Bozhidar Boykov Kraev ( bg, Божидар Бойков Краев; born 23 June 1997) is 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 plays as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

and

second striker Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

for

A-League Men A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

club

Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the ...

and the

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

Career

Early career

Born in

Vratsa Vratsa ( bg, Враца ) is the largest city in northwestern Bulgaria and the administrative and economic centre of the municipality of Vratsa and Vratsa district. It is located about 112 km north of Sofia, 40 km southeast of Montana. ...

, at the age of six Kraev began playing football at the local club

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 ...

, for whom his father Boyko Kraev had also played. In 2008, he joined

Hristo Stoichkov Hristo Stoichkov Stoichkov ( bg, Христо Стоичков Стоичков, ; born 8 February 1966) is a Bulgarian former professional Association football, footballer who is a football commentator for TUDN. A prolific Forward (association ...

's academy in Vilafranca, Spain, as a part of a Gillette programme for young talented players, which was initiated by Stoichkov. Two years later, Kraev returned to his home country to join Chavdar Etropole. Then he spent one year with his first club

. He has a brother Andrian, who currently plays for

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 ...

Levski Sofia

In January 2013, at the age of 15, Kraev joined

's academy. He made his first team debut in a 1–1

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

draw against

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 19 July 2014, coming on as a second-half substitute. On 23 September, he marked his first start by scoring a hat-trick in a 7–1 away win over Spartak Varna in the

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 ...

. On 14 October, Kraev was named by

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

as one of the forty most promising young players in the world. On 12 December 2014, Kraev signed his first professional contract, on a three-year deal. Two days later, he was invited for a trial at

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

. In January 2015, Kraev also spent a week on trial at English club

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

. Kraev scored his first league goal for Levski in an 8–0 home win over

Haskovo Haskovo ( bg, Хасково ) is a city in the region of Northern Thrace in southern Bulgaria and the administrative centre of the Haskovo Province, not far from the borders with Greece and Turkey. According to Operative Program Regional Develo ...

on 27 February 2015. On 26 May 2015, he scored his first

A Group 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 ...

hattrick in a 6–0 win against

Marek Dupnitsa FC Marek ( bg, ФК Марек) is a Bulgarian football club based in Dupnitsa, currently playing in the Third League, the third level of the Bulgarian football league system. It was founded in 1947 following the unification of four local clubs. ...

. Kraev's hattrick was the 100th in Levski's history in the Bulgarian league. On 9 April 2017, Kraev scored four goals in a 5–0 win over

, thereby becoming the youngest player in Levski history to score four goals in one game.

Midtjylland

On 19 June 2017, Kraev signed with

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga ( da, Superligaen, ) is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each yea ...

side

Midtjylland The Central Denmark Region ( da, Region Midtjylland), or more directly translated as the Central Jutland Region and sometimes simply Mid Jutland, is an administrative region of Denmark established on 1 January 2007 as part of the 2007 Danish muni ...

on a five-year deal for a reported fee of €500,000. He made his debut for the team in a

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

match against

Derry City Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

coming on as a substitute in the 73rd minute and scoring a goal 10 minutes later. On 12 April 2018, Kraev scored twice in a 2-1 win against

Hobro IK Hobro Idræts Klub () is a professional association football club based in the town of Hobro, Denmark, that competes in the 1st Division, the second tier of the Danish football league system. Founded in 1913, it is known by the short names 'Ho ...

and qualified his team for the cup's semifinals after coming on as a substitute in the 77th minute and scoring both goals in the game's added time. Three days later, he scored his first league goal in a 2-1 win against

FC Nordsjælland Football Club Nordsjælland, commonly known as FC Nordsjælland, Nordsjælland () or FCN, is a professional Danish football team from the North Zealand town of Farum. Founded as ''Farum Boldklub'' from the merger of the town's two football club ...

. Kraev was part of the squad that won the

Danish Cup The Danish Cup ( da, Landspokalturneringen; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official "knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955. The winner will quali ...

and the

for Midtjylland during his stay at the

Herning Herning () is a Danish town in the Central Denmark Region of the Jutland peninsula. It is the main town and the administrative seat of Herning Municipality. Herning has a population of 50,565 (1 January 2022)Portuguese Primeira Liga team

Gil Vicente Gil Vicente (; c. 1465c. 1536), called the Trobadour, was a Portuguese playwright and poet who acted in and directed his own plays. Considered the chief dramatist of Portugal he is sometimes called the "Portuguese Plautus," often refe ...

. Kraev made his debut for the team in a

Taça da Liga The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual football club competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the Primeira Liga and LigaPro, the top two tier ...

match against

Aves Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

, providing an assist for the first goal and later scored the winning goal in the 90th minute for a 3–2 win. A week later, on 10 August, Kraev made his league debut, playing a full match against

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

, providing the winning goal in the 77th minute, for a 2–1 win over one of the league favorites. On 11 January 2021, Kraev was sent on a loan with option to buy to Portuguese Primeira Liga team Famalicão, until the end of the season.

Wellington Phoenix

On July 22, 2022, the Wellington Phoenix confirmed they had signed Kraev on a two-year deal. Kraev made his Phoenix debut on 3 August, scoring in a 4–0 win over Devonport City Strikers in the

Australia Cup The Australia Cup, formerly known as the FFA Cup until the 2021 season, is the national football knockout cup competition in Australia. This annual competition is organised by Football Australia, formerly known as Football Federation Austra ...

International career

In March 2016, Kraev was in the starting lineup of Bulgaria U19 for the 0-1 defeats from Belgium U19 and Croatia U19. On 13 May 2016 he was included in the Bulgaria U21 squad for the

2016 Toulon Tournament The 2016 Toulon Tournament was the 44th edition of the Toulon Tournament. It took place 18–29 May 2016. The tournament was used by several teams as preparation for the 2016 Summer Olympics. The tournament was won by England. Participants ;AFC ...

. On 22 May 2022 Midtjylland confirmed, that Kraev was one out of seven players, which contracts had came to an end, and therefore would leave the club. In November 2016, Kraev received his first call-up to the senior Bulgaria squad for a

2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia qualifying automatically as hosts. All 210 ...

match 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 ...

. He remained on the bench for the game. On 25 March 2017, Kraev made his complete debut for the team coming on as a substitute during the 2–0 home win over

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 ...

for the

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia qualifying automatically as hosts. All 210 ...

. On 6 September 2018, he scored 2 goals against

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

in the UEFA Nations' League, helping his country to 3 points.

Career statistics

Club Statistics

''As of 27 February 2022''

International goals

Score and result list Bulgaria's goal tally first.

Personal life

Bozhidar is the son of Boyko Kraev, a former professional footballer who played for

, and brother of Andrian Kraev, footballer for

Honours

FC Midtjylland *

: 2017–18 *

: 2018–19 Individual *Best progressing young player in Bulgarian football: 2014, 2015

References

External links

*
Profile at LevskiSofia.info
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kraev, Bozhidar 1997 births Living people Bulgarian footballers Bulgarian expatriate footballers Bulgaria youth international footballers Bulgaria under-21 international footballers Bulgaria international footballers Association football midfielders First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Danish Superliga players Primeira Liga players PFC Levski Sofia players FC Midtjylland players Gil Vicente F.C. players F.C. Famalicão players Wellington Phoenix FC players Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Expatriate footballers in Portugal Expatriate soccer players in Australia Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Australia People from Vratsa