Kostadin Todorov Vidolov (; born 2 May 1970) 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 former 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 played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. In his career, he played for

Lokomotiv Plovdiv PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv (), commonly known as Loko Plovdiv, is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Plovdiv. Lokomotiv's home ground is the Stadion Lokomotiv (Plovdiv), Lokomotiv Stadium which is situated in Lauta Park and ha ...

Botev Plovdiv Profesionalen Futbolen Klub Botev AD, commonly referred to as Botev Plovdiv (, ), or simply Botev (within its associated city), is a Bulgarian professional Association football, football club based in Plovdiv. It competes in the First Professiona ...

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'' ...

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 ...

Spartak Plovdiv PFC Spartak Plovdiv () is a Bulgarian football club based in Plovdiv, which plays in the third tier of Bulgarian football, the Third League. The club was established in 1947 and folded its senior team in 2016, before being 'refounded' in 2017. ...

, Beroe Stara Zagora, German

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

and Turkish

Bursaspor Bursaspor Kulübü Derneği, commonly known as Bursaspor, is a Turkey, Turkish professional sports club based in the city of Bursa. Founded in 1963, the club is best known for its football team, which has a rich history in Football in Turkey, Turk ...

. For the Bulgarian national team Vidolov was capped 9 times, scoring one goal. He ended his career in the middle of the 2009–10 season.

Career

Vidolov was born in

Plovdiv Plovdiv (, ) is the List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, second-largest city in Bulgaria, 144 km (93 miles) southeast of the capital Sofia. It had a population of 490,983 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is a cultural hub ...

and started his youth career in the popular local team

Maritsa Maritsa or Maritza ( ), also known as Evros ( ) and Meriç ( ), is a river that runs through the Balkans in Southeast Europe. With a length of ,

. A young prospect, he transferred to the more popular

in 1989. Vidolov made more than 100 appearances, scoring 23 goals for Lokomotiv. He had established himself as the playmaker in the side. In June 1993 he transferred Botev – the side that he supported as a kid. For the "canaries" Vidolov played until 1996, making 76 appearances and scoring 19 goals. He was called in the

Bulgaria national football team The Bulgaria national football team () represents Bulgaria in men's international Association football, football, and is administered by the Bulgarian Football Union, a member association of UEFA. Bulgaria's best achievements are reaching the ...

while playing for Botev and was considered likely to be selected for the

1994 World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...

, but eventually did not make the final squad. In the autumn of 1995 Vidolov scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

in the derby game against

. He also scored the winning goal for the 0–1 win over

FC Dinamo Tbilisi FC Dinamo Tbilisi ( ka, დინამო თბილისი, ) is a Georgian professional football club based in Tbilisi that competes in the Erovnuli Liga, the top flight of Georgian football. Dinamo Tbilisi was one of the most prom ...

and played well in the games against

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, that competes in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. The club was formed on 25 January ...

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

, which was then called UEFA Cup. Vidolov was sold to

in the autumn of 1996, after Botev started to experience financial troubles. In January 1997 Kostadin signed with the Turkish club

for a fee of €1,000,000 . There he made 77 appearances, scoring 5 goals. In 1999 Vidolov was signed by Botev as an amateur: the club could not afford to pay Bursaspor the fee for a transfer, and Vidolov was not wanted in

Bursa Bursa () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the Marmara Region, Bursa is one of the industrial centers of the country. Most of ...

anymore. He made excellent performances for Botev during the 1999/00 season. Vidolov signed with CSKA Sofia in the summer of 2000, taking an instrumental part in their 2000/01 run for the championship title. In 2001 Vidolov signed with the

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

club – 1. FC Union. Vidolov played two seasons for the German club, with whom he qualified for the final of

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

, before moving back to Bulgaria. Vidolov returned in Bulgaria for the 2003/04 season, playing for

. He managed to win his first

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 them in 2004. Vidolov signed a contract with

in 2004 in trying to help the struggling team to return to the top-flight. He played for three seasons with Botev Plovdiv – a disagreement between him and the club owner Dimitar Hristolov drove Vidolov out in the summer of 2007. Vidolov moved to second-flight

, where he played for the first half of the 2007/08 season. As such Vidolov became the only player to have ever played for all four major clubs of Plovdiv. In January 2008, the veteran signed with Beroe Stara Zagora, in an attempt to save the team from relegation. On 2 November 2009, Vidolov played his last match in career, against

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 ...

for

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 ...

. In January 2010, he was announced as an assistant coach of Beroe's second team. Vidolov has also been employed as an assistant manager of

International goal

:''Scores and results list Bulgaria's goal tally first.''

References

External links

*
Profile at LevskiSofia.info
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vidolov, Kostadin 1970 births Living people Footballers from Plovdiv Men's association football midfielders Bulgarian men's footballers First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Second Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Süper Lig players 2. Bundesliga players Bulgaria men's international footballers Bulgarian expatriate men's footballers PFC CSKA Sofia players PFC Levski Sofia players PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv players Botev Plovdiv players Bursaspor footballers 1. FC Union Berlin players PFC Spartak Plovdiv players PFC Beroe Stara Zagora players Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Germany FC Maritsa Plovdiv players Botev Plovdiv managers Bulgarian football managers 20th-century Bulgarian sportsmen