Bulgarian Footballer of the Year

Bulgarian Footballer of the Year (Bulgarian: 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, and the winner is elected by authorized journalists from the leading Bulgarian media.^{[citation needed]}

History

2011 was the first year with a vote held online by fans.^[1] The poll has been organized by the Futbol newspaper (1961–1975), the Start newspaper (1975–1998), the Futbol newspaper and Start magazine (1999–present).

The footballers to have won the award the most times are Dimitar Berbatov (7 times - 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010), Hristo Stoichkov (5 times - 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994), Kiril Despodov (4 times - 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023), Hristo Bonev (1969, 1972, 1973) and Ivelin Popov (2015, 2016, 2017).^[2] The clubs with the most winners are Levski Sofia and CSKA Sofia with 11.

List of Bulgarian Footballer of the Year

Men

Year	Footballer	Position	Club
1961	Georgi Naydenov	Goalkeeper	CSKA Sofia
1962	Ivan Kolev	Defender	CSKA Sofia
1963	Aleksandar Shalamanov	Defender	Slavia Sofia
1964	Nikola Kotkov	Forward	Lokomotiv Sofia
1965	Georgi Asparuhov	Forward	Levski Sofia
1966	Aleksandar Shalamanov	Defender	Slavia Sofia
1967	Dimitar Penev	Defender	CSKA Sofia
1968	Simeon Simeonov	Goalkeeper	Slavia Sofia
1969	Hristo Bonev	Forward	Lokomotiv Plovdiv
1970	Stefan Aladzhov	Defender	Levski Sofia
1971	Dimitar Penev	Defender	CSKA Sofia
1972	Hristo Bonev	Forward	Lokomotiv Plovdiv
1973	Hristo Bonev	Forward	Lokomotiv Plovdiv
1974	Kiril Ivkov	Defender	Levski Sofia
1975	Kiril Ivkov	Defender	Levski Sofia
1976	Bozhidar Grigorov	Forward	Slavia Sofia
1977	Pavel Panov	Midfielder / Forward	Levski Sofia
1978	Rumyancho Goranov	Goalkeeper	Lokomotiv Sofia
1979	Atanas Mihaylov	Forward	Lokomotiv Sofia
1980	Andrey Zhelyazkov	Forward	Slavia Sofia
1981	Georgi Velinov	Goalkeeper	CSKA Sofia
1982	Radoslav Zdravkov	Defender	CSKA Sofia
1983	Stoycho Mladenov	Midfielder / Forward	CSKA Sofia
1984	Plamen Nikolov	Defender	Levski Sofia
1985	Georgi Dimitrov	Defender	CSKA Sofia
1986	Borislav Mihaylov	Goalkeeper	Levski Sofia
1987	Nikolay Iliev	Defender	Levski Sofia
1988	Lyuboslav Penev	Forward	CSKA Sofia
1989	Hristo Stoichkov	Midfielder / Forward	CSKA Sofia
1990	Hristo Stoichkov	Midfielder / Forward	Barcelona
1991	Hristo Stoichkov	Midfielder / Forward	Barcelona
1992	Hristo Stoichkov	Midfielder / Forward	Barcelona
1993	Emil Kostadinov	Forward	Porto
1994	Hristo Stoichkov	Midfielder / Forward	Barcelona
1995	Krasimir Balakov	Midfielder	Sporting CP / VfB Stuttgart
1996	Trifon Ivanov	Defender	Rapid Wien
1997	Krasimir Balakov	Midfielder	VfB Stuttgart
1998	Ivaylo Yordanov	Defender / Midfielder / Forward	Sporting CP
1999	Aleksandar Aleksandrov	Midfielder	Levski Sofia
