Ivaylo Naydenov (; born 22 March 1998) is a

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 ...

n professional

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 plays as a

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

and

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for

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 ...

. Naydenov joined

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 ...

's academy in 2005 and progressed through the youth ranks. He made his senior debut in 2016, at age 18.

Career

On 13 August 2016, Naydenov made his first senior appearance for Levski, replacing

Bozhidar Kraev Bozhidar Boykov Kraev (; born 23 June 1997) is a Bulgarian professional footballer who currently plays as an attacking midfielder and second striker for A-League Men club Western Sydney Wanderers and the Bulgarian national team. Career Early ...

in the last minutes as Levski won 1-0 at home against

Ludogorets Razgrad Professional Football Club Ludogorets 1945 (), commonly known as Ludogorets Razgrad or simply Ludogorets, is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Razgrad, which currently competes in the First Professional Football League ...

in the

A Group 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 ...

. In June 2022, Naydenov joined

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 ...

International career

Naydenov made his debut for the Bulgarian under-21 team on 22 March 2019 in the starting eleven for the friendly against Northern Ireland U21.

Career statistics

Club

References

External links

*
Profile at LevskiSofia.info
1998 births Living people Footballers from Sofia Bulgarian men's footballers Bulgaria men's under-21 international footballers Bulgaria men's youth international footballers First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Second Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players PFC Levski Sofia players FC Arda Kardzhali players FC Lokomotiv 1929 Sofia players Men's association football midfielders 21st-century Bulgarian sportsmen {{Bulgaria-footy-midfielder-stub