Ilian Stoyanov (; born 20 January 1977) is a former

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 ...

football defender 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 ...

. In Bulgaria he is also known as Collovati, because of his haircut in the past, reminiscent of that of former Italian midfielder Fulvio Collovati.

Career

He was part of the Bulgarian

2004 European Football Championship The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football competition contested by the List of men's national associatio ...

team, who exited in the first round, finishing bottom of Group C, having finished top of Qualifying Group 8 in the pre-tournament phase. In the beginning of his career, he played as left-back. He started his professional career with

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'' ...

in 1995. However, Stoyanov made a name for himself with Velbazhd Kyustendil and

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 ...

, appearing in more than 150 matches in the top division. During his time in Bulgarian football, he established himself as a capable defender, but was also notable for displaying a fiery temper on occasions and was involved in a number of controversial incidents, including an altercation with a referee and remarks uttered at black footballers, which invited accusations of

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

. He joined

JEF United Chiba , full name and also known as , is a Japanese professional football club based in Chiba, capital of Chiba Prefecture. They currently play in the J2 League, Japanese second tier of professional football. History Furukawa Electric SC (19 ...

in 2005 from

and enjoyed a reasonably successful first season, helping them lift the Yamazaki Nabisco Cup (the Japanese League Cup), the club's first ever trophy – and also to repeat the achievement the following season, 2006. The club released him in July 2007 after he criticised manager Amar Osim. On 12 August 2007, he signed with another Japanese club

Sanfrecce Hiroshima Sanfrecce Hiroshima () is a Japanese professional association football, football club based in Hiroshima. The club competes in the J1 League, top flight of the Japanese football league system. Sanfrecce is one of the most successful clubs in Ja ...

. He could not help the team to avoid relegation to J2 in the same season. However, he helped his new team to get to the final of the

Emperor's Cup , commonly known as or Japan FA Cup, and rebranded as The JFA Emperor's Cup from 2024 onwards, is a Japanese annual football competition. It has the longest tradition of any football tournament in Japan, dating back to 1921, before the formatio ...

in 2007, and to win the Xerox Super Cup in 2008. In 2009, he returned to Bulgaria national team and started 7 games in

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification Qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation – the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (Oc ...

Kapfenberg-sanfrecce hiroshima-20100620-ilian-stoyanov-2

After his retirement, Stoyanov has started his own business in Japan and is also involved in a football academy.

Club statistics

National team statistics

Honors

;

* Bulgarian League – 2001, 2002 *

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 ...

– 2002, 2003, 2005 ;

* J.League Cup – 2005, 2006 * J. League Best Eleven – 2005 ;

* Xerox Super Cup – 2008 *

J2 League The or simply J2 is the second division of the and the second level of the Japanese association football league system. The top tier is represented by the J1 League. It (along with the rest of the J.League) is currently sponsored by Meiji Yasud ...

– 2008

Personal life

* He is a friend of Bulgarian sumo wrestler Kotooshu Katsunori who became the first European to win the top division championship,

Makuuchi , or , is the top division of Professional sumo divisions, the six divisions of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers (''rikishi''), ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stoyanov, Ilian 1977 births Living people Bulgarian men's footballers Bulgaria men's international footballers Bulgarian expatriate men's footballers First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players J1 League players J2 League players Expatriate men's footballers in Japan Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Japan PFC CSKA Sofia players Velbazhd Kyustendil players PFC Levski Sofia players JEF United Chiba players Sanfrecce Hiroshima players Fagiano Okayama players UEFA Euro 2004 players Footballers from Kyustendil Men's association football defenders