Stefan Ivov Velkov (; born 12 December 1996) 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

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 ...

for Danish club

Vejle Vejle () is a city in Denmark, in the southeast of the Jutland Peninsula at the head of Vejle Fjord, where the Vejle River and Grejs River and their valleys converge. It is the site of the councils of Vejle Municipality (''Municipalities of De ...

Career

Slavia Sofia

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 ...

, Velkov began his football career with

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 2005. He made his first-team debut on 27 July 2013, at 16 years 227 days, coming on as a substitute for

Hristo Yanev Hristo Yanev (; born 4 May 1979 in Kazanlak) is a Bulgarian football manager and former player. Yanev played as a midfielder. Career Early years Born in Kazanluk, Yanev was picked as a youth to play for local side Rozova Dolina, making his ...

in a 0–0 away league draw against

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 ...

. On 18 December 2013, it was reported that Velkov was on trial with

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

. After the great debut season and a few trials in big European teams, Velkov got a serious injury, which took him out of football for a minimum of six months. In March 2015, Velkov extended his contract with Slavia for a further three years. He returned to training in April, but he did not take part in any further matches, so he missed the entire 2014–15 season. Velkov returned to play in the first match of the 2015–16 season against

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 ...

as a substitute in the 88th minute. Velkov scored his debut goal for Slavia in the league on 17 September 2016 in a match 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 ...

, lost by his team with 3–1.

Den Bosch

On 10 August 2018, Velkov signed for the Dutch

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (; ) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the Keuken Kampioen Divisie due to sponsorship reasons, while ...

team

Den Bosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 160,783. It is the capital of ...

. He made his debut a week later, playing the full 90 minutes in a 2–1 away win over

FC Volendam Football Club Volendam () is a professional association football, football club based in Volendam, Netherlands. They play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of the Dutch football league system, following promotion from the Eerste Divisie in the 2024 ...

. He scored his first goal for the club on 25 September, in a 2–1 loss against

Heracles Almelo Heracles Almelo is a Dutch professional football club based in Almelo, founded in 1903. The club has won the Dutch national title twice, in 1927 and 1941. Heracles won the Eerste Divisie title during the 2004–05 season, gaining promotion to t ...

in the

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; ), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organised by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Outside the N ...

MSV Duisburg

After a short stint at

KFC Uerdingen KFC Uerdingen 05 was a German football club in the Uerdingen district of the city of Krefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. The former Bundesliga side, which had its greatest successes in the 1980s, plays in the fourth-level Regionalliga. In 2025, t ...

he moved to

MSV Duisburg Meidericher Spielverein 02 e. V. Duisburg, commonly known as simply MSV Duisburg (), is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia. Nicknamed ''Die Zebras'' for their traditional striped jer ...

in January 2021. He signed a new one-year contract on 27 May 2021. In the summer of 2022, he left Duisburg.

Vejle

On 17 June 2022, Velkov signed with newly relegated

Danish 1st Division The 1st Division (''1. Division'') is the second-highest football league in Denmark, also known as NordicBet Liga for sponsorship reasons. From 1945 to 1991, the 1. Division was the name of the highest level of football in Denmark. With the for ...

side

Vejle Boldklub Vejle Boldklub is a Danish professional football club based in Vejle in Jutland. Formed in 1891, the club is one of the most successful clubs in Danish football history, having won the Danish championship five times and the Danish cup title six ...

, penning a deal until June 2024.

International career

Youth levels

Velkov represented Bulgaria at the under-16, under-17 and under-19 levels. On 1 June 2013, he made his debut for the Bulgaria under-21 side at the age of 16 years, 5 months and 22 days, making him the second-youngest player to debut for the team after

Nikolay Mihaylov Nikolay Borislavov Mihaylov (; born 28 June 1988) is a Bulgarian former professional association football, footballer who played as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. Personal life Mihaylov's father is former goalkeeper Borisl ...

. On 25 March 2016 Velkov was in the starting lineup for the goalless draw with Wales U21. He served as the team captain.

Senior level

On 14 March 2017, he received his first call-up for Bulgaria senior team for the match against the

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 ...

on 25 March 2017, in which he was an unused substitute. Velkov earned his first cap on 26 February 2020, playing the first 75 minutes of the 1–0 home loss against

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 ...

in a friendly game.

Career statistics

Club

International

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 Vejle *

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Velkov, Stefan 1996 births Living people Bulgarian men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Bulgaria men's youth international footballers PFC Slavia Sofia players FC Den Bosch players RKC Waalwijk players KFC Uerdingen 05 players MSV Duisburg players Vejle Boldklub players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Eerste Divisie players 3. Liga players Bulgarian expatriate men's footballers Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark 21st-century Bulgarian sportsmen