Atanas Zehirov ( bg, Атанас Зехиров; born 13 February 1989) 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 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

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

and

right winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for Arda Kardzhali.

Career

Early career

Zehirov began his career with

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 ...

, but made only six league appearances with one goal and spent time on loan to Sliven 2000 before leaving the club in October 2010. He scored his first and last goal for the club against

Lokomotiv Mezdra FC Lokomotiv Mezdra (ФК Локомотив Мездра) is a Bulgarian football club from the town of Mezdra, which currently playing in the Third League, the third tier of Bulgarian football. The club's home ground is the Lokomotiv Stadium ...

on 13 June 2009. Atanas Zehirov

On 31 January 2011, Zehirov signed as a free agent with

Pirin Blagoevgrad Futbolen klub Pirin ( bg, Футболен клуб „Пирин“), also known as Pirin Blagoevgrad is a Bulgarian football club based in Blagoevgrad, which currently competes in the First League, the top division of Bulgarian football. Th ...

, but made only one league appearance, as a substitute, before being released at the end of the season. In August 2011, Zehirov joined Norwegian side

Hasle-Løren IL Hasle-Løren Idrettslag is a Norwegian sports club from the neighborhoods Hasle and Løren in Oslo. It was founded in 1911, and has sections for association football, bandy, ice hockey, skiing, and cycling. Ice hockey Some of its greatest suc ...

Beroe

On 7 February 2013, Zehirov signed a two-and-a-half-year deal with

Beroe Stara Zagora Beroe ( bg, Берое) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Stara Zagora, that competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system. The club was founded in 1916 under the name ''Vere ...

. During his time with the club he primarily has been used in the defence as a right-back. Zehirov made his debut on 22 May 2013, replacing Martin Raynov for the last 13 minutes of a 2–1 away win over

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 1 March 2014, Zehirov scored his first league goal for Beroe in a 5–0 home win over Lyubimets 2007, scoring the fourth of their five goals. In the 2014–15 season, Zehirov became Beroe's first-choice right-back. On 8 May 2015, he signed a new two-year extension to his contract. He left the club in May 2017 after his contract expired.

Cherno More

On 1 June 2017, Zehirov agreed to join Cherno More, but the official contract was signed two weeks later. On 15 July, he made his debut in a 1–0 home win over Vitosha Bistritsa, playing as a

. On 11 August 2017, he scored his first goal for the club in a 1–1 home draw with

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 ...

. Zehirov won the

Man of the match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

award in that game.

International career

On 26 May 2015, Zehirov received his first call-up to the Bulgaria national team for the friendly game against

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

on 8 June 2015 in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

from

Ivaylo Petev Ivaylo Bogdanov Petev ( bg, Ивайло Богданов Петев; born 9 July 1975) is a Bulgarian professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team. He spent his whole career ...

, but did not make an appearance. He was called up in November 2016 for a

2018 World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

qualifier against Belarus national team, during which he remained on the bench. On 3 September 2017, Zehirov made his debut in a 1–3 away defeat by

the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, a 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier.

Career statistics

Honours

Club

; Beroe *

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 ...

(1):

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

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 ...

(1):

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

References

External links

*
Zehirov Statistics in Norway
at fotball.no {{DEFAULTSORT:Zehirov, Atanas 1989 births Living people People from Blagoevgrad Province Bulgarian footballers Bulgaria men's youth international footballers Bulgaria men's under-21 international footballers Bulgaria men's international footballers First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players PFC CSKA Sofia players OFC Sliven 2000 players OFC Pirin Blagoevgrad players PFC Beroe Stara Zagora players PFC Cherno More Varna players Botev Plovdiv players POFC Botev Vratsa players Bulgarian expatriate footballers Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate footballers in Norway Men's association football midfielders Sportspeople from Blagoevgrad Province