Kristian Traychev Dimitrov (; born 27 February 1997) 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 defender for

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 ...

and the Bulgarian national team.

Club career

Botev Plovdiv

In the summer of 2013, Dimitrov joined

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 ...

at under-17 level from

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 ...

and progressed through the club's academy system. Dimitrov made his first-team debut on 13 March 2016, when he came off the bench to replace Serkan Yusein in the 81st minute of a 3–1 league win over

Cherno More Varna Cherno More () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in the city of Varna, which currently competes in Bulgaria's primary football competition, the First League. Founded on 3 March 1913, as an association football branch ...

. His first senior goal came in the last round of the 2015–16 season; he scored the second goal in a 2–1 win over

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 ...

on 27 May. Dimitrov began to establish himself in the Botev first team from the 2016–17 season, making eight league starts. On 8 June 2017, he signed a new two-year contract with the club. On 5 February 2018, Dimitrov joined Second League club

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

on loan for the remainder of the 2017–18 season. He made 13 appearances in total. His only goal came on 5 May 2018 when he opened the scoring in a 2–0 away win over Botev Galabovo. In June 2018, Dimitrov returned to Botev and continued his progress during 2018–19, becoming a regular in the defence. On 24 April 2019, he scored a

last-minute goal The term "last-minute goal" is used in sport, primarily association football, to describe a goal scored very late in a game, usually one that affects the outcome of the game. The definition of a "last-minute goal" commonly used is one scored eith ...

against

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'' ...

, bringing the score to 3:3 and enabling his team (which had been reduced to nine men) to progress to the final of the Bulgarian Cup 6:5 on aggregate.

Hajduk Split and the loan to CFR Cluj

On 11 February 2020, it was announced that Dimitrov had signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with

Hajduk Split Hrvatski Nogometni klub Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Split, that competes in the Croatian First League, the top tier in Croatian football. Since 1979, the club's home ...

. Not finding much playing time in the 2021/22 season, he was loaned out to

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ) or simply CFR, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I. Founded as ''Kolozsvári Vasut ...

in February 2022. He became a

Liga I Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

champion with the

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

club, featuring in a single game, 3-1 loss against

FCSB Fotbal Club FCSB (), formerly named and still sometimes referred to as FC Steaua București, is a Romanian professional football club based in Bucharest. It has spent its entire history in the Liga I, the top flight of the Romanian football le ...

, scoring in the 45th minute. Returning to Hajduk, he spent the first part of the 2022/23 season largely on the bench, starting a single cup match, a 5-1 away win against Tehničar Cvetkovec, where he received a red card for a counter-attack stopping foul in the 33rd minute, and his contract was terminated by mutual consent on 17 December 2022. Dimitrov had scored 3 goals in 40 league matches at the Croatian club.

Levski Sofia

On 30 December 2022, Dimitrov returned to Bulgaria, signing a one-and-a-half-year deal with

International career

In May 2019, following his good performances for Botev, Dimitrov was called up to the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

by new manager

Krasimir Balakov Krasimir Genchev Balakov (, ; born 29 March 1966) is a former Bulgarian footballer and manager. A former attacking midfielder, he was a key member of the Bulgaria national team that finished fourth in the 1994 FIFA World Cup. He is considered ...

. On 7 June 2019, he made his debut, playing the full 90 minutes in the 1–2 away loss against the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

in a Euro 2020 qualifier.

Career statistics

Club

International stats

International goals

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

Style of play

compared Dimitrov with the legendary Bulgarian defender

Trifon Ivanov Trifon Marinov Ivanov (; 27 July 1965 – 13 February 2016) was a Bulgarian professional footballer who played as a defender. Ivanov made his debut for Bulgaria in 1988, earning 76 caps and scoring 6 goals over a ten-year international career. ...

, while being manager of

Honours

Club

Botev Plovdiv *

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 ...

: 2016–17 *

Bulgarian Supercup The Bulgarian Supercup () is the trophy won in a football match held between the football club that has won the Bulgarian first football division in the season that ended in the year of the match and the holder of the Bulgarian Cup at that time. ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

CFR Cluj *

: 2021–22 Hajduk Split *

Croatian Cup Croatian Cup may refer to: *Croatian Football Cup *Croatian Football Super Cup *Croatian Women's Football Cup *Croatian Basketball Cup, also known as Krešimir Ćosić Cup *Croatian Handball Cup *Croatian Water Polo Cup The Croatian Water Polo C ...

: 2021–22

Individual

Bulgarian First League 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 ...

Best Defender: 2018–19

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dimitrov, Kristian Living people Footballers from Plovdiv 1997 births Bulgarian men's footballers Bulgaria men's under-21 international footballers Bulgaria men's youth international footballers Bulgaria men's international footballers Bulgarian expatriate men's footballers Botev Plovdiv players FC Montana players HNK Hajduk Split players CFR Cluj players PFC Levski Sofia players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Second Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Croatian Football League players Expatriate men's footballers in Croatia Men's association football defenders 21st-century Bulgarian sportsmen