Anton Karachanakov ( Bulgarian: Антон Карачанаков; born 17 January 1992) 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 winger for Vihren Sandanski.

Career

Pirin Blagoevgrad

Born in Novo Delchevo, near

Sandanski Sandanski ( ; , formerly known as Sveti Vrach, , until 1947) is a town and a recreation center in southwestern Bulgaria, part of Blagoevgrad Province. Named after the Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary Yane Sandanski, it is situated in Sanda ...

, Karachanakov progressed through Pirin Blagoevgrad's youth system, having joined the club at the age of 14 in 2006. He made his first team debut on 26 February 2011 in a 1–0

A PFG 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 ...

loss against Cherno More, coming on as a substitute for Anton Kostadinov. On 12 March, he scored his first goal in his first start, netting Pirin's only goal in their 2–1 loss against

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 ...

. Karachanakov finished the 2010–11 season with 16 appearances and four goals in all competitions, helping Pirin to secure their status in the top-flight of Bulgarian football league system. Finally, Pirin was relegated to fourth division, after the license necessary to play in the

was denied by Bulgarian Football Federation.

CSKA Sofia

On 18 June 2011, Karachanakov joined

CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sports Club of the Army'' ...

on a free transfer. He scored his first league goal for CSKA on 22 March 2012, in the 4–0 home win over

Lokomotiv Sofia FC Lokomotiv Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which currently plays in the First League, the top tier of Bulgarian football. Founded as Railway Sports Club in 1929, and refounded in 2015, following ...

. He scored in his next two games as well, against

Lokomotiv Plovdiv PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv (), commonly known as Loko Plovdiv, is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Plovdiv. Lokomotiv's home ground is the Stadion Lokomotiv (Plovdiv), Lokomotiv Stadium which is situated in Lauta Park and ha ...

on 25 March and against Beroe Stara Zagora three days later. On 31 August 2012, Karachanakov scored his first brace for the club, scoring twice in a 4–1 away win against Minyor Pernik. In October 2012, he sustained an injury during

The Eternal Derby The Eternal derby of Bulgarian football or simply The Eternal derby () is the name of the local derby football match between the two most popular and successful football clubs in Sofia and Bulgaria: Levski Sofia and CSKA Sofia. The dominant forc ...

and was ruled out until the end of the season. Karachanakov made a full recovery by June 2013. On 14 December 2013, he scored his first two goals (and second brace for the club) after coming back from injury in a 7–0 thrashing of Lyubimets 2007. On 27 July 2014, Karachanakov scored the opening goal and assisted Sergiu Buș' second in the 2–0 win over

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 ...

. For his performance he won the Man of the Match award. In January 2015, he left the "armymen" due to a combination of financial reasons (unreceived salaries) and not being granted sufficient playing time.

Botev Plovdiv

Karachanakov signed with

Botev Plovdiv Profesionalen Futbolen Klub Botev AD, commonly referred to as Botev Plovdiv (, ), or simply Botev (within its associated city), is a Bulgarian professional Association football, football club based in Plovdiv. It competes in the First Professiona ...

in January 2019. He left the team by mutual consent in August 2019 and joined Tsarsko Selo.

International career

His first goal for the Bulgarian U21 squad came in his second match on 29 February 2012 as he scored the only goal in a 1–0 friendly win against Poland U21.

Career statistics

Honours

;CSKA Sofia *

Bulgarian Supercup The Bulgarian Supercup () is the trophy won in a football match held between the football club that has won the Bulgarian first football division in the season that ended in the year of the match and the holder of the Bulgarian Cup at that time. ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

References

External links

Guardian's Stats Centre

Profile
at sportal.bg * {{DEFAULTSORT:Karachanakov, Anton 1992 births Living people Footballers from Blagoevgrad Province Men's association football wingers Bulgarian men's footballers Bulgaria men's under-21 international footballers First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Second Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Russian First League players Ekstraklasa players III liga players Liga II players Macedonian First Football League players PFC Pirin Blagoevgrad players PFC CSKA Sofia players FC Baltika Kaliningrad players PFC Slavia Sofia players KS Cracovia players PFC Beroe Stara Zagora players Panachaiki F.C. players Botev Plovdiv players FC Tsarsko Selo Sofia players FC Politehnica Iași (2010) players FC Montana players FK Makedonija G.P. players OFC Vihren Sandanski players Bulgarian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Poland Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in North Macedonia Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in North Macedonia 21st-century Bulgarian sportsmen