Ivan Georgiev Zafirov (; born 30 December 1947) is a former Bulgarian

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 lea ...

who played as a defender.

Career

After short spells at

Sliven Sliven ( ) is List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, the eighth-largest city in Bulgaria and the administrative and industrial centre of Sliven Province and municipality in Northern Thrace. It is situated in the Sliven Valley at the foothills of th ...

, it was 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'' ...

that he found his spiritual home in the 1970s. Zafirov, a right-back, played 340 times for the ''Reds'', scoring 8 goals. Nine Bulgarian championships and five

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 ...

s tell the tale of how successful Zafirov was. Zafirov was on Bulgaria's roster for the

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

. He represented the ''Lions'' 50 times, scoring once. He also won a silver medal at the

1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Mexico 1968 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 October 1968, in Mexico City, Mexico. These were the first Ol ...

.Ivan Zafirov
. sports-reference.com

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zafirov, Ivan 1947 births Living people Footballers from Sofia Bulgarian men's footballers Bulgaria men's international footballers PFC CSKA Sofia players FC Sliven players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players 1974 FIFA World Cup players Footballers at the 1968 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Bulgaria Olympic silver medalists for Bulgaria Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 1968 Summer Olympics Men's association football defenders 20th-century Bulgarian sportsmen