over

Botev Vratsa Botev ( bg, Ботев) is a Bulgarian professional football club based in Vratsa, that competes in the First League, the top division of Bulgarian football. The club was founded in 1921. Since 1948, Botev have played their home games at St ...

on 13 August 1988. Ivanov scored his first goal for the club on 12 October, in a 7–1 thumping of

Sliven Sliven ( bg, Сливен ) is the eighth-largest city in Bulgaria and the administrative and industrial centre of Sliven Province and municipality in Northern Thrace. Sliven is famous for its heroic Haiduts who fought against the Ottoman Turk ...

. In January 1991, Ivanov transferred to

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

-side

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () or just Betis, is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1907, it plays in La Liga. It holds home games at the Estadio Benito Vill ...

. He finished the season with 5 goals in 20 matches, but Betis were relegated to

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

. Whilst at Betis, he spent time out on loan at his previous clubs Etar and CSKA, before joining Swiss club

Neuchâtel Xamax , neighboring_municipalities= Auvernier, Boudry, Chabrey (VD), Colombier, Cressier, Cudrefin (VD), Delley-Portalban (FR), Enges, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise, Savagnier , twintowns = Aarau (Switzerland), Besançon (France ...

on a permanent basis in 1993. In 1995, Ivanov signed with

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

, where he was a losing finalist in the

1995–96 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The 1995–96 season of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was won by Paris Saint-Germain 1–0 in the final against Austrian entrants Rapid Wien in Brussels on 8 May 1996. The 1995–96 season also saw the return of Yugoslav clubs on the international s ...

. With Rapid he won one

Austrian Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. Th ...

-title.

International career

Ivanov's international distinctions included being a member of the

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 ...

that reached the fourth place 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 ...

in the United States. He also participated in the

UEFA 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 ...

in England. Ivanov's goal against

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

on 10 September 1997, in the qualifiers for 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 ...

in France, was the one that clinched Bulgarian qualification. Ivanov scored six goals in 76 caps in the course of ten years with the national side. Ivanov was famous for his long-range shots and free-kicks at goal. In

Euro 96 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 ...

particularly, he had a number of 40–45 yards shots at goal narrowly missing the target.

Death

Ivanov died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

on 13 February 2016.

Legacy

In 2013, a Brazilian amateur tournament was named after him.

Career statistics

International

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

Honours

CSKA Sofia * Bulgarian A Group: 1988–89, 1989–90, 1991–92 *

: 1988–89 *

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

Rapid Wien *

: 1995–96 *

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 ...

: runner-up 1995–96 Bulgaria *

fourth place: 1994

References

External links

David Squire's tribute from The Guardian (UK)
* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ivanov, Trifon 1965 births 2016 deaths People from Veliko Tarnovo Bulgarian footballers Association football defenders Bulgaria international footballers La Liga players FC Etar Veliko Tarnovo players Real Betis players FK Austria Wien players SK Rapid Wien players 1994 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1996 players 1998 FIFA World Cup players PFC CSKA Sofia players Neuchâtel Xamax FCS players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Bulgarian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Austria Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Sportspeople from Veliko Tarnovo Province