Tsanko Nikolaev Tsvetanov (; born 6 January 1970) is a Bulgarian former 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

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

. After ending his playing career he began coaching, most of the time being the assistant of manager Stanimir Stoilov.

Club career

Tsvetanov was born in

Svishtov Svishtov ( ) List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, is a town in northern Bulgaria, located in Veliko Tarnovo Province on the right bank of the Danube river opposite the Romanian town of Zimnicea. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous S ...

, Bulgaria. His professional career began in 1987 by playing one season for Akademik Svishtov. Soon he was noticed by Etar Veliko Tarnovo, a team that was a powerhouse in Bulgarian football at the time. He played five seasons and over 140 league matches for the Bolyars. In 1993, he was transferred to

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 ...

, the champions of Bulgaria for the previous season. After leaving Levski he had a brief stay at Waldhof Mannheim. He signed for

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

in the summer of 1996 and returned in Germany to play three seasons for

FC Energie Cottbus FC Energie Cottbus (Lower Sorbian: ''Energija Chóśebuz'') is a German football club based in Cottbus, Brandenburg. It was founded in 1963 as SC Cottbus in what was East Germany. After the reunification of Germany, Energie played six seasons i ...

. He ended his career at Etar Veliko Tarnovo.

International career

Tsvetanov made 40 appearances for the Bulgaria national team. He was part of the squad that reached the semi-finals of the 1994 World Cup, which remains the biggest success in the history of Bulgarian football. He also played at

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 ...

, appearing in all three group stage matches.

Honours

Etar Veliko Tarnovo * A Group: 1990–91 Levski Sofia * A Group: 1993–94, 1994–95, 2001–02 *

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 ...

: 1993–94, 2001–02 Bulgaria *

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 ...

fourth place:

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 ...

References

External links

* *
Profile at LevskiSofia.info
Living people 1970 births Footballers from Veliko Tarnovo Province Men's association football defenders Bulgarian men's footballers Bulgaria men's international footballers 1994 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1996 players OFC Akademik Svishtov players FC Etar (Veliko Tarnovo) players PFC Levski Sofia players SV Waldhof Mannheim players Aberdeen F.C. players FC Energie Cottbus players FC Etar 1924 Veliko Tarnovo players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Scottish Football League players Bulgarian expatriate men's footballers Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Kazakhstan Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey 20th-century Bulgarian sportsmen {{Bulgaria-footy-defender-stub