Asparuh "Paro" Donev Nikodimov ( bg, Аспарух Донев Никодимов; born 21 August 1945) is a Bulgarian former football player and coach. He represented

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 Macedo ...

at the FIFA World Cups in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

and 1974.

Playing career

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-N0619-0037, Fußball-WM, Bulgarien - Uruguay 1-1

Nikodimov began playing football at the age of 16 in the youth team of

Septemvri Sofia Septemvri ( bg, Септември) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which currently competes in the First League, the first tier of Bulgarian football. Its home ground is the Septemvri Stadium, but due to i ...

, where he played until he 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 ...

at the age of 19. In 1964 Nikodimov joined

. During his time at CSKA, he won many honours, including six

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 ...

titles and five

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 tournamen ...

s. He played 296 league matches, scoring 58 goals for 11 seasons. Nikodimov ended his career in 1978, playing for

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 ...

Managerial career

Nikodimov began his managerial career with

in 1979, guiding them to four consecutive league titles.

Honours

Player honours

;CSKA Sofia * Bulgarian League: 1965–66, 1968–69, 1970–71, 1971–72, 1972–73, 1974–75 *

: 1965, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974

Managerial honours

;CSKA Sofia * Bulgarian League: 1979–80, 1980–81, 1981–82, 1982–83, 1991–92 *

: 1983

Personal life

Nikodimov is married to Svetla and has two daughters who are

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

players.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nikodimov, Asparuh 1945 births Living people Bulgarian footballers Bulgaria international footballers Olympic footballers of Bulgaria Footballers at the 1968 Summer Olympics 1970 FIFA World Cup players 1974 FIFA World Cup players Olympic silver medalists for Bulgaria Olympic medalists in football FC Septemvri Sofia players PFC CSKA Sofia players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Bulgarian football managers PFC CSKA Sofia managers Expatriate football managers in Tunisia Étoile Sportive du Sahel managers AC Omonia managers Expatriate football managers in Cyprus Footballers from Sofia PFC Beroe Stara Zagora managers Medalists at the 1968 Summer Olympics Association football midfielders Bulgarian expatriate football managers