Ivaylo Stoimenov Yordanov (; born 22 April 1968) 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 lea ...

who played mainly as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People * A participant in a strike action * A participant in a hunger strike * Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant * Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America Peopl ...

. During his career, he represented mainly Sporting in Portugal, appearing in more than 250 official games in one full decade and winning two major titles. A Bulgaria international for nine years, Yordanov represented the nation in two

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

and

Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

Club career

Born in

Samokov Samokov ( ) List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, is a town in Sofia Province in the southwest of Bulgaria. It is situated in Samokov Valley between the mountain ranges of Rila, Vitosha and Sredna Gora, 55 kilometres from the capital Sofia. Due ...

, Yordanov began his career at local

Rilski Sportist FC Rilski Sportist (ФК Рилски спортист Самоков) is a Bulgarian football club from the town of Samokov founded in 1947 and currently playing in the South-West Third League. Their home stadium is Iskar Stadium. Throughout ...

, where he first appeared professionally at not yet 15, moving to

Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa Lokomotiv () is a Bulgarian association football club based in Gorna Oryahovitsa, which currently competes in the Second League, the second level of Bulgarian football. Established in 1932 as a sports association of the railway workers in the t ...

in 1989. In

the last The Last may refer to: * The Last (band), Los Angeles power pop band active since 1976 * ''The Last'' (audio drama), a ''Doctor Who'' audio drama released in 2004 * ''The Last'' (album), 2009 album by Aventura *"The Last", a song by The Replaceme ...

of his two seasons, he topped the

First Professional Football 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 ...

scoring charts, at 21 goals, helping lowly Lokomotiv to a comfortable ninth place. In 1991–92, Yordanov joined

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

, signing alongside compatriot

Boncho Genchev Boncho Lyubomirov Genchev (; born 7 July 1964) is a Bulgarian retired professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder, and a current manager. He started in his home country in the lower leagues before moving to Lokomotiv Gorna an ...

– who had been his predecessor at Lokomotiv GO – where he would play in a variety of positions (including

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

, due to injuries to teammates). Persistent injury problems and the 1997 diagnosis of

multiple sclerosis Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease resulting in damage to myelinthe insulating covers of nerve cellsin the brain and spinal cord. As a demyelinating disease, MS disrupts the nervous system's ability to Action potential, transmit ...

led to a 2001 retirement, still with the

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

club (he contributed with 11 matches and one goal in the team's

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

conquest the previous year).

International career

Yordanov was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the e ...

51 times and scored four goals for the Bulgaria national team, including seven

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

games in the

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

championships. In the former, in another display of "team-first" attitude – and first discovering his versatile qualities – during the round-of-16 tie against

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

(as Bulgaria prevailed in a

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

) he filled in at centre-back, due to the absence of

Trifon Ivanov Trifon Marinov Ivanov (; 27 July 1965 – 13 February 2016) was a Bulgarian professional footballer who played as a defender. Ivanov made his debut for Bulgaria in 1988, earning 76 caps and scoring 6 goals over a ten-year international career. ...

(suspension) and Nikolay Iliev (injury). During the match, he set up

Hristo Stoichkov Hristo Stoichkov Stoichkov (; born 8 February 1966) is a Bulgarian former professional Association football, footballer and current football commentator for TUDN. A prolific Forward (association football), forward, he is widely regarded as the g ...

's goal in the 1–1 draw. Yordanov would also appear at

UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in ...

, playing all three group stage matches (two complete) as Bulgaria finished third in their group.

Post-playing career

Upon retiring, Yordanov stayed connected with Sporting CP, in its youth teams. On 7 June 2010, he joined

Angel Chervenkov Angel Chervenkov (, born 10 June 1964) is a Bulgarian former footballer and football manager, who currently works as manager at Minyor Pernik. Career As a player As a footballer, Chervenkov played as a defender for Tundzha Yambol (1980–1981) ...

's staff at

Litex Lovech FC Lovech (; formerly Litex Lovech) is a Bulgarian professional association football, football club based in Lovech, that competes in the Second Professional Football League (Bulgaria), Second League. The club was founded in 1921 as Hisarya Spor ...

, as part of the

scouting Scouting or the Scout Movement is a youth social movement, movement which became popularly established in the first decade of the twentieth century. It follows the Scout method of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activi ...

departments. In 2017, Yordanov took up the role of

director of football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an senior management, executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many typ ...

at his former club Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa.

Career statistics

:''Scores and results list Bulgaria's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Yordanov goal.''

Honours

Sporting *

: 1999–2000 *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

: 1994–95 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese association football, football match played since 1979 between the winners of the top-tier league (Primeira L ...

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yordanov, Ivaylo 1968 births Living people Sportspeople from Samokov Footballers from Sofia Province Bulgarian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Men's association football forwards Men's association football utility players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players FC Rilski Sportist Samokov players FC Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa players Primeira Liga players Sporting CP footballers Bulgaria men's international footballers 1994 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1996 players 1998 FIFA World Cup players Bulgarian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal People with multiple sclerosis 20th-century Bulgarian sportsmen