Svetoslav Svetlozarov Kovachev (; born 14 March 1998) 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 winger. His younger brother Lachezar is also a footballer, currently playing for Spartak Pleven.

Career

Ludogorets Razgrad

Born in

Pleven Pleven ( ) is the seventh most populous city in Bulgaria. Located in the northern part of the country, it is the administrative centre of Pleven Province, as well as of the subordinate Pleven municipality. It is the biggest economic center in ...

, Kovachev started his career in Svoboda Milkovitsa. He joined Ludogorets in 2011 recruited by the Bulgarian legend Plamen Getov. In 2014, he played for Ludogorets U19 in the

UEFA Youth League The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the under-19 teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions Le ...

, being a starter in all of the 6 matches. He made his debut for Ludogorets Razgrad II on 6 December 2015 in a match against

FC Pirin Razlog Football Club Pirin Razlog () is a Bulgarian football club based in Razlog, that competes in the South-West Third League. History The club was founded as Pirin The Pirin Mountains ( ) are a mountain range in southwestern Bulgaria, with the ...

. On 22 May 2016 he made his complete debut in A Group for Ludogorets in a match against Beroe Stara Zagora. Kovachev started the 2017–18 season in Ludogorets II by scoring a goal in the first match of the season against Lokomotiv 1929 Sofia. On 29 July 2017 he played for the main team in the 0–0 draw 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 ...

coming as a substitute in the First League match. Kovachev was on the bench for the Europa League group stage match against

İstanbul Başakşehir Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

, but stayed as an unused substitute. On 21 September 2017 he made his debut for 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 ...

in the first round against

Oborishte Oborishte () is a village located in the Panagyurishte municipality, Pazardzhik Province, western Bulgaria. It is relatively large for the region and has 1,307 inhabitants. Its name until 1950 was ''Mechka'' (Мечка), which in Bulgarian means ...

. Kovachev was named captain for the Ludogorets U19 team in the

in the first match from the Domestic Champions Path against Željezničar U19 on 27 September 2017. On 15 February 2018 Kovachev was named on bench for the Europa League Round of 32 match against

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

and made his debut as a substitute in the 81st minute.

Loan to Dunav

In June 2018, Kovachev was loaned to

Dunav Ruse FC Dunav (, officially named ''"Дунав от Русе"'') is a Bulgarian professional football club based in Ruse, which currently competes in the Second League, the second tier of the Bulgarian football league system. Part of a larger spor ...

, although he spend the pre-season camp with Ludogorets first team. He made his debut for the team in the first league match of the season against Vitosha Bistritsa on 20 July 2018, assisting for the only goal for Dunav. On 4 November 2018 he scored his first goal for the team in First League, netting the second goal for the 3:0 win over Vitosha Bistritsa.

Arda Kardzhali

Kovachev joined Arda Kardzhali on a year long loan on 6 January 2020. He returned to Ludogorets team in end of December 2020, having a contract with Razgrad team until July 2021, which he didn't extend. In February 2021 he signed a 3-year pre-contract with Arda, from July 2021, leaving him out of Ludogorets team until end of the season.

Loan to Akhmat Grozny

On 3 August 2023, Kovachev joined

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

club

Akhmat Grozny Republican Football Club Akhmat (; ), commonly known as Akhmat Grozny, and formerly as Terek Grozny from 1958 to 2017, is a Russian professional football club based in Grozny that plays in the Russian Premier League. History The club was foun ...

on a season-long loan with an option to buy. On 8 July 2025, Kovachev's contract with Akhmat was mutually terminated.

International career

Youth levels

Kovachev was called up for the Bulgaria U19 team for the 2017 European Under-19 Championship qualification from 22 to 27 March 2017. After a draw and 2 wins the team qualified for the

knockout phase A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

which will be held in July 2017. Kovachev made his debut for Bulgaria U21 on 27 March 2018 in a European Under-21 qualification match against Kazakhstan U21, keeping a clean sheet for the 3:0 win.

Senior

Kovachev received his first call-up for senior Bulgarian squad on 29 August 2018 for the

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is an international European football competition played by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The competition was devised to minimise friendlies a ...

matches against

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 ...

and

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 ...

on 6 and 9 September. He earned his first cap on 26 February 2020, coming on as a substitute for Ismail Isa during the second half of the 0:1 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

National team

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kovachev, Svetoslav 1998 births Footballers from Pleven Living people Bulgarian men's footballers Men's association football wingers Bulgaria men's international footballers Bulgaria men's youth international footballers Bulgaria men's under-21 international footballers First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Second Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Russian Premier League players PFC Ludogorets Razgrad II players PFC Ludogorets Razgrad players FC Dunav Ruse players SFC Etar Veliko Tarnovo players FC Arda Kardzhali players FC Akhmat Grozny players Bulgarian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Russia 21st-century Bulgarian sportsmen