Petar Kanchev Hubchev (; born 26 February 1964) is a Bulgarian

football manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

and former player who played for

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

and

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a German professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The club currently plays in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German footb ...

in the German

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 ...

. Considered one of the greatest defenders in the Bulgarian football history, he was an integral part of the Bulgarian squad that reached the semi-finals of the 1994 World Cup and also played at the

Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

Career

Born in the village of Glozhene,

Lovech Province Lovech Province (, former name Okrug, Lovech okrug) is one of the 28 provinces of Bulgaria, lying at the northern centre of the country. It is named after its main city: Lovech. As of December 2009, the population of the area was151,153.

, Hubchev initially began his career as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

at Osam Lovech and being called up for the national team while still playing in the B Group. He made his debut for the Bulgaria national team on 25 April 1984 in a match against

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. Hubchev was subsequently bought by

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 1989 after 249 matches for Osam. He stayed until 1994, winning two domestic

titles A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify their generation, official position, military rank, professional or academic qualification, or nobility. In some languages, titles may be ins ...

and two national cups. His success during the 1994 World Cup led him to a move to German club

, a team which he captained for a brief period. He then played for

until 2001, where he finished his professional career at the age of 38 and continued as an assistant manager and reserves manager, having played 128 matches and scored two goals in the German

, as well as 44 matches in the 2. Bundesliga with another two goals.

Coaching and managerial career

In 2003, Hubchev became the assistant manager of the Bulgaria national team under head coach Plamen Markov, as he helped Bulgaria qualify for the

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. Th ...

. He continued afterwards as an assistant manager under new Bulgaria national team manager

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 ...

, and also briefly worked as a

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 ...

manager in 2005. After his career as an assistant coach of the national team of Bulgaria, Houbtchev successfully worked as the head coach of the Eintracht Frankfurt U-23 formation in Germany, reaching promotion for the Regionalliga with the “Eagles”. Following his successful stay at Eintracht Frankfurt, Houbtchev was hired by the former Stuttgart, Bayern Munich and Fulham manager Felix Magath to take the wheel of the VfL Wolfsburg U23 formation. Houbtchev managed to gain a very prolific experience during his command in Wolfsburg, as he collaborated with one of the best German coaches. From the summer of 2009 he went on to manage Chernomorets Pomorie, a feeder club of Chernomorets Burgas at the time in the Bulgarian B Group. Hubchev managed the team to a surprise appearance in the 2010 Bulgarian Cup Final by eliminating Minyor Pernik with 2–0 in the quarter-final and Kaliakra Kavarna (4–1 after penalties) respectively. Chernomorets Pomorie players were the second ones from a B Group side in the Bulgarian Cup history to appear in the final of the competition since Chernomorets Burgas' similar achievement in 1989. Chernomorets Pomorie lost the final 0–1 against Beroe Stara Zagora after conceding a late goal just before extra time was to commence. In 2011, he was appointed as a manager of

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 ...

. Under his management, Botev recorded only one defeat in 10 games. He left Botev however, as a result of internal differences among club officials. In February 2012, he was appointed as a sports director at Beroe Stara Zagora. In October 2012, Hubchev was announced as the new head coach of Beroe Stara Zagora. The very same season he guided the team to a Bulgarian Cup triumph against Levski Sofia in the final, combined with a Super Cup brace against domestic title holders

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 ...

. In the follow-up 2014–15 A Group, he also led Beroe Stara Zagora to a historic second place in the final league ranking, mostly by securing crucial wins at home against title contenders Levski Sofia and

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'' ...

, alongside Lokomotiv Sofia and Slavia Sofia. Beroe Stara Zagora also avoided losing against these four in the away league matches in Sofia respectively. Hubchev was released from his duties in April 2016, following a 0–2 home loss against CSKA Sofia in a first leg Bulgarian Cup semi-final match, with the management of the club proclaiming him to be the most successful manager Beroe Stara Zagora has had in the club's history. In October 2016 Houbtchev was appointed the new head coach of 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 ...

. Under his command the Bulgaria national team put up one of their best performances in recent years, beating the Netherlands 2–0 as well as Sweden 3–2 in Sofia for the 2018 World Cup Qualification. As for the Nations League, Bulgaria were drawn in Euro Cup Nations League C qualifying group 3 with Norway, Slovenia and Cyprus. Bulgaria opened up the campaign well, with an impressive 2-1 win over Slovenia and an even more astounding 1-0 shutout win over Norway coached by Lars Lagerbäck. Bulgaria also managed to beat Cyprus 2-1 in Sofia, thereby earning 9 points out of the first three games. Bulgaria eventually closed out the second round of games with two 1-1 draws against Slovenia and Cyprus. This ultimately resulted in securing two important playoff games for the 2020 UEFA Euro qualification against Hungary and the winner between Iceland/Romania. Owing to his achievements as the head coach of the Bulgaria national team Petar Houbtchev was voted Coach of the Year in 2018 by local media representatives. During his spell, the Bulgaria national team managed to achieve several decent wins against prominent and strong sides such as

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

and

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

, securing an average of 1.45 points per match. After his successful tenure at the Bulgaria national team he was appointed as the new head coach of

in June 2019, with the team under his guidance being defensively very solid, and quick on transitions. In January 2022 he returned to Beroe Stara Zagora. Under Hubchev, the team first managed to avoid relegation and furthermore qualified for the UEFA Conference League play-off, that was narrowly lost against Botev Plovdiv.

Managerial statistics

Honours

As player

Levski Sofia * A Group: 1992–93, 1993–94 *

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 ...

: 1991–92, 1993–94

As manager

Chernomorets Pomorie *

runners-up: 2009–10 Beroe Stara Zagora * A Group runners-up: 2014–15 *

: 2012–13 * Bulgarian Supercup:

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

Individual

* Bulgarian Coach of the Year 2018: winner * Bulgarian Coach of the Year 2019: runner-up * Bulgarian Footballer of the Year 1992: runner-up * Trifov Ivanov Lionheart Award 2023

References

External links

*
Petar Houbchev
at eintracht-archiv.de
Profile at LevskiSofia.info
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hubchev, Petar 1964 births Living people People from Lovech Footballers from Lovech Province Men's association football defenders Bulgarian men's footballers Bulgaria men's international footballers 1994 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1996 players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Second Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players FC Lovech players PFC Levski Sofia players Hamburger SV players Eintracht Frankfurt players Bulgarian football managers Eintracht Frankfurt non-playing staff PFC Beroe Stara Zagora managers PFC Slavia Sofia managers Botev Plovdiv managers Bulgaria national football team managers PFC Levski Sofia managers First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) managers Bulgarian expatriate men's footballers Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Bulgarian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Germany 20th-century Bulgarian sportsmen