Tomas Lafchis also pronounced Thomas Laftsis (, ; born 6 August 1958) is a Bulgarian retired

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 played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for clubs in

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 ...

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 ...

and

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

Playing career

Lafchis began playing football for Bulgarian clubs PFC Cherno More Varna and OFC Sliven. In 1977, he joined

PFC Levski Sofia PFC Levski Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which competes in the First Professional Football League (Bulgaria), First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system. The club was ...

, and helped the club win 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 ...

and the Bulgarian

A PFG The First Professional Football League (), commonly known as Parva Liga or Bulgarian First League (currently known as the efbet League for sponsorship reasons), is a professional association football league in Bulgaria and the highest level of t ...

in 1979. In 1981, Lafchis joined Greek first division side OFI for two seasons. He moved to fellow First Division club

Panathinaikos F.C. Panathinaikos Football Club ( ), known as Panathinaikos, or by its full name, and the name of its parent sports club, Panathinaikos A.O. or PAO (; ''Panathinaïkós Athlitikós Ómilos'', ), is a Greek professional football club based in Athen ...

for the following two seasons, where he would win the

Greek Football Cup The Greek Football Cup (), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Betsson Greek Cup for sponsorship reasons is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second-most important domestic men's footba ...

. After a brief spell in Belgium, he returned to play two more seasons in the Greek First Division with OFI Crete.

Managerial career

After he retired from playing, Lafchis became a director. He was the owner of Levski Sofia from 1991 to 1999. In this era, Levski managed to win three Bulgarian

titles and four

Personal

Lafchis is of Greek ethnicity. He is married to

Bulgarian National Television The Bulgarian National Television ( Bulgarian: Българска национална телевизия, ''Balgarska natsionalna televizia'') or BNT (БНТ), stylized as ·Б·Н·Т· since 2018, is a public television broadcaster of Bulgaria ...

director Vyara Ankova.

References

External links

Profile at Events.bgProfile at Levskisofia.info
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lafchis, Tomas 1958 births Living people Bulgarian men's footballers Bulgarian expatriate men's footballers Bulgarian football managers PFC Levski Sofia players OFI Crete F.C. players Panathinaikos F.C. players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Super League Greece players Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Bulgarian people of Greek descent Men's association football goalkeepers Footballers from Sofia 20th-century Bulgarian sportsmen