2000	Georgi Ivanov	Forward	Levski Sofia
2001	Georgi Ivanov	Forward	Levski Sofia
2002	Dimitar Berbatov	Forward	Bayer Leverkusen
2003	Stiliyan Petrov	Midfielder	Celtic
2004	Dimitar Berbatov	Forward	Bayer Leverkusen
2005	Dimitar Berbatov	Forward	Bayer Leverkusen
2006	Martin Petrov 2nd Dimitar Berbatov 3rd Stiliyan Petrov	Midfielder / Forward Forward Midfielder	Atlético Madrid Tottenham Hotspur Aston Villa
2007	Dimitar Berbatov 2nd Martin Petrov 3rd Georgi Petkov	Forward Midfielder / Forward Goalkeeper	Tottenham Hotspur Manchester City Levski Sofia
2008	Dimitar Berbatov 2nd Georgi Petkov 3rd Blagoy Georgiev	Forward Goalkeeper Midfielder	Manchester United Levski Sofia Slavia Sofia
2009^[3]	Dimitar Berbatov 2nd Stiliyan Petrov 3rd Blagoy Georgiev	Forward Midfielder Midfielder	Manchester United Aston Villa Terek Grozny
2010^[4]	Dimitar Berbatov 2nd Ivelin Popov 3rd Nikolay Mihaylov	Forward Forward Goalkeeper	Manchester United Gaziantepspor Twente
2011	Nikolay Mihaylov 2nd Stiliyan Petrov 3rd Dimitar Berbatov	Goalkeeper Midfielder Forward	Twente Aston Villa Manchester United
2012	Georgi Milanov 2nd Ivan Ivanov 3rd Stanislav Manolev	Midfielder Defender Defender	Litex Lovech Partizan PSV
2013	Ivan Ivanov 2nd Ivelin Popov 3rd Svetoslav Dyakov	Defender Midfielder Midfielder	Basel / Partizan Kuban Krasnodar Ludogorets Razgrad
2014	Vladislav Stoyanov 2nd Svetoslav Dyakov 3rd Dimitar Berbatov	Goalkeeper Midfielder Forward	Ludogorets Razgrad Ludogorets Razgrad Monaco
2015	Ivelin Popov 2nd Ivaylo Chochev 3rd Georgi Milanov	Forward Midfielder Midfielder	Spartak Moscow Palermo CSKA Moscow
2016	Ivelin Popov 2nd Svetoslav Dyakov 3rd Vladislav Stoyanov	Forward Midfielder Goalkeeper	Spartak Moscow Ludogorets Razgrad Ludogorets Razgrad
2017	Ivelin Popov 2nd Martin Kamburov 3rd Todor Nedelev	Forward Forward Midfielder	Spartak Moscow Beroe Stara Zagora Botev Plovdiv
2018	Kiril Despodov 2nd Georgi Petkov 3rd Todor Nedelev	Forward Goalkeeper Midfielder	CSKA Sofia Slavia Sofia Botev Plovdiv
2019	Dimitar Iliev 2nd Anton Nedyalkov 3rd Vasil Bozhikov	Forward Defender Defender	Lokomotiv Plovdiv Ludogorets Razgrad Slovan Bratislava
2020	Dimitar Iliev 2nd Valentin Antov 3rd Anton Nedyalkov	Forward Defender Defender	Lokomotiv Plovdiv CSKA Sofia Ludogorets Razgrad
2021	Kiril Despodov 2nd Martin Kamburov 3rd Georgi Yomov	Forward Forward Midfielder	Ludogorets Razgrad Beroe Stara Zagora CSKA Sofia
2022	Kiril Despodov 2nd Ilia Gruev 3rd Ivaylo Chochev	Forward Midfielder Midfielder	Ludogorets Razgrad Werder Bremen CSKA 1948
2023	Kiril Despodov 2nd Ilia Gruev 3rd Ivaylo Chochev	Forward Midfielder Midfielder	PAOK Leeds United Ludogorets Razgrad
2024^[5]	Kiril Despodov 2nd Ilia Gruev 3rd Dimitar Mitov	Forward Midfielder Goalkeeper	PAOK Leeds United Aberdeen

Youth

Year	Footballer	Position	Club
2014	Bozhidar Kraev	Midfielder	Levski Sofia
2015	Bozhidar Kraev	Midfielder	Levski Sofia
2016	Petko Hristov	Defender	Slavia Sofia
2017	Kiril Despodov	Forward	CSKA Sofia
2018	Valentin Antov	Defender	CSKA Sofia
2019	Stanislav Ivanov	Forward	Levski Sofia
2020	Dominik Yankov	Midfielder	Botev Vratsa / Ludogorets
2021	Svetoslav Vutsov	Goalkeeper	Slavia Sofia
2022	Nikola Iliev	Midfielder	Inter Milan
2023	Hristiyan Petrov	Defender	CSKA Sofia

Women

Year	Footballer	Position	Club
2015^[6]	Silvia Radoyska	Midfielder	NSA Sofia
2016	Evdokiya Popadinova	Forward	Northwestern Ohio Racers
2017	Evdokiya Popadinova	Forward	Northwestern Ohio Racers
2018	Evdokiya Popadinova	Forward	Florida Gulf Coast Eagles
2019^[7]	Evdokiya Popadinova	Forward	Florida Gulf Coast Eagles
2020	Evdokiya Popadinova	Forward	Napoli Femminile
2021	Simona Petkova	Midfielder	FC Lugano
2022	Simona Petkova	Midfielder	YB Frauen
2023	Evdokiya Popadinova	Forward	Lazio Women 2015
2024^[8]	Evdokiya Popadinova	Forward	Lazio Women 2015 / Brisbane Roar

Statistics

Multiple winners

Winner	Number of wins	Winning years
Dimitar Berbatov	7	2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
Hristo Stoichkov	5	1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994
Kiril Despodov	5	2018, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
Hristo Bonev	3	1969, 1972, 1973
Ivelin Popov	3	2015, 2016, 2017
Krasimir Balakov	2	1995, 1997
Georgi Ivanov	2	2000, 2001
Kiril Ivkov	2	1974, 1975
Dimitar Penev	2	1967, 1971
Dimitar Iliev	2	2019, 2020

Winners by league

Country	Winners	Clubs featured
Bulgaria	39	Levski (11), CSKA (11), Lokomotiv Plovdiv (5), Slavia Sofia (5), Lokomotiv Sofia (3), Ludogorets Razgrad (3), Litex Lovech (1)
Germany	5	Bayer Leverkusen (3), Stuttgart (2)
Spain	5	Barcelona (4), Atlético Madrid (1)
England	4	Manchester United (3), Tottenham Hotspur (1)
Portugal	3	Sporting (2), Porto (1)
Russia	3	Spartak Moscow (3)
Austria	1	Rapid Wien (1)
Greece	2	PAOK (2)
Netherlands	1	Twente (1)
Scotland	1	Celtic (1)
Serbia	1	Partizan (1)
Switzerland	1	Basel (1)

References

^ Bulgarian PM wins player of the year but wants award annulled bbc.co.uk
^ Бербатов за седми път Футболист на годината news.bg
^ "Бербатов за шести път е футболист №1 на България" (in Bulgarian). Труд. 2010-01-14. Archived from the original on 2010-01-19. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
^ "Димитър Бербатов с нов рекорд - №1 за 2010 година и общо за седми път" (in Bulgarian). sportal.bg. 2010-12-20. Archived from the original on 2010-12-28. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
^ AFC Media Team (18 March 2025). "Third place for Dimi in Bulgarian Footballer of the year Awards". afc.co.uk. Aberdeen FC. Retrieved 3 April 2025.
^ Това са най-добрите футболисти в "А" група по постове
^ Petkov, Georgi (5 January 2020). "Димитър Илиев е "Футболист на годината", получи наградата си лично от Бербатов". topsport.bg. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
^ hronika (18 March 2025). "Най-добра футболистка на България за 2024 г. е Евдокия Попадинова" [Bulgaria's best female footballer for 2024 is Evdokia Popadinova]. hronika-bg.com. Retrieved 3 April 2025.

Sources

Paytashev, Rumen (2001). Svetovna Futbolna Entsiklopediya. Sofia: KK Trud. p. 383. ISBN 954-528-201-0.

External links

[1] Bulgarian PM wins player of the year but wants award annulled bbc.co.uk

[2] Бербатов за седми път Футболист на годината news.bg

[trud-3] "Бербатов за шести път е футболист №1 на България" (in Bulgarian). Труд. 2010-01-14. Archived from the original on 2010-01-19. Retrieved 17 January 2010.

[sportal-4] "Димитър Бербатов с нов рекорд - №1 за 2010 година и общо за седми път" (in Bulgarian). sportal.bg. 2010-12-20. Archived from the original on 2010-12-28. Retrieved 20 December 2010.

[5] AFC Media Team (18 March 2025). "Third place for Dimi in Bulgarian Footballer of the year Awards". afc.co.uk. Aberdeen FC. Retrieved 3 April 2025.

[6] Това са най-добрите футболисти в "А" група по постове

[epopadinova999-7] Petkov, Georgi (5 January 2020). "Димитър Илиев е "Футболист на годината", получи наградата си лично от Бербатов". topsport.bg. Retrieved 8 January 2020.

[8] ronika (18 March 2025). "Най-добра футболистка на България за 2024 г. е Евдокия Попадинова" [Bulgaria's best female footballer for 2024 is Evdokia Popadinova]. hronika-bg.com. Retrieved 3 April 2025.

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