Ivan Mokanov (; 20 March 1912 – 16 April 1982) 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 ...

player and manager. Ivan Mokanov played 210 matches and scored 14 goals in his career with SC Vladislav and its successor Ticha-Vladislav (1928–1945) in the

Varna Varna may refer to: Places Europe *Varna, Bulgaria, a city ** Varna Province ** Varna Municipality ** Gulf of Varna ** Lake Varna **Varna Necropolis * Vahrn, or Varna, a municipality in Italy * Varna (Šabac), a village in Serbia Asia * Var ...

regional league and the Bulgarian State Competition. He was a Bulgarian champion and cup winner in

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

and runner-up in

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly demonstrating that DNA is the genetic material. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris B ...

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be on J ...

1938 Events January * January 1 – state-owned enterprise, State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS). * January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Saf ...

1939 This year also marks the start of the World War II, Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Events related to World War II have a "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Coming into effect in Nazi Ger ...

. He was capped four times for the National team. Mokanov stayed on in the

team as manager until 1960 and for the period 1964–68 when it was already known under its current name Cherno More. He graduated from the National Coaching Academy in 1948 and was awarded an Honours Coaching degree in 1963. With his 52 years of service to Cherno More, Ivan Mokanov is synonymous with club loyalty.

Club career

Ivan Mokanov began his career in the youth team of

Vladislav Vladislav ( (', '); , ; Russian language, Russian, Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, Bulgarian language, Bulgarian, Macedonian language, Macedonian, sh-Cyrl, Владислав, ) is a male given names, given name of Slavs, Slavic origin. Variatio ...

in 1928 and two years later he established himself as a permanent A team defender. In the 2-4-4 system, which was popular at the time, Mokanov was a key pillar of the defense. He was known by the force of his shot, which was very much appreciated at the time, when

long ball In association football, a long ball is a pass attempt that moves the ball a long distance on the field via one long aerial kick from either a goalkeeper or a defender directly to an attacking player, with the ball generally bypassing the midfie ...

tactics were widely used. This is why Mokanov also became the regular penalty taker. He was known to have missed only once from the penalty spot. After the championship-winning final of 16 September 1934, Mokanov was rated best player of the match against

Slavia Sofia PFC Slavia Sofia 1913 () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which currently competes in the top tier of the Bulgarian football league system, the First League. Slavia's home ground is the Stadion Aleksandar Sh ...

by the "Sport" newspape

He was Vladislav's captain and playing coach in the pre-war years from 1937 to 1944, and during the transformation of the team to Ticha-Vladislav after the war.

International career

Ivan Mokanov made his debut for the National team on 21 May 1933 in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

against Spain

and made his last appearance for the team on 6 June 1940 in

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

against Slovakia

Coaching career

As senior team coach, Mokanov was known for his talent-spotting ability. He developed players like Nedko Nedev, Ivan Derventski, Spas Kirov, Stefan Bogomilov,

Bozhil Kolev Bozhil Naydenov Kolev (; born 20 May 1949) is a former Bulgarian football player and manager. Kolev made 60 appearances for the Bulgaria national team from 1969 to 1978. Club career Born in Tsonevo, Dalgopol Municipality, Varna Province, Kol ...

Stefan Yanev Stefan Dinchev Yanev (; born 1 March 1960) is a retired Bulgarian brigade general and politician who served as Prime Minister of Bulgaria in 2021, leading a caretaker government. A political independent, he also served as Minister of Defence i ...

Damyan Georgiev Damyan Georgiev ( Bulgarian: Дамян Георгиев; 12 January 1950 – 7 May 2022) was a Bulgarian footballer, who played for Cherno More Varna from 1968 to 1978. He played 215 matches and scored 55 goals in the Bulgarian top division. Fo ...

. Some of them reached the National team formations and some made careers in Sofia teams which was considered a great achievement at the time. He coached the

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...

team to a

Group A Group A is a set of motorsport regulations administered by the FIA covering production derived touring cars for competition, usually in touring car racing and rallying. In contrast to the short-lived Group B and Group C, Group A vehicles wer ...

third-place finish. With his 4 years as

player-coach A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

of SC Vladislav and 17 years as head coach of Cherno More, Ivan Mokanov still is the longest serving coach of any Bulgarian football club. Under his leadership, Cherno More achieved prestigious wins against

Ajax Amsterdam Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or commonly Ajax, is a Dutch professional Association football, football Football team, club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. ...

on 8 June 1966 in Varna (3–1), and on tour in England the same summer, the team from Varna defeated soon to be First Division runners-up

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

(1–0). Although advancing in age, Ivan Mokanov returned for one final season (1979–80) to lead the team which was then in crisis. For his contribution to the club, plans are being made to erect a bronze statue of him in the Ticha club stadium by grateful fans of FC Cherno More.

References

* http://chernomorepfc.bg/fccm_bg/index_bg.php?link=pages/hisrory_3.html&page_title=%D0%98%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F *

* http://www.afc-ajax.info/nl/wedstrijd/1966-6-8-Cherno-More-Ajax {{DEFAULTSORT:Mokanov, Ivan 1912 births 1982 deaths Bulgarian men's footballers 20th-century Bulgarian sportsmen Footballers from Varna, Bulgaria Men's association football defenders PFC Cherno More Varna players Bulgarian football managers PFC Cherno More Varna managers