Stoycho Dimitrov Mladenov ( bg, Стойчо Димитpoв Младенов; born 12 April 1957 in Ploski,

Blagoevgrad Province Blagoevgrad Province ( bg, област Благоевград, ''oblast Blagoevgrad'' or Благоевградска област, ''Blagoevgradska oblast''), also known as Pirin Macedonia or Bulgarian Macedonia ( bg, Пиринска Маке� ...

) is a Bulgarian former football player and manager.

Career

Mladenov started from small teams like Dimitrovgrad and gradually moved to bigger teams like

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 ...

. From there he went all around the world, however his best moments of winning were in Portugal and also with his National Team. His best years were spent as a striker for

. He also served the club as a manager and head coach. Mladenov's nickname is "Liverpool's Executioner" in honor of his winning goals against the European champion Liverpool F.C. in UEFA European Champions Cup 1/4 finals in season 81/82. Mladenov's finest game as a player was on 17 March 1982, when he scored both of CSKA's goals as they beat

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

2–0 in Sofia to knock the English giants out of the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

quarter-finals. He was honoured as

Bulgarian Footballer of the Year Bulgarian Footballer of the Year ( bg, Футболист №1 на България, ''Futbolist №1 na Balgariya'') is an annual title awarded to the best Bulgarian association football player of the year. The award has been given since 1961, an ...

in 1983. He played also in

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 th ...

in several clubs like V.Setúbal,

GD Estoril-Praia Grupo Desportivo Estoril Praia (), commonly known as Estoril, is a Portuguese sports club from Estoril, Cascais, Lisbon. Founded on 17 May 1939, its football team currently plays in Primeira Liga and hold home games at the Estádio António Coimb ...

, Olhanense, but was in C.F. Os Belenenses where he achieved one third place in

Portuguese football league The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

and won a

Portuguese Cup Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

beating Benfica in the final, after winning in the prior stages teams like

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Port ...

and

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...

. He was also responsible for the victory that

Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses, commonly known as Os Belenenses (), is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 25,000-seat Estádio do Reste ...

had over

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

in 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 ...

of 1988, when he stole the ball from Barcelona's defender Schuster and made a perfect assist for Mapuata's goal. Nowadays he trains the most successful Bulgarian team

. Financial problems at his favourite club CSKA Sofia pushed him away after a series of compromises he had done during his time there. He was recently fired as manager of Al-Ettifaq FC after the team failed to win in 4 consecutive games. His son Alexandar Mladenov is a professional footballer. In 2000, he was officially appointed by the

Bulgarian Football Union The Bulgarian Football Union ( bg, Български футболен съюз, Bǎlgarski futbolen sǎyuz; BFS) is a football association based in Bulgaria and a member of UEFA. It organizes a football league, Bulgarian Parva Liga, and field ...

as head coach of

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 ...

. The team eventually finished in third place and was unable to qualify for

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

. He was resigned from national team in 2002. In his initial stint at

(between 2002 and 2003), Mladenov led the team to its first

A PFG 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 ...

title in 6 years. In March 2012, he replaced Dimitar Penev as head coach of

and led the team to a second-place finish during the 2011/2012

season. On 4 January 2013 Stoycho Mladenov was sacked by

– he was at

for the third time as manager of the club. On 16 July 2013 Stoycho Mladenov was reappointed by

– this was his fourth time at

. He resigned in March 2015 despite the successful season for the team, which was able to pose a challenge to Ludogorets Razgrad for the title. On 20 March 2015, Mladenov officially resigned as manager of CSKA Sofia once again. In June 2016, Mladenov was appointed as manager of

Atyrau Atyrau ( kk, Атырау, ', ; russian: Атырау, ), known until 1991 as Guryev (russian: Гурьев, ), is a city in Kazakhstan and the capital of Atyrau Region. Atyrau is a transcontinental city, at the mouth of the Ural River on the C ...

. On 21 November 2016, Mladenov was appointed as manager of

FC Kaisar FC Kaysar ( kk, Қайсар Футбол Клубы, ''Qaısar Fýtbol Klýby'') is a Football in Kazakhstan, Kazakh professional association football, football club based in the Gany Muratbayev Stadium in Kyzylorda. They are founding members of ...

. On 26 July 2021, Mladenov was appointed as manager of

. He resigned in April 2022.

International career

Mladenov made 59 appearances for Bulgaria, between 1978 and 1988, and scored 15 goals. He played in four matches for his country at the

1986 FIFA 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 ha ...

Personal life

His son Stoycho Mladenov Jr. is also a football player and manager.

Honours

Player

** Bulgarian League: 4 times – 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983 **

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 tourname ...

: 2 times – 1983, 1985 * C.F. Os Belenenses **

: 1 time – 1989

Individual

* Bulgarian League Top Scorer: 1978 (with 21 goals)

Coach

** Bulgarian League: 2 times – 2003, 2008 *

Al-Ahli SC (Jeddah) Al-Ahli Saudi Football Club ( ar, النادي الأهلي السعودي) is a Saudi Arabian professional football club based in Jeddah, that competes in the second division of Saudi Arabian football, following their relegation from the S ...

** Gulf Club Champions Cup: 1 times – 2008 * FC Kaisar ** Kazakhstan Cup (1): 2019 Best Bulgarian football coach – 2019

References

External links

Official site

Career Statistics as a player
at foradejogo.net {{DEFAULTSORT:Mladenov, Stoycho 1957 births Living people Bulgarian footballers People from Sandanski 1986 FIFA World Cup players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Primeira Liga players PFC CSKA Sofia players C.F. Os Belenenses players Vitória F.C. players G.D. Estoril Praia players Bulgaria international footballers Bulgarian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Portugal PFC Beroe Stara Zagora players People from Dimitrovgrad, Bulgaria Bulgarian football managers S.C. Olhanense managers Kastoria F.C. managers Kallithea F.C. managers Veria F.C. managers PFC CSKA Sofia managers PFC Litex Lovech managers Bulgaria national football team managers Bulgarian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Portugal Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Al-Ahli Saudi FC managers Saudi Professional League managers Macedonian Bulgarians ENPPI SC managers Al Ittihad Alexandria Club managers Expatriate football managers in Saudi Arabia Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Expatriate football managers in Greece Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate football managers in Egypt Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Egypt Expatriate football managers in Kazakhstan Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Kazakhstan Association football forwards FC Atyrau managers Sportspeople from Haskovo Province Sportspeople from Blagoevgrad Province