Stefan Velev (; born 2 May 1989) is a Bulgarian 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

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for Botev Ihtiman.

Club career

Born in

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 ...

, Velev played for Septemvri as a schoolboy, before joining

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 ...

. But he found it difficult to break into the first team due to the consistency of

Slavčo Georgievski Slavčo Georgievski (; born 30 March 1980 in Skopje, SR Macedonia, SFRY) is a retired footballer from Macedonia, who last played for Inter Baku as a midfielder and currently manager for FK Skopje.from 01.01-2025-… Fc Kozuf head coach Career ...

and Pavle Popara. In June 2008 Velev signed a two-year contract with Lokomotiv Stara Zagora. He made his

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 ...

and Lokomotiv debut on 9 August in a home 1–0 against

Shumen Shumen (, also Romanization of Bulgarian, romanized as ''Shoumen'' or ''Šumen'', ) is the List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, tenth-largest city in Bulgaria and the administrative and economic capital of Shumen Province. Etymology The city ...

, scoring the goal of the win. On 13 March 2017, Velev signed a -year contract with

. He left the club at the end of the 2017–18 season when his contract expired. On 15 June 2018, Velev signed with

Sepsi OSK Sepsi may refer to: *László Sepsi (born 1986), Romanian footballer of Hungarian descent *Sepsi-78, a football club from Seinäjoki, Finland *ACS Sepsi SIC ACS Sepsi SIC Sfântu Gheorghe or commonly Sepsi SIC is a women's basketball professional ...

International career

Velev earned his first cap for

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 ...

on 29 May 2012, after coming on as a second-half substitute in a 2–0 loss against

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

in an

exhibition game 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 sporting event whose prize money and impact on the playe ...

Career statistics

Honours

Slavia Sofia *

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 ...

: 2017–18

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Velev, Stefan 1989 births Living people Footballers from Sofia Bulgarian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Bulgaria men's international footballers Bulgaria men's under-21 international footballers Bulgaria men's youth international footballers First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Second Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Erovnuli Liga players Liga I players FC Lyubimets players PFC Beroe Stara Zagora players PFC Levski Sofia players PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv players FC Dinamo Tbilisi players PFC Slavia Sofia players Sepsi OSK Sfântu Gheorghe players PFC Cherno More Varna players POFC Botev Vratsa players Bulgarian expatriate men's footballers Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Georgia (country) Expatriate men's footballers in Georgia (country) Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Romania 21st-century Bulgarian sportsmen