Mihail Angelov Venkov (; born 28 July 1983) 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 retired

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, and now a manager.

Career

Venkov was raised in

Septemvri Sofia Septemvri () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which currently competes in the Second League, the second tier of Bulgarian football. Its home ground is the Septemvri Stadium, but due to its poor condition the ...

's youth teams, then he signed with Litex. In 2004, he was loaned for six months to Belite orli Pleven and played in the

B PFG The Bulgarian Second Professional Football League (), also known as Second League () or Vtora liga, is the second level of the Bulgarian football league system, below First Professional Football League (Bulgaria), First League and above the Third ...

. During the 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 seasons he lost his place in the first team for Litex and eventually was transferred to

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 ...

in July 2011. On 15 March 2012, Venkov 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

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 ...

in a 1/4 final match of the

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 ...

to level the score at 1–1 and send the game into

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

. The team from

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 ...

eventually won 2–1.

CSKA Sofia

During the summer of 2012 (following a change of ownership in Lokomotiv Plovdiv), Venkov signed a contract 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'' ...

, but was initially unable to play in official matches for the team due to a transfer prohibition imposed on the "redmen". The ban was lifted in mid September 2012 and Venkov made his official debut on 22 September, in the 0–1 away loss 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 ...

. He scored his first goal for CSKA from a header against

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 ...

in 0–2 away win. Venkov made his first appearance in

The Eternal Derby The Eternal derby of Bulgarian football or simply The Eternal derby () is the name of the local derby football match between the two most popular and successful football clubs in Sofia and Bulgaria: Levski Sofia and CSKA Sofia. The dominant forc ...

on 20 October 2012, playing the full 90 minutes of the 1–0 win over

Cherno More

On 8 July 2013, Venkov signed a two-year deal with

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 ...

. He made his league debut in a 1–0 away loss against

Chernomorets Burgas PSFC Chernomorets Burgas () or simply Chernomorets () was a Bulgarian football club from the city of Burgas. The club never won any major competition, its most notable achievement being a second-place finish in the UEFA Intertoto Cup competitio ...

on 19 July, playing the full 90 minutes. On 7 April 2015, Venkov scored his first goal for Cherno More in the 48th minute of a

match against

. Cherno More won 5–1. Having been appointed vice-captain for the 2014–15 season, Venkov was promoted to club captain after the departure of former captain Kiril Kotev in May 2015. On 23 May, Venkov signed a one-year contract extension with Cherno More until 30 June 2016. A week later, he received his first major honor with the Sailors, as he captained the team that eliminated

2–1 in the 2015 Bulgarian Cup Final. On 29 May 2017, Venkov's contract was terminated by mutual consent.

Slavia Sofia

In June 2017, Venkov joined Slavia.

Chernomorets Balchik

On 25 July 2018, following a short stint at

Kazakhstan Premier League The Kazakhstan Professional Football League (, ''Qazaqstan Premier Ligasy''), commonly referred to as the Kazakh Premier League or simply the Premier League, is a professional association football league in Kazakhstan and the highest level of the ...

side Kyzylzhar, Venkov returned to Bulgaria, joining Chernomorets Balchik.

Career statistics

International career

Between 2002 and 2005 Venkov played for

Bulgaria national under-21 football team The Bulgaria national under-21 football team ()''Mladezhki natsionalen otbor na Balgariya po futbol'', literally ''"Bulgaria national youth football team"''. is considered to be the feeder team for the Bulgaria national football team. This team i ...

. Since 2004 he has been playing for 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 ...

. He has currently been capped seven times for Bulgaria. In October 2012, following a long absence from international duty, he was recalled to the national side by manager Luboslav Penev for two

2014 World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

qualifiers – against Denmark and the Czech Republic, but remained an unused substitute in these games. In February 2015, following the refusal of a number of Bulgarian and foreign clubs to release players for national team duty, Venkov again became part of the roster, being called up by new manager

Ivaylo Petev Ivaylo Bogdanov Petev (; born 9 July 1975) is a Bulgarian football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Petev spent his whole career playing in Bulgaria, apart from a season at Greek club Trikala. He was most successful early i ...

to participate in a non-official

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

against Romania. On 7 February, he played over the course of the whole second half of the match that ended in a 0:0 draw.

Honours

Club

;Litex Lovech * A Group (2): 2009–10,

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

(2): 2007–08, 2008–09 ;Cherno More *

: 2014–15 *

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. ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

Individual

*PFC Cherno More Fans' player of the year – 2014

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Venkov, Mihail 1983 births Living people Footballers from Sofia Bulgarian men's footballers Bulgaria men's international footballers First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Second Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Kazakhstan Premier League players FC Lovech players FC Belite Orli Pleven players PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv players PFC CSKA Sofia players PFC Cherno More Varna players PFC Slavia Sofia players FC Kyzylzhar players FC Chernomorets Balchik players FC Dobrudzha Dobrich players Bulgarian expatriate men's footballers Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Kazakhstan Expatriate men's footballers in Kazakhstan Men's association football defenders Men's association football fullbacks 21st-century Bulgarian sportsmen