Miroslav Manolov ( bg, Мирослав Манолов; born 20 May 1985 in

Sopot Sopot is a seaside resort city in Pomerelia on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea in northern Poland, with a population of approximately 40,000. It is located in Pomeranian Voivodeship, and has the status of the county, being the smallest c ...

) is a former

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Mac ...

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 ...

who played as a forward. He retired in early 2016 at age of 30. Manolov has appeared in Bulgaria's top flight for

CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia ( bg, ЦСКА София) 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 Sport ...

Cherno More Varna Cherno More ( bg, Черно Море) 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 March 3, 1913, as an asso ...

and

Litex Lovech Litex ( bg, Литекс) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Lovech, which currently competes in the Second League. The club was founded in 1921 as Hisarya Sports Club. The club's home ground is the Gradski Stadion ...

having also represented Romanian club

Târgu Mureș Târgu Mureș (, ; hu, Marosvásárhely ) is the seat of Mureș County in the historical region of Transylvania, Romania. It is the 16th largest Romanian city, with 134,290 inhabitants as of the 2011 census. It lies on the Mureș River, th ...

Career

Early career

Born in

, Miroslav Manolov start his football career in the local club Metalik. He made his debut for the team in the Bulgarian third division in the year 2000 when he was only 15.

CSKA Sofia

Manolov made his debut during the 2003–04 season on 28 October 2003 in a match of

Bulgarian Cup The Bulgarian Cup ( bg, Купа на България, Kupa na Bulgaria) 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 tourname ...

against

Pirin Blagoevgrad Futbolen klub Pirin ( bg, Футболен клуб „Пирин“), also known as Pirin Blagoevgrad is a Bulgarian football club based in Blagoevgrad, which currently competes in the First League, the top division of Bulgarian football. T ...

, coming on as a substitute for Krasen Valkov. Unfortunately a little while after that he broke his leg in a match for the reserve squad and he could not play football for half a year. In March 2005 Manolov was loaned out to

Conegliano German FC Conegliano was a Bulgarian football club based in German. They last played in the South-West Amateur Football Group, the third tier of Bulgarian football, before merging with DIT Academy, into PFC Septemvri Sofia. The club was founded in 2001 ...

, where he displays his ability to score. Manolov became the West B PFG's top goalscorer for the 2005–06 season with 19 goals in 25 matches. He returned to CSKA at the end of the season. On 27 August 2006, Manolov scored his only

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

goal for CSKA in a 4–0 home win over Spartak Varna.

Cherno More

On 8 January 2007, Daniel Morales was signed by CSKA Sofia from Cherno More and Manolov was sent to Varna together with

Daniel Georgiev Daniel Georgiev ( bg, Даниел Георгиев; born 6 November 1982) is a Bulgarian footballer who plays as a right back or defensive midfielder for Chernomorets Balchik. Career Georgiev started his playing career at Levski Sofia. Betw ...

in exchange. Manolov made his debut on 5 March, in a 0–0 draw against his former club CSKA. He scored his first goal for Cherno More on 14 July 2007, in a 3–0 home win over Makedonija Gjorče Petrov in their second round second leg tie of the

Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, ' betting pool'),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International F ...

. His first league goal came on 1 December, a winning header in a 1–0 against derby rivals Spartak Varna. On 5 April 2008, Manolov scored his first-ever

A PFG The First Professional Football League ( bg, Първа професионална футболна лига, Parva Profesionalna Futbolna Liga), also known as the Bulgarian First League or Parva Liga, currently known as the efbet League for spon ...

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 wi ...

in his career, in a 4–1 away win over

Marek Dupnitsa FC Marek ( bg, ФК Марек) is a Bulgarian football club based in Dupnitsa, currently playing in the Third League, the third level of the Bulgarian football league system. It was founded in 1947 following the unification of four local clubs ...

. In December 2009, Manolov ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus. He missed the rest of the 2009–10 season and the whole

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

season. Manolov made his comeback for Cherno More from a serious knee injury on 15 July 2011. He featured 18 minutes in a 1–0 pre-season friendly win against

Bansko Bansko ( bg, Банско ) is a town in southwestern Bulgaria, located at the foot of the Pirin Mountains at an elevation of 1200m above sea level. It is a ski resort. Legends There are several legends about who founded Bansko. According to on ...

. In August 2011, Manolov was handed number 10, last worn by

Daniel Dimov Daniel Dimov ( bg, Даниел Димов; born 21 January 1989) is a Bulgarian professional footballer who plays for Cherno More Varna, where he is also club captain. Originally a defensive midfielder, in the last years he has been used mostly ...

. His first goal of the season came on 5 November 2011 in a 2–0 home win over

Beroe Stara Zagora Beroe ( bg, Берое) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Stara Zagora, that competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system. The club was founded in 1916 under the name ''Vere ...

. On 22 March 2012, Manolov scored a

in a 3–1 away win over

Montana Montana () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West List of regions of the United States#Census Bureau-designated regions and divisions, division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North ...

; the first goal was scored in 7 seconds, setting a new

record for the quickest goal. He was

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

for the first time during his Cherno More career against the same opponent on 23 September 2012, for dangerous foul play.

Târgu Mureș

On 17 January 2015, Manolov signed a two-year contract with Romanian club

, receiving the number 9 shirt. In 2016, Manolov trialled with the Tampa Bay Rowdies. He was rostered with their

National Premier Soccer League The National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) is an American men's soccer league. The NPSL is a semi-professional league, comprising some teams that have paid players and some that are entirely amateur. The league is officially affiliated to the U ...

reserve team, Rowdies 2.

Club statistics

Honours

;Târgu Mureș *

Supercupa României The Supercupa României ( en, Romanian Supercup) is a Romanian football championship contested by the winners of the Liga I and the Cupa României. It is usually played at the Arena Națională in Bucharest. The competition started off in 1994 ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manolov, Miroslav 1985 births Living people Bulgarian footballers Bulgaria under-21 international footballers Bulgarian expatriate footballers PFC CSKA Sofia players PFC Cherno More Varna players PFC Litex Lovech players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Second Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Liga I players ASA 2013 Târgu Mureș players Association football forwards Expatriate footballers in Romania People from Sopot, Plovdiv Province