Kiril Ivkov

Bulgarian football defender Kiril Ivkov began his domestic career with FC Metalurg in 1962 before joining Minyor Pernik for one season in 1966. Ivkov then became a mainstay at Levski Sofia, spending the next 11 years with the club, playing in more than 370 matches for the team. With Levski he won the Bulgarian League four times (1968, 1970, 1974, 1977) and the Bulgarian Cup four times (1970, 1971, 1976, 1977). In the mid-1970s Ivkov was the best player of his day, being named as the Bulgarian Footballer of the Year in 1974 and 1975.

From 1968 to 1979 Ivkov earned 44 caps for the Bulgarian national team, including captaining the side in 10 matches. In 1968 he was part of the Bulgarian squad that won silver in the football tournament at the Mexico City Olympics. They lost 4–1 to Hungary in a controversial final, with Ivkov being one of three Bulgarian players to be sent off in the match. Despite being a defender, he also scored in Bulgaria’s 7–0 win over Thailand in the tournament’s group stage. Six years later Ivkov was part of Bulgaria’s squad for the 1974 FIFA World Cup in West Germany, playing in all three matches in the group stage.

Following his playing career Ivkov spent many years working as a coach both with domestic clubs and the national team. In the 1985–86 season he won the Bulgarian Cup with his old team Levski Sofia.