Ayan Faikov Sadakov ( bg, Аян Фаиков Садъков) (26 September 1961 – 1 July 2017) was a

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Mac ...

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 ...

and a key member of the Bulgarian national team in the

1986 FIFA World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia ha ...

Club career

Sadakov began his club career at the local

Lokomotiv Plovdiv PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv ( bg, ПФК Локомотив Пловдив), commonly known as Loko Plovdiv, is a Bulgarian professional football club based in Plovdiv. Lokomotiv's home ground is the Lokomotiv Stadium which is situated in Lauta Park ...

. For "The Smurfs" he played eleven seasons, before transferring to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal: :* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...

C.F. Os Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses, commonly known as Os Belenenses (), is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 25,000-seat Estádio do Rest ...

in 1989. Two years later he return in Lokomotiv and played two years, before signed with

Botev Plovdiv Profesionalen Futbolen Klub Botev, commonly referred to as Botev Plovdiv ( bg, „Ботев“ Пловдив, ) or simply Botev (within its associated city), is a Bulgarian professional football club based in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, that competes in ...

in summer 1994.

International

Sadakov made 80 appearances for Bulgaria, between 1981 and 1991 and scored 9 goals. He played in four matches for his country at

Coaching career

Sadakov had been appointed on September 29, 2008 as a manager of

a second time to replace

Dragan Kanatlarovski Dragi Kanatlarovski - Capar ( mk, Драги Канатларовски - Цапар; born 8 November 1960) is a Macedonian football manager and former player. He represented the Yugoslav national team and the Macedonian national team. Name ...

Personal life

In 2014, Sadakov announced he was diagnosed with

ALS Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...

. He died on 1 July 2017, aged 55.

Honours

;Lokomotiv Plovdiv * Cup of the Soviet Army (1):

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sadakov, Ayan 1961 births 2017 deaths Bulgarian football managers Bulgarian footballers Bulgarian expatriate footballers Bulgaria international footballers 1986 FIFA World Cup players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Primeira Liga players Footballers from Plovdiv Botev Plovdiv players PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv players PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv managers C.F. Os Belenenses players Neurological disease deaths in Bulgaria Deaths from motor neuron disease Association football midfielders