Anton Mihaylov Nedyalkov (; born 30 April 1993) 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

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

and

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

Ludogorets Razgrad Professional Football Club Ludogorets 1945 (), commonly known as Ludogorets Razgrad or simply Ludogorets, is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Razgrad, which currently competes in the First Professional Football League ...

and the Bulgarian national team. Nedyalkov began his professional career 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 ...

in 2011. After loan spells at Chavdar Etropole and Svetkavitsa he became a regular in their team, playing 85 total games for Litex. In June 2016, he 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'' ...

and became an integral member of the team. In December 2017, he briefly signed for

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

club

FC Dallas FC Dallas is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The franchise be ...

before joining Ludogorets six months later. Formerly an international at under-19 and under-21 level, Nedyalkov made his senior international debut for

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

against

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

on 6 September 2016.

Club career

Litex Lovech

Nedyalkov joined the first team in 2012 after two loan spells at Chavdar Etropole and Svetkavitsa during the 2011–12 season.

CSKA Sofia

In June 2016, Nedyalkov joined

. He made his debut on 29 July, in a 2–0 home win over

Slavia Sofia PFC Slavia Sofia 1913 () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which currently competes in the top tier of the Bulgarian football league system, the First League. Slavia's home ground is the Stadion Aleksandar Sh ...

which was also the season opener. In his first season with CSKA, he appeared in 34 of 36 league matches; in 33 of them Nedyalkov played full 90 minutes. After a number of good games he was chosen as the best player of the 2016–17 season by the club's fans.

FC Dallas

On 21 December 2017, Nedyalkov completed a move to

club

for a fee of $1.5 million plus bonuses. He was given the number 6 shirt. Nedyalkov made his league debut in a 3–0 home win at Toyota Stadium against

Seattle Sounders FC Seattle Sounders FC is an American professional association football, soccer club based in Seattle. The Sounders compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The club was established on ...

on 18 March 2018, playing full 90 minutes as a left-back. He assisted Roland Lamah for the third goal in the game.

Ludogorets Razgrad

On 23 June 2018, after six months in the United States, Dallas announced that Nedyalkov would return to Bulgaria and sign a contract with Bulgarian champions

for an undisclosed fee. Later that day Ludogorets officially announced the transfer of Nedyalkov, signing with his favorite number 3 shirt. On 23 June 2021, Nedyalkov was announced as the new captain of the team, after Svetoslav Dyakov left the club. On 12 March 2023, he sustained an injury in the 3–2 home win over Cherno More in a league match, which required surgery and kept him out of action until 22 October 2023 when he played in the 0–0 away draw with

Arda Arda or ARDA may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Arda (Middle-earth), fictional world in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien * Arda (band), a Russian heavy metal band People * Arda (name) Places *Arda (Maritsa), a river in Bulgaria and Greece *A ...

International career

In 2011, Nedyalkov was a member of Bulgaria U-19 team, playing three games in the qualifying round of U-19 European Championship. Nedyalkov was called up to the senior Bulgaria team for friendlies against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

and

Macedonia Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...

in March 2016. On 6 September 2016, he made his debut for Bulgaria in a 4–3 2018 World Cup Qualifying victory over

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Ludogorets Razgrad *

Bulgarian First 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 ...

(6): 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21, 2021–22, 2022–23, 2023–24, 2024–25 *

Bulgarian Cup The Bulgarian Cup () is a Bulgarian annual football competition. It is the country's main cup competition and all officially registered Bulgarian football teams take part in it. The tournament's format is ''single-elimination'', with all matche ...

: 2022–23, 2024–25 *

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. ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Individual * Best defender in the

: 2019 * 2nd place in the Bulgarian Footballer of the Year ranking - 2019

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nedyalkov, Anton Living people 1993 births People from Lovech Footballers from Lovech Province Bulgarian men's footballers Bulgaria men's youth international footballers Bulgaria men's under-21 international footballers Bulgaria men's international footballers Men's association football fullbacks FC Lovech players FC Chavdar Etropole players PFK Svetkavitsa 1922 players PFC CSKA Sofia players PFC Ludogorets Razgrad players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Second Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players FC Dallas players Bulgarian expatriate men's footballers Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Major League Soccer players 21st-century Bulgarian sportsmen