Zhivko Dinchev Zhelev (; born 23 July 1979 in

Stara Zagora Stara Zagora (, ) is a city in Bulgaria, and the administrative capital of Stara Zagora Province. It is located in the Upper Thracian Plain, near the cities of Kazanlak, Plovdiv, and Sliven. Its population is 121,582 making it the sixth largest c ...

) is a retired

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 ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

defender and now manager of Etar Veliko Tarnovo.

Club career

Litex

Zhelev joined

Litex Lovech FC Lovech (; formerly Litex Lovech) is a Bulgarian professional association football, football club based in Lovech, that competes in the Second Professional Football League (Bulgaria), Second League. The club was founded in 1921 as Hisarya Spor ...

quite young but fought hard to get a place in the first team. He formed a formidable duet with ex-Bulgarian national defender Rosen Kirilov. However, due to a lack of strikers Zhelev was also used by managers to play as a striker for Litex and scored a lot of goals in this position. He is the defender who has scored the most goals in the whole history of Bulgarian football. He has been considered one of the favourite players by Litex fans, due to his dedicated and selfless manner of playing, and his loyalty to the club. He has been awarded the title "The best player of Litex" in 2006.

Oţelul

On 12 July 2007, Zhelev joined Romanian club Oţelul Galaţi for a fee of €125,000 On 8 November 2009, after a game against

FC Timişoara FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Pakis ...

, he and his teammate Stoyan Kolev decided to leave Oţelul because of the financial situation of the club.

Steaua

On 5 January 2010, Steaua and Oţelul agree Zhelev and Ochiroşii swap deal. On 10 January 2010, Steaua signed the Bulgarian centre-back on a free transfer until June 2011. First match in Liga I for Steaua: 20 February 2010 • Steaua- Ceahlăul 1–3. First goal in Liga I for Steaua: 25 April 2010 • Steaua-

3–3. In June 2010, Steaua has terminated the contract with Zhelev.

Inter Baku

On 25 June 2010, Zhelev signed a one-year deal with the Azerbaijani football club Inter Baku. Thus, he joins compatriot

Petar