Georgi Vasilev Ivanov (; born 9 August 1946), nicknamed Gocheto and The General, is а Bulgarian former

football manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

and

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who i ...

Biography

Born in

Bobovdol Bobov Dol ( ; also Bobovdol) is a town in Bobov Dol Municipality, Kyustendil Province, southwestern Bulgaria. Bobov Dol lies near the geographic centre of the Balkan Peninsula and is known for its coal mines and thermal power plant. The third-lar ...

, Vasilev began his football career at Cherveno Zname of Radomir, representing the team between 1961 and 1965, before moving to

FC Sliven FC Sliven (ФК Сливен) is a Bulgarian football club from the city of Sliven, currently playing in the Third Amateur Football League (Bulgaria), Third League, the third level of Bulgarian football. The club's home ground is the Hadzhi Dimit ...

in 1967 and then to

Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa Lokomotiv () is a Bulgarian association football club based in Gorna Oryahovitsa, which currently competes in the Second League, the second level of Bulgarian football. Established in 1932 as a sports association of the railway workers in the t ...

in 1967–68. He also played for

Marek Dupnitsa FC Marek () is a Bulgarian football club based in Dupnitsa, currently playing in the Second League, the second level of the Bulgarian football league system. It was founded in 1947 following the unification of four local clubs. Home matches take ...

(1968–69) and Etar Veliko Tarnovo (1969–77), featuring in 220 matches and scoring 32 goals 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 ...

. While at Etar, he graduated in history from

Veliko Tarnovo University The St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo ( Bulgarian ''Великотърновски университет „Св. св. Кирил и Методий“'') is a Bulgarian university based in Veliko Tarnovo. History ...

. Finishing the

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

school for football managers, Vasilev's first team as a manager was Levski

Strazhitsa Strazhitsa (, ) is a town in northeastern Bulgaria, part of Veliko Tarnovo Province. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Strazhitsa Municipality, which lies in the eastern part of the Province. The town is located in the central Da ...

, which he managed in 1977–79. He was then appointed to work at Etar as an assistant manager (1979–81) and manager (until 1992, with some interruptions). In 1984–85 he was at the helm of

Spartak Pleven OFK Spartak () is a Bulgarian municipal association football club from the city of Pleven founded on 10 September 1919. It currently competes in the Second League, the second tier of Bulgarian football. The team's greatest achievements are the B ...

and in 1985–86 he was the assistant manager of the Bulgaria national team. Vasilev managed

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 ...

in 1993–95, the Cypriot

Anorthosis Famagusta Anorthosis Famagusta (), commonly known as Anorthosis in English or Anorthosi in Greek, is a Cypriot football club, part of the Famagusta multi-sport club founded in 1911 in Varosha, Famagusta.

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'' ...

(1996–98) and

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 ...

, before taking up

Union Berlin 1. Fußballclub Union Berlin e. V., commonly known as Union Berlin (), is a professional Football in Germany, German football club based in Berlin. The club's origins can be traced to 1906, when its predecessor FC Olympia Oberschöneweide was fo ...

, whom he led to the 2nd Bundesliga and a

German Cup The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English, is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundes ...

final, as well as

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

participation. He then moved to

Nea Salamis Famagusta FC Nea Salamis Famagusta FC (alternatively Nea Salamina, ) is a Cyprus, Cypriot professional Association football, football Sports club, club based in Ammochostos (also known by its Romanization of Greek, romanized name, Famagusta). It has been a r ...

in the spring of 2003 and returned to Levski Sofia in 2003–04 only to once again briefly manager

in January 2006. From April 2006 to the summer of 2007, he was in charge of

B PFG The Bulgarian Second Professional Football League (), also known as Second League () or Vtora liga, is the second level of the Bulgarian football league system, below First Professional Football League (Bulgaria), First League and above the Third ...

side

Naftex Burgas PFC Naftex Burgas () is a former football club from Burgas, Bulgaria. History The club was created in 1962 by a group of workers, laying the foundations of the future Petroleum Refinery Neftochim, which had not yet been named. The team startе ...

. In June 2007, Vasilev was announced as the new manager of Greek club Levadiakos. Between December 2009 to June 2010 he managed

PFC Nesebar Nesebar () is a Bulgarian municipality, municipal () association football club based in Nesebar, Burgas Province, currently competing in the Second League, the second tier of Bulgarian football. The club’s greatest success was promotion to th ...

. From March 2011 to May 2011 he led

Chernomorets Burgas PSFC Chernomorets Burgas () or simply Chernomorets () was a Bulgarian football club from the city of Burgas. The club never won any major competition, its most notable achievement being a second-place finish in the UEFA Intertoto Cup competitio ...

. Vasilev has won the A PFG with Etar (1991), Levski (1994, 1995) and CSKA (1997), as well as the

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 ...

with Levski (1994) and CSKA (1997). While in charge of Levski, Vasilev eliminated the

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

Rangers F.C. Rangers Football Club is a professional football club in Glasgow, Scotland. The team competes in the Scottish Premiership, the top division of Scottish football. The club is often referred to as Glasgow Rangers, though this has never been i ...

from the

UEFA Champions League 1993–94 The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach football in Europe and the transcontinental countries of Turkey, Azerbaijan, ...

. He has been honoured as the coach of the 20th century of

Veliko Tarnovo Veliko Tarnovo (, ; "Great Tarnovo") is a city in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province. It is the historical and spiritual capital of Bulgaria. Often referred to as the "''City of the Tsars''", Velik ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vasilev, Georgi 1946 births Bulgarian football managers Bulgarian men's footballers 20th-century Bulgarian sportsmen Men's association football midfielders Bulgarian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Cyprus Expatriate football managers in Germany Living people Lokomotiv Sofia First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players FC Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa players Anorthosis Famagusta FC managers Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus 1. FC Union Berlin managers Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Germany PFC Levski Sofia managers PFC CSKA Sofia managers PSFC Chernomorets Burgas managers FC Lokomotiv 1929 Sofia managers Nea Salamis Famagusta FC managers Footballers from Kyustendil Province