Krasimir Genchev Balakov (, ; born 29 March 1966) is a former Bulgarian footballer and manager. A former

attacking 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. ...

, he was a key member of the Bulgaria national team that finished fourth in the

1994 FIFA 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 ...

. He is considered as second only to

Hristo Stoichkov Hristo Stoichkov Stoichkov (; born 8 February 1966) is a Bulgarian former professional Association football, footballer and current football commentator for TUDN. A prolific Forward (association football), forward, he is widely regarded as the g ...

among Bulgarian men's footballers of his generation.

Club career

Balakov began his club career at the local Etar Veliko Tarnovo, before transferring to

Sporting Clube de Portugal Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

in 1990, playing alongside future

Ballon d'Or The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual association football, football award presented by French magazine ''France Football'' since 1956 Ballon d'Or, 1956 to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous season. Conceived ...

recipient Luís Figo, his compatriot Yordanov, and future two-time Champions League winner Paulo Sousa. Though Sporting Clube de Portugal had a quality squad, Balakov only won the 1994–95 Portuguese Cup during his time at the club. In 1995, he transferred to Germany's

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. (), commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's Association football, football team is currently part of Germany's f ...

where he won two

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

s (2000 and 2002) and a

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 ...

(1997), before retiring in 2003 - the same year that he called time on an international career which had spanned 15 years and 92 caps. As an

Balakov formed a successful attacking partnership with strikers Fredi Bobic and

Giovane Élber Élber de Souza (born 23 July 1972), commonly known as Giovane Élber, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a striker. A prolific goalscorer in various clubs, Élber's career was mostly spent in Germany, where he repre ...

at Stuttgart. The trio were known as the "magic triangle". He stayed at Stuttgart until retiring as a player in 2003, although he did make a comeback as a player two years later when he made a single appearance as player-manager of VFC Plauen.

Coaching career

The year after he retired, Krasimir became assistant coach of the club he had just retired from,

. He stayed in this position for two years before deciding to become a player-manager at VFC Plauen, where he remained for just a short time. He had been appointed on 16 January 2006 as a manager of

Grasshopper Club Zürich Grasshopper Club Zurich (GCZ), commonly referred to as Grasshopper Club or simply just GC, is a professional sports club, multisports club based in Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland. They are nicknamed the ''Grasshoppers'' or sometimes just ''Hopper ...

to replace Hanspeter Latour who left for 1. FC Köln. Balakov won the Intertoto Cup, thus qualified the club to the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

for 2006–07 season. He had been appointed on 29 October 2007 as a manager of FC St. Gallen to replace Rolf Fringer. Three days before the season ended, he was fired by the club management. In December 2008, he became manager of PFC Chernomorets Burgas in his homeland, taking over from Dimitar Dimitrov, after also having considered an offer to coach the national team of his country. On 6 December 2010, he was released from PFC Chernomorets Burgas after mutual consent, following a change in the long-term vision for the club by the owner Mitko Sabev. On 27 May 2011, it was announced that Balakov would take over the helm of Croatian club Hajduk Split. On 22 March 2012, Balakov was appointed the manager of

1. FC Kaiserslautern 1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V., also known as 1. FCK, FCK (), FC Kaiserslautern (), K'lautern or colloquially Lautern (), is a German sports club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to Association football, football ...

. He was sacked on 17 May 2012, after being unable to prevent Kaiserslautern's relegation to the 2. Bundesliga. He subsequently continued his career as manager in his country. On 4 January 2018, he was announced as the new manager of Etar Veliko Tarnovo with Stanislav Genchev, Iliyan Kiryakov and Kaloyan Chakarov as first team coaches. On 14 May 2019, he was named as the new manager of the Bulgaria national team. In October 2019, Balakov was replaced as manager of the national team by Georgi Dermendzhiev after resigning from his role following the backlash over his denial of alleged fan racism aimed at members of the England team in a Euro 2020 qualifying match as well as a continued string of unsatisfactory results. He took over as manager of CSKA 1948 in June 2020. In late August 2020, Balakov's duties were extended to cover the organizational management as well, with assistant Yordan Yurukov becoming more actively involved in the training process. However, the latter resigned on 22 September, leaving Balakov to be the sole one in charge of the team. In June 2021, Balakov parted ways with CSKA 1948, with the club's management thanking him for establishing the team among the stronger sides in the top division of Bulgarian football. In May 2023, Balakov returned to coaching, being appointed as manager of relegation-threatened Septemvri Sofia. He was unable to save the team from the drop, but stayed on as manager in the B PFG. Balakov left Septemvri in October 2023 due to disagreements with the club ownership. At the time his team was top of the standings.

International career

Balakov made 92 appearances for Bulgaria, between 1988 and 2003 (one of the best totals in national history) and scored 16 goals. He made his debut on 2 November 1988, in the 1–1 draw with

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

in a qualifying match for the 1990 FIFA World Cup, coming on as a late second half substitute for

. Other than the

, he also played for his country at Euro 1996 and the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...

. At age 37 he played in the qualifications for Euro 2004 to help his teammates qualify but retired from football before the final stage in Portugal.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Bulgaria's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Balakov goal.''

Managerial statistics

Honours

Etar Veliko Tarnovo * A Group: 1990–91 Sporting CP * Portuguese Cup: 1995 VfB Stuttgart *

: 1996–97 *

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

DFB-Ligapokal The DFL-Ligapokal (, officially Premiere Ligapokal , previously DFB-Ligapokal ) or the ''German League Cup'' was a German association football, football competition that took place before the start of the Bundesliga season, featuring the top five t ...

finalist: 1997, 1998 *

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renam ...

finalist: 1997–98 *

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

runner-up: 2002–03 Bulgaria *

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 ...

fourth place: 1994 Individual *

All-Star Team: 1994 * Bulgarian Footballer of the Year: 1995, 1997 *'' kicker''

Team of the Season: 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98 * FIFA XI (Reserve): 1996

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Balakov, Krasimir 1966 births Living people Footballers from Veliko Tarnovo Men's association football midfielders Bulgarian football managers Bulgarian men's footballers Bulgaria men's international footballers Bulgaria men's youth international footballers 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players FC Etar (Veliko Tarnovo) players Sporting CP footballers UEFA Euro 1996 players VfB Stuttgart players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Bundesliga players Primeira Liga players Grasshopper Club Zurich managers FC St. Gallen managers HNK Hajduk Split managers 1. FC Kaiserslautern managers Bulgarian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Bulgarian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Germany Expatriate football managers in Switzerland Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate football managers in Croatia Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Croatia 2. Bundesliga managers PSFC Chernomorets Burgas managers VFC Plauen players FC CSKA 1948 Sofia managers 20th-century Bulgarian sportsmen