Hristo Kolev ( bg, Христо Колев; born 21 September 1964) 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 Macedo ...

n football manager and former player. Nicknamed ''The Father'', Kolev played as a

midfielder 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 ...

. A skillful free-kick taker, he scored numerous goals from different positions, in a career which spanned almost 15 years.

Football career

Born in

Asenovgrad Asenovgrad ( bg, Асеновград ) is a town in central southern Bulgaria, part of Plovdiv Province. It is the largest town in Bulgaria that is not a province center. Previously known as ''Stanimaka'' (; el, Στενήμαχος), it was ...

, Kolev played as a youth for

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 ...

, then represented professionally

(1981–88, 1997–98), Panathinaikos (1988–90),

Athinaikos Athinaikos A.C. ( el, Αθηναϊκός Α.Σ., full name Athinaikos Athletic Club) is a Greek multisport-club, founded in 1917. It is based in Vyronas, a suburb east of Athens. Athinaikos has football, basketball, and handball teams. Its achiev ...

(1991–92) and Edessaikos (1992–96). For the Bulgaria national team, he amassed 20 appearances, netting 8 goals. He played all four matches at the 1986 FIFA World Cup in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Honours

;Lokomotiv Plovdiv: * Cup of the Soviet Army: 1982–83 ;Panathinaikos: *

Alpha Ethniki The Super League Greece 1 ( el, Ελληνική Σούπερ Λιγκ 1), or Super League 1, is the highest professional association football league in Greece. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and replaced ''Alpha Ethniki'' at the top of ...

: 1989–90 *

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup ( el, Κύπελλο Ελλάδος Ποδοσφαίρου), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Kypello Elladas is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second most ...

: 1988–89 ;Edessaikos: * Balkans Cup:

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

References

External links

* 1964 births Living people Footballers from Plovdiv Bulgarian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Athinaikos F.C. players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Edessaikos F.C. players PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv players Panathinaikos F.C. players Bulgaria men's international footballers 1986 FIFA World Cup players Bulgarian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Greece PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv managers Bulgarian football managers {{Bulgaria-footy-midfielder-stub