Ivaylo Bogdanov Petev (; born 9 July 1975) is a Bulgarian

football manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who i ...

who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. Petev spent his whole career playing in Bulgaria, apart from a season at Greek club

Trikala Trikala () is a city in northwestern Thessaly, Greece, and the capital of the Trikala (regional unit), Trikala regional unit. The city straddles the Lithaios river, which is a tributary of Pineios (Thessaly), Pineios. According to the Greek Natio ...

. He was most successful early in his career with hometown club Litex Lovech. After finishing his playing career, Petev became a manager, managing and having the most success at Bulgarian club Ludogorets Razgrad. He also worked as a manager in Cyprus, Croatia, Saudi Arabia and Poland. Petev worked as head coach of the

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

and Bosnia and Herzegovina national team as well.

Playing career

Petev previously played as a

for Litex Lovech, Spartak Varna, Rodopa Smolyan and Marek Dupnitsa.

Managerial career

Ludogorets Razgrad

After a short spell at Lyubimets as a

player-manager A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

in 2009, Petev was appointed as manager of

Ludogorets Razgrad Professional Football Club Ludogorets 1945 (), commonly known as Ludogorets Razgrad or simply Ludogorets, is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Razgrad, which currently competes in the First Professional Football League ...

, following Kiril Domuschiev's purchase of the club. He managed to lead the team to a promotion to the top division of Bulgarian football, followed by two A Group titles (the first in the club's history), a

Bulgarian Cup The Bulgarian Cup () 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's format is ''single-elimination'', with all matche ...

and a Bulgarian Supercup. On 21 July 2013, Ludogorets replaced Petev with Stoycho Stoev after poor performances against Lyubimets and Slovan Bratislava in the first leg of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

qualifying rounds.

Levski Sofia

On 8 October 2013, Petev became manager of Levski Sofia, which proved unpopular because of his past club allegiances. At his public unveiling, gathered Levski supporters stripped off his shirt in front of the press, which led to Petev's resignation a day later.

AEL Limassol

In October 2013, Petev signed a contract with Cypriot side

AEL Limassol Athlitiki Enosi Lemesou () is a Cyprus, Cypriot sports club based in the city of Limassol, most famous for its football team. AEL Limassol also maintains a AEL Limassol B.C., men's and AEL Limassol B.C. (women), women's basketball teams, a wom ...

. He led AEL to the first place in the regular season's league table, three points ahead of

Apollon Limassol Apollon Limassol FC (, ''Apollon Lemesou'') is a Cypriot sports club, based in Limassol. It has football, basketball and volleyball teams. Founded in 1954, Apollon FC currently plays in the Cypriot First Division and has won the championship tit ...

and APOEL Nicosia, which resulted in the qualification for the play-offs. Although leading the group until the last round, AEL lost the title in the decisive match against APOEL. Despite the defeat, AEL qualified for the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League season. Petev led the team to a 1–0 win against Zenit Saint Petersburg in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round, but his team failed to keep the advantage and lost the second leg 0–3, thus being eliminated and placed in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

. AEL were drawn against English team,

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

, but were eliminated after losing 5–1 on aggregate.

Bulgaria

In December 2014, Petev was officially appointed by the

Bulgarian Football Union The Bulgarian Football Union ( BFS) is the governing body of association football in Bulgaria, and a member of UEFA since 1954. It organizes a football league, Bulgarian Parva Liga, and fields its Bulgaria national football team in UEFA and F ...

as head coach of the Bulgaria national team. In his first official game in charge, Bulgaria played a 2–2 draw at home against

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

despite leading until the 84th minute thanks to first half goals from Ivelin Popov and Iliyan Mitsanski. The team eventually finished in fourth place and was unable to qualify for

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's association football, football ch ...

. During his tenure, Petev was interested in strengthening the national side by securing the services of a number of foreign-born players with Bulgarian roots such as Borys Tashchy and Nikola Vujadinović, though some issues, mainly relating to the paperwork, prevented them from making their debuts.

Dinamo Zagreb

On 27 September 2016, Petev became manager of Croatian team

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb (), commonly referred to as simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Cr ...

. He was sacked on 13 July 2017, after Dinamo finished the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

trophyless for the first time in twelve years, and after he fell out with several players including

Ante Ćorić Ante Ćorić (; born 14 April 1997) is a Croatian professional Association football, footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Croatian Football League club NK Varaždin (2012), Varaždin. He played for the Croatia national football tea ...

, Sammir and Junior Fernandes.

Later career

After Dinamo, Petev worked as a manager at Cypriot club Omonia, Saudi Arabian side Al Qadsiah and Polish club Jagiellonia Białystok.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

On 21 January 2021, it was announced that the Bosnia and Herzegovina FA had named Petev as the new Bosnia and Herzegovina national team head coach, ahead of the country's

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

qualifiers. He debuted as head coach on 24 March 2021, in a World Cup qualifier game against

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, which ended as a 2–2 draw. By the end of the qualifying campaign, Bosnia and Herzegovina won only seven points, making it the worst qualifying campaign in their history. On 23 September 2022, Bosnia and Herzegovina topped their

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

in the

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is an international European football competition played by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The competition was devised to minimise friendlies a ...

, and got promoted to League A. Despite promoting the team to the UEFA Nations League A, Petev's contract expired and he was released from his duties as head coach in December 2022, before the start of Bosnia and Herzegovina's

UEFA Euro 2024 The 2024 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2024 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2024) or simply Euro 2024, was the 17th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international Association football, football champ ...

qualifying campaign.

Return to Ludogorets

In March 2023, Petev once again took over as manager of

, succeeding Ante Šimundža.

Personal life

In December 2014, Petev appeared on '' Slavi's Show''. He is married and has a daughter.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Litex Lovech * Bulgarian B Group: 1996–97 *

: 2000–01

Manager

Ludogorets Razgrad *

Bulgarian First League The First Professional Football League (), commonly known as Parva Liga or Bulgarian First League (currently known as the efbet League for sponsorship reasons), is a professional association football league in Bulgaria and the highest level of t ...

: 2011–12, 2012–13, 2022–23 * Bulgarian B Group (East): 2010–11 *

: 2011–12, 2022–23 * Bulgarian Supercup:

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

Dinamo Zagreb * Croatian Cup runner-up: 2016–17

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Petev, Ivaylo 1975 births Living people People from Lovech Footballers from Lovech Province Bulgarian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Bulgarian football managers Bulgarian expatriate football managers Romanian expatriate men's footballers FC Lovech players FC Spartak Varna players PFC Cherno More Varna players FC Rodopa Smolyan players FC Dunav Ruse players FC Marek Dupnitsa players FC Lyubimets players FC Etar 1924 Veliko Tarnovo players Croatian Football League managers Saudi Pro League managers Ekstraklasa managers Liga I managers PFC Ludogorets Razgrad managers PFC Levski Sofia managers AEL Limassol managers Bulgaria national football team managers GNK Dinamo Zagreb managers AC Omonia managers Al Qadsiah FC managers Jagiellonia Białystok managers CS Universitatea Craiova managers Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team managers First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) managers Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Croatia Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Poland Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Romania Expatriate football managers in Cyprus Expatriate football managers in Croatia Expatriate football managers in Saudi Arabia Expatriate football managers in Poland Expatriate football managers in Bosnia and Herzegovina Expatriate football managers in Romania