Nikola Todorov Kotkov () (9 December 1938 – 30 June 1971), nicknamed Koteto (Котето, "The

Kitten A kitten is a Juvenile (organism), juvenile cat. After being born, kittens display primary altriciality and are fully dependent on their mothers for #Establishing immunity, survival. They normally do not open their eyes for seven to ten days. A ...

") was 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 ...

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 striker. Born in the capital

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

, Kotkov started his football career as a

Lokomotiv Sofia FC Lokomotiv Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which currently plays in the First League, the top tier of Bulgarian football. Founded as Railway Sports Club in 1929, and refounded in 2015, following ...

trainee and went on to spend much of it (1956–1969) with the club, winning the Bulgarian Championship in 1964. He then played 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 ...

, until his death in 1971. Kotkov died together with his friend and teammate Georgi Asparuhov in a

traffic accident A traffic collision, also known as a motor vehicle collision, or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other moving or stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. Tr ...

in the

Vitinya Pass Vitinya Pass () is a mountain pass in the Balkan Mountains (Stara Planina) in Bulgaria. It connects Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Vall ...

of the

Balkan Mountains The Balkan mountain range is located in the eastern part of the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It is conventionally taken to begin at the peak of Vrashka Chuka on the border between Bulgaria and Serbia. It then runs f ...

, en route to

Vratsa Vratsa ( ) is the largest city in northwestern Bulgaria and the administrative and economic centre of the municipality of Vratsa and Vratsa district. It is about north of Sofia, southeast of Montana. Situated at the foot of the Vrachanski Bal ...

. With Levski, Kotkov became once again champion in 1970, winning 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 ...

the same year. Kotkov played a total of 322 matches and scored 163 goals in the Bulgarian Championship and was given the

Bulgarian Footballer of the Year Bulgarian Footballer of the Year (, ''Futbolist №1 na Balgariya'') is an annual title awarded to the best Bulgarian association football player of the year. The award has been given since 1961, and the winner is elected by authorized journalists ...

award in 1964. For the Bulgaria national team, he had 26 caps and scored 12 goals, taking part in the

1966 FIFA World Cup The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 to 30 July 1966. England defeated West Germany 4–2 in the 1966 FI ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Kotkov was known for his technique, pinpoint passing and skillful free kick taking.

Statistics

* National teams — 59 matches, 33 goals * Bulgarian championship — 322 matches, 163 goals — 286/145 for Lokomotiv, 45/25 for Levski * European club tournaments — 11 matches, 10 goals — CEC-6, CWC-5 * First match — with Lokomotiv Sofia 1956 * Last match — with Levski against CSKA — 28 June 1971 * All - 392 matches, 206 goals

Honours

* Champion of Bulgaria — 2 times, 1964 with Lokomotiv and 1970 with Levski * Holder of the National Cup — 2 times 1970, 1971 (posthumously) with Levski *

— 1964 * UEFA Euro Under-19 Champion with

—

1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...

* Holder of an Order of Labour — 1970 * Deserved Master of Sports *

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 ...

25th place —

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...

Death

On June 30 1971, Kotkov died in a car crash with teammate Georgi Asparuhov.

References

External links

Article about Kotkov from a PFC Lokomotiv Sofia fansite

Profile at LevskiSofia.info
1938 births 1971 deaths Bulgarian men's footballers Bulgaria men's international footballers FC Lokomotiv 1929 Sofia players PFC Levski Sofia players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players 1966 FIFA World Cup players Footballers from Sofia Road incident deaths in Bulgaria 20th-century Bulgarian people Men's association football forwards 20th-century Bulgarian sportsmen {{bulgaria-footy-forward-stub