Aleks Milenov Petkov (; born 25 July 1999) is a Bulgarian 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 plays as a

centre-back 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 ...

for Polish club

Śląsk Wrocław Wrocławski Klub Sportowy Śląsk Wrocław Spółka Akcyjna, commonly known as WKS Śląsk Wrocław (), is a Polish professional Association football, football club based in Wrocław that plays in , the second level of the Polish football leagu ...

and the Bulgaria national team.Alex Petkov Stats
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Club career

Petkov began his career at

Cherno More Varna Cherno More () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in the city of Varna, which currently competes in Bulgaria's primary football competition, the First League. Founded on 3 March 1913, as an association football branch ...

and joined Heart of Midlothian at the age of 16 in June 2016, signing a three-year contract. On 22 July 2017, Petkov made his first-team debut, replacing

John Souttar John Francis Souttar (born 25 September 1996) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays for Scottish Premiership club Rangers and the Scotland national team. He previously played for Dundee United and Heart of Midlothian before joining ...

during a 3–0 League Cup victory over East Fife at

Tynecastle Park Tynecastle Park, also known as Tynecastle Stadium, is a football stadium in the Gorgie area of Edinburgh, which is the home ground of Scottish Professional Football League club Heart of Midlothian (Hearts). A UEFA category four stadium, it ha ...

. On 19 January 2018, Petkov joined

Scottish League Two The Scottish League Two, known as William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill League Two for sponsorship reasons, is the fourth tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional association football, foo ...

side

Berwick Rangers Berwick Rangers Football Club is a football team based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed in England, who play in the Scottish football system. Founded in 1881, they currently play in the , the fifth tier of Scottish football, despite being ba ...

on loan until the end of the season. He made his league debut in a 2–3 home loss against

Peterhead Peterhead (; , ) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is the council area's largest settlement, with a population of 19,060 at the 2022 Census for Scotland, 2022 Census. It is the largest fishing port in the United Kingdom for total landi ...

eleven days later, playing the full 90 minutes. During the 2019–20 season Petkov was loaned to Clyde and

Brechin City Brechin City Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the townDespite the name of the football club, Brechin is not an official city. Brechin was historically known as a city because it has a cathedral. of Brechin in Angus. The club w ...

. On 8 September 2020, Petkov returned to Bulgaria, signing a 1-year deal with

Levski Sofia PFC Levski Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system. The club was founded on 24 May 1914 by a group of high sc ...

. On 6 July 2023, after a two-year stint at Arda Kardzhali, Petkov joined Polish side

on a one-year contract, with an option for another two years.

International career

Petkov made his debut for the Bulgarian under-21 team on 22 March 2019 in the starting eleven for the friendly against Northern Ireland U21. He earned his first cap for the senior national team on 26 March 2022, coming on as a substitute during the second half in the 1–2 loss against

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

in a friendly match. On 16 November 2023, he scored an own goal in the 97th minute in the penultimate match of the

UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2023 to March 2024 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams that would join the automatically qualified host team Germany in the UEFA Eur ...

against

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

Personal life

His father

Milen Petkov Milen Ivanov Petkov (; born 12 January 1974) is a former Bulgarian international Association football, football player, who played as a Midfielder#Defensive midfielder, defensive midfielder. Club career Petkov started his career in the FC Dobru ...

was also a professional footballer and Bulgarian international.

Career statistics

International

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Petkov, Alex 1999 births Living people Bulgarian men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Bulgaria men's youth international footballers Bulgaria men's under-21 international footballers Bulgaria men's international footballers Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Berwick Rangers F.C. players Clyde F.C. players Brechin City F.C. players PFC Levski Sofia players FC Arda Kardzhali players Śląsk Wrocław players Scottish Professional Football League players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Ekstraklasa players Bulgarian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Poland 21st-century Bulgarian sportsmen