Apostol Aleksandrov Popov (; born 22 December 1982) is a

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 ...

n former professional footballer and currently assistant manager of CSKA 1948 III.

Career

Early career

Popov began his career with

Spartak Plovdiv PFC Spartak Plovdiv () is a Bulgarian football club based in Plovdiv, which plays in the third tier of Bulgarian football, the Third League. The club was established in 1947 and folded its senior team in 2016, before being 'refounded' in 2017. ...

and made his first team debut in 2001. Then he played two and a half years in the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

with Belite Orli and

Haskovo Haskovo ( ) is a city in the region of Northern Thrace in southern Bulgaria and the administrative centre of the Haskovo Province, not far from the borders with Greece and Turkey. According to Operative Program Regional Development of Bulgaria ...

, before joined

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 December 2007.

Botev Plovdiv

Popov signed with

as a free agent on 27 December 2007 on a two-and-a-half-year deal. He was signed to replace

Nikolay Domakinov Nikolay Domakinov (; born 11 July 1980) is a Bulgarian retired footballer who played as a defender, and now manager, currently working at Sekirovo. International career Domakinov played in two matches on the Bulgaria national football team in ...

at Botev and added an extra dimension with his heading ability from set-pieces. He made his official debut in the

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 ...

with

in a match against

Spartak Varna FC Spartak Varna () is a Bulgarian association football club based in Varna, which currently competes in the First League, the top level of Bulgarian football league system. Spartak plays its home matches at the local Stadion Spartak. Founded ...

on 1 March 2008, playing full 90 minutes. The result of the match was a 2–0 win for Botev. He scored his first goal on 27 September 2008, opening the scoring in a 5–0 home win over

Belasitsa Petrich OFC Belasitsa () is a Bulgarian football club from the town of Petrich, currently playing in the Second League. The team was founded in 1923. They play at the Stadion Tsar Samuil in Petrich, which has a capacity of 9,500. The club last played ...

. On 14 March 2009, Popov played as a goalkeeper for the final minutes in the league game against

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 ...

after regular goalkeeper Lilcho Arsov was sent off in the 86th minute. He made one good save during the minutes to the end of the game, but Botev lost 0–1.

CSKA Sofia

On 24 July 2009, Popov 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 three-year contract. He made his debut on 23 August, in a 2–0 away win against Sportist Svoge. His first goal came on 10 April 2010, netting the third in a 4–2 win over Sliven 2000 at

Hadzhi Dimitar Stadium Stadion Hadzhi Dimitar () is a multi-purpose stadium in Sliven, Bulgaria. It is currently used for football matches and is the home ground of OFC Sliven 2000. The stadium holds 10,000 people. *The stadium is a part of a big multifunctional sport ...

. On 13 August 2011, in the second league game of 2011–12 season, against Chernomorets Burgas, Popov ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament and received surgery a week later. His recovery was said to take up to six months. He made his comeback for CSKA from a serious knee injury on 22 April 2012, in a 4–1 win over

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 ...

, coming on for the last 2 minutes. This season he played only 6 matches. In the following campaign, Popov formed a partnership with Plamen Krachunov in the centre of defence, appearing in 26 league matches. He was substituted only once during the entire league season. On 26 July 2012, he scored his first-ever European goal in a 1–1 home draw against Slovenian side

ND Mura 05 Nogometno društvo Mura 05, commonly referred to as ND Mura 05 or simply Mura 05, was a Slovenian Association football, football club from the town of Murska Sobota. The club was established on 16 June 2005. The club's home ground was Fazanerija ...

in the Second qualifying round of

2012–13 Europa League 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

. On 17 July 2013, Popov signed a new two-year contract with CSKA. After serving mainly as a centre back for the majority of his career, during 2013–14 season he started to be employed as the regular right back by CSKA head coach,

Stoycho Mladenov Stoycho Dimitrov Mladenov (; born 12 April 1957 in Ploski, Blagoevgrad Province) is a Bulgarian former football player and manager. He has 212 matches and 107 goals for CSKA. With the club he won the national title 6 times, 4 as a player and ...

. On 8 March 2014, Popov again played as a goalkeeper for a few minutes in the 1:0 win over

after

Raïs M'Bolhi Adi Raïs Cobos Adrien Ouahab M'Bolhi (; born 25 April 1986), known as Raïs M'Bolhi, is a professional association football, footballer who plays as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. Born in France, he plays for the Algeria nation ...

had been sent off in the closing stages of the match. On 27 July 2014, Popov made his 100th league appearance for CSKA in a 2–0 win against

Universitatea Craiova

On 6 June 2015, Popov signed a two-year contract with Universitatea Craiova.

CSKA 1948

On 13 June 2018, Popov joined Second League club CSKA 1948.

International career

In August 2011, Popov was named in the Bulgarian squad for the first time for a friendly against

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

. He made his debut in the game on 11 August, coming on for the last 7 minutes in place of Chavdar Yankov as Bulgaria loss 1–0 at Dinamo Stadium in

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

. Three years later, on 9 September 2014, in Bulgaria's first match of UEFA Euro 2016 qualification, Popov made his competitive debut in a 2–1 victory away to

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

Bakcell Arena Bakcell is Azerbaijan's first and largest private telecommunications company. With nearly 9,000 base stations, it covers 99.9% of Azerbaijan's population and 92.6% of the country's territory. Bakcell provides telecommunications services to over ...

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

, playing full 90 minutes in the centre of defence.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Club

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 ...

(1):

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 ...

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. ...

(1):

* Universitatea Craiova **

Cupa României The Cupa României () is a Association football, football cup competition for List of football clubs in Romania, Romanian teams which has been held annually since 1933–34 Cupa României, 1933–34, except during World War II. It is the Romania ...

(1):

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

References

External links

*
Apostol Popov
at Footmercato.net * {{DEFAULTSORT:Popov, Apostol 1982 births Living people Footballers from Plovdiv Bulgarian men's footballers Men's association football defenders PFC Spartak Plovdiv players FC Belite Orli Pleven players FC Haskovo players Botev Plovdiv players PFC CSKA Sofia players CS Universitatea Craiova players FC CSKA 1948 Sofia players POFC Botev Vratsa players FC Vitosha Bistritsa players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Liga I players Bulgarian expatriate men's footballers Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Bulgaria men's international footballers 21st-century Bulgarian sportsmen