Radoslav Metodiev Zdravkov ( bg, Радослав Meтoдиeв Здравков; born 30 July 1956) 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 retired

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 an

attacking 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 ...

Club career

Zdravkov was born in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

. During his professional career, which spanned nearly 20 years, he represented

Lokomotiv Sofia Lokomotiv 1929 ( bg, Локомотив 1929) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which currently plays in the First League, the top tier of Bulgarian football. Founded as Railway Sports Club in 1929, and refou ...

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 ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

G.D. Chaves Grupo Desportivo de Chaves, commonly known as Chaves (), is a Portuguese association football, football football team, club from Chaves, Portugal, Chaves currently playing in the Primeira Liga. They were founded in 1949 and currently play at Está ...

S.C. Braga Sporting Clube de Braga () (), commonly known as Sporting de Braga or just Braga, is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Braga. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese ...

F.C. Paços de Ferreira Futebol Clube Paços de Ferreira () is a Portuguese football club based in Paços de Ferreira, Porto district. Founded in 1950, the club competes in the Primeira Liga, holding home games at the 9,077-seater Estádio da Mata Real, a municipal s ...

and F.C. Felgueiras – after he had left the Iron Curtain at the age of 30 –

FC Yantra FC Yantra ( bg, ФК Янтра) is a Bulgarian football club based in Gabrovo, which plays in Second League, the second tier of Bulgarian football. The club was originally founded in 1919 and home matches are played at Stadion Hristo Botev. ...

and

PFC Litex Lovech Litex ( bg, Литекс) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Lovech, which currently competes in the Second League. The club was founded in 1921 as Hisarya Sports Club. The club's home ground is the Gradski Stadion ...

. During his stay abroad he was known as ''Radi'', and he was instrumental in lowly Chaves' first ever

qualification Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

to the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

in the 1986–87 season, as fifth. From 1992 onwards he worked as a full-time manager, going on to be in charge of several clubs including PFC Spartak Varna on three occasions.

International career

Zdravkov earned 67

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

and scored ten goals for the Bulgarian national team during 13 years, and played at the 1986 FIFA World Cup finals.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zdravkov, Radoslav 1956 births Living people Footballers from Sofia Bulgarian footballers Association football midfielders First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players FC Lokomotiv 1929 Sofia players PFC CSKA Sofia players PFC Litex Lovech players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players G.D. Chaves players S.C. Braga players F.C. Paços de Ferreira players F.C. Felgueiras players Bulgaria international footballers 1986 FIFA World Cup players Bulgarian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Portugal Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Bulgarian football managers PFC Litex Lovech managers FC Lokomotiv 1929 Sofia managers PFC Slavia Sofia managers PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv managers PFC Spartak Varna managers PFC Cherno More Varna managers PFC Beroe Stara Zagora managers