Plamen Markov (born 11 September 1957) is a Bulgarian retired 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 ...

who 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 ...

for clubs in Bulgaria and France. He represented the Bulgaria national team at international level.

Playing career

Markov was born in

Sevlievo Sevlievo ( bg, Севлиево ) is a town in north-central Bulgaria, part of Gabrovo Province. Sevlievo is known as one of the wealthiest towns in Bulgaria owing to the well developed local economy, high employment rate and major foreign inve ...

. He played for the Bulgaria national team on 32 occasions, including a match in the

1986 World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia had ...

against Argentina. In June 1985 he moved from

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 ...

to join French club

FC Metz Football Club de Metz, commonly referred to as FC Metz or simply Metz (), is a French association football club based in Metz, Lorraine. The club was formed in 1932 and plays in Ligue 2, the second division in the French football league sys ...

, playing 87 matches for them. After the 1986–87 season he transferred to

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

. He retired as a player in 1990.

Coaching career

His first coaching job came with Grenoble, and he was later in charge at his former club, CSKA Sofia, but he was sacked in 1995. In 2001, he was appointed as coach of the Bulgaria national team. He stepped down as coach of Bulgaria after the

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...

tournament. He was reappointed as Bulgaria coach in January 2008, but was sacked in December 2008 following three draws in their

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

qualifying campaign.

Personal life

Markov is married and has two daughters.

References

1957 births Living people Bulgarian footballers Bulgarian football managers 1986 FIFA World Cup players PFC Vidima-Rakovski Sevlievo players PFC CSKA Sofia players FC Metz players Grenoble Foot 38 players Grenoble Foot 38 managers UEFA Euro 2004 managers Ligue 1 players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Bulgarian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in France Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in France Bulgaria international footballers PFC CSKA Sofia managers Bulgaria national football team managers People from Sevlievo Bulgarian expatriate football managers Association football midfielders FC Yantra Gabrovo managers Expatriate football managers in Morocco Wydad AC managers Botola managers {{Bulgaria-footy-midfielder-stub