Georgi Dimitrov Popov (; 14 July 1944 – 9 March 2024) was a Bulgarian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

who played 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 ...

in the

1970 FIFA World Cup The 1970 FIFA World Cup was the 9th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's senior national teams. Held from 31 May to ...

. At club level, he spent 14 years of his career as a player at

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 ...

Career

Born in

Plovdiv Plovdiv (, ) is the List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, second-largest city in Bulgaria, 144 km (93 miles) southeast of the capital Sofia. It had a population of 490,983 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is a cultural hub ...

, Popov began his career with local club Maritsa Plovdiv. In 1961, as a schoolboy, he joined

. With Botev, he won one

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 ...

title, one

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 ...

and one

Balkans Cup The Balkans Cup was an international football competition for clubs from Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. It was introduced in 1961 and was very popular in the 1960s (the 1967 final attracted 42,000 spectators), being ...

. Popov earned 308 appearances in the league, scoring 83 goals. In the Bulgarian Cup, he played 50 matches and scored 15 goals. Popov died on 9 March 2024, at the age of 79.Почина легендарният футболист на Ботев (Пловдив) Георги Попов

Honours

Botev Plovdiv * A Group: 1966–67 *

: 1961–62 *

: 1972

References

External links

FIFA profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Popov, Georgi 1944 births 2024 deaths Footballers from Plovdiv Bulgarian men's footballers 20th-century Bulgarian sportsmen Bulgaria men's international footballers Men's association football forwards 1970 FIFA World Cup players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Botev Plovdiv players botev Plovdiv managers