Trifon Marinov Ivanov (; 27 July 1965 – 13 February 2016) was 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 played as a defender. Ivanov made his debut 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 ...

in 1988, earning 76 caps and scoring 6 goals over a ten-year international career. He appeared in the

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

s, as well as the

1996 UEFA European Championship The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

Club career

Ivanov started his career with Etar Veliko Tarnovo. He made his first team debut during the 1983–84 A Group season, and established himself as a regular player two years later. Ivanov played 62 games and scored 7 goals for Etar in the A Group. After five seasons at Etar, Ivanov joined

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'' ...

where he won two A Group titles, one

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 one

Bulgarian Supercup The Bulgarian Supercup () is the trophy won in a football match held between the football club that has won the Bulgarian first football division in the season that ended in the year of the match and the holder of the Bulgarian Cup at that time. ...

. He made his debut in a 5–1 home league win over

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 ...

on 13 August 1988. Ivanov scored his first goal for the club on 12 October, in a 7–1 thumping of

Sliven Sliven ( ) is List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, the eighth-largest city in Bulgaria and the administrative and industrial centre of Sliven Province and municipality in Northern Thrace. It is situated in the Sliven Valley at the foothills of th ...

. In January 1991, Ivanov transferred to

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

-side

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It plays in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. It plays home ...

. He finished the season with 5 goals in 20 matches, but Betis were relegated to

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

. Whilst at Betis, he spent time out on loan at his previous clubs Etar and CSKA, before joining Swiss club

Neuchâtel Xamax Neuchâtel (, ; ; ) is a town, a municipality, and the capital of the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel on Lake Neuchâtel. Since the fusion in 2021 of the municipalities of Neuchâtel, Corcelles-Cormondrèche, Peseux, and Valangin, the city has ap ...

on a permanent basis in 1993. In 1995, Ivanov signed with

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid (), commonly known as Rapid Wien or Rapid Vienna in English, is an Austrian professional football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the f ...

, where he was a losing finalist in the

1995–96 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The 1995–96 season of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was won by Paris Saint-Germain 1–0 in the final against Austrian entrants Rapid Wien in Brussels on 8 May 1996. The 1995–96 season also saw the return of Yugoslav clubs on the international s ...

. With Rapid he won one

Austrian Bundesliga The Bundesliga ( , "Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Austria and the highest level of the Austrian football league system. The competition decides the A ...

-title.

International career

Ivanov's international distinctions included being a member of the

Bulgaria national football team The Bulgaria national football team () represents Bulgaria in men's international Association football, football, and is administered by the Bulgarian Football Union, a member association of UEFA. Bulgaria's best achievements are reaching the ...

that reached the fourth place in the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...

in the United States. He also participated in the

UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in ...

in England. Ivanov's goal against

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

on 10 September 1997, in the qualifiers for the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...

in France, was the one that clinched Bulgarian qualification. Ivanov scored six goals in 76 caps in the course of ten years with the national side. Ivanov was famous for his long-range shots and free-kicks at goal. In

Euro 96 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

particularly, he had a number of 40–45 yards shots at goal narrowly missing the target.

Death

Ivanov died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

on 13 February 2016.

Legacy

In 2013, a Brazilian amateur tournament was named after him.

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Bulgaria's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Ivanov goal.''

Honours

CSKA Sofia * Bulgarian A Group: 1988–89, 1989–90, 1991–92 *

: 1988–89 *

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

Rapid Wien *

: 1995–96 *

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renam ...

: runner-up 1995–96 Bulgaria *

fourth place: 1994

References

External links

David Squire's tribute from The Guardian (UK)
* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ivanov, Trifon 1965 births 2016 deaths Footballers from Veliko Tarnovo Bulgarian men's footballers Men's association football defenders Bulgaria men's international footballers La Liga players FC Etar (Veliko Tarnovo) players Real Betis players FK Austria Wien players SK Rapid Wien players 1994 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1996 players 1998 FIFA World Cup players PFC CSKA Sofia players Neuchâtel Xamax FCS players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Bulgarian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Austria 20th-century Bulgarian sportsmen