Steven Petkov (; born 7 May 1995) 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 forward for

Liga Portugal 2 The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal Meu Super for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier Pr ...

club Feirense.

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 ...

, Petkov arrived in

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 ...

's youth academy in 2004, from

Botev Vratsa Botev () is a Bulgarian professional association football, football club based in Vratsa, that competes in the First Professional Football League (Bulgaria), First League, the top division of Bulgarian football. The club was founded in 1921. Si ...

, and progressed through the club's youth academy. He made his first team debut at 16 years and 351 days, when he came off the bench against Kaliakra Kavarna on 23 April 2012.

Ludogorets Razgrad

On 3 July 2014, Petkov joined the Bulgarian champion

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 ...

. On 5 August, Petkov was released from the team due to a match-fixing scandal involving Bulgaria U19.

Match-fixing scandal

Just before the UEFA Euro U19 2014 Petkov was released from the Bulgaria U19. After the team came back from the tournament it was announced that there had been a scheme for match-fixing, according to which the Bulgarian team should lose the matches with big results. Dimitar Gyaurov was arrested for this. Later it was announced that Petkov had been part of the scheme. He talked with other players from the team to join him and to lose the matches for money, but the player Stefan Velkov revealed this to head coach Aleksandar Dimitrov. On 5 August 2014, the

Bulgarian Football Union The Bulgarian Football Union ( BFS) is the governing body of association football in Bulgaria, and a member of UEFA since 1954. It organizes a football league, Bulgarian Parva Liga, and fields its Bulgaria national football team in UEFA and F ...

announced that Petkov is with blocked rights to play football until the investigation is over. Later that day Ludogorets announced that Petkov is released from the team due to this scandal. On 7 May 2015, Petkov gained back his rights to play after he was not indicted. On 8 April 2016. Petkov was found not guilty in taking part of the scheme. Same day was found out that the footballer who revealed to the coach about the scheme was Preslav Petrov and together they were witnesses on the case.

Beroe Stara Zagora

In June 2015, Petkov signed a contract with Beroe Stara Zagora.

Montana

Petkov played one season for

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

but left the club in July 2017.

Botev Plovdiv

2017–18

On 14 August 2017, Petkov signed a two-year contract with

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 ...

. A few days later, he made his debut and scored a goal during the 2–1 defeat from Cherno More Varna. On 27 October Petkov scored the winning goal for the 2–1 away win over Pirin Blagoevgrad. A week later, on 3 November, he scored just a few seconds after he came on the pitch as a substitute for the 1–1 draw 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 ...

. Despite scoring numerous important goals, Petkov was never included in the starting line-up until 12 December. He used the opportunity to impress and scored a

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 Wick ...

for the 5–0 win over Litex Lovech in the quarter final of 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 ...

. On 12 March, on day when Botev Plovdiv celebrated 106 years from its foundation, Petkov scored in a 4–2 away win over

FC Vereya Vereya () is a Bulgarian association football club based in Stara Zagora, which currently competes in the Southeast Third League, the third tier of Bulgarian football. Vereya was founded in 2001. The team made a remarkable rise through the lev ...

. On 31 March 2018 Steven scored the only goal for Botev Plovdiv during the 4–1 away defeat from

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'' ...

. A week later, on 6 April, he came on as a substitute and scored the winning goal for the 1–0 victory over

. On 14 April Petkov scored during the 3–2 away defeat by Beroe Stara Zagora. A week later, on 21 April he scored again in Stara Zagora, this time during the 2–2 away draw with FC Vereya. On 29 April he scored a goal for the 2–1 home win over CSKA Sofia and won the award for man of the match. A week later, on 5 May, during the first half he scored again but this time Botev Plovdiv was dramatically defeated with 3–2 by Levski Sofia.

2018–19

On 28 July 2018, Petkov scored his first goal for the season for the 0–2 away win over Septemvri Sofia. He was selected for the man of the match. On 3 August Petkov scored during a 2–0 home win over Etar Veliko Tarnovo. A week later, on 11 August, he scored again but this time his team lost the away game against Beroe Stara Zagora.

Feirense

On 4 January 2019, Petkov was transferred to Portuguese

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

side Feirense for an undisclosed fee, signing a contract until the summer of 2022. On 10 February 2019, he scored his first goal for the club, a bicycle kick, in a 1–3 loss to Sporting. Feirense announced on 1 September 2019, that Petkov had been loaned out to Czech club MFK Karviná until the end of the 2019–20 season. On 14 September 2020, Feirense sent Petkov on a season-long loan to

Moreirense

On 10 September 2022, recently-relegated to

side Moreirense announced the free signing of Petkov on a one-year deal, after his contract with Feirense had expired. After achieving

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

with the Moreira de Cónegos club, Petkov's contract expired and he became a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

Académico de Viseu

On 28 August 2023, Petkov signed a one-year contract with Liga Portugal 2 club Académico de Viseu.

Feirense

On 11 July 2024, Petkov moved to fellow league-side and former club Feirense.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Individual *

Goal of the Month: February 2019

References

External links

* *
Profile at LevskiSofia.info
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petkov, Steven 1995 births Living people Footballers from Vratsa Bulgarian men's footballers Bulgaria men's youth international footballers Men's association football forwards First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Czech First League players PFC Levski Sofia players PFC Ludogorets Razgrad players PFC Beroe Stara Zagora players FC Montana players Botev Plovdiv players C.D. Feirense players MFK Karviná players Moreirense F.C. players Académico de Viseu F.C. players Bulgarian expatriate men's footballers Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in the Czech Republic Expatriate men's footballers in the Czech Republic 21st-century Bulgarian sportsmen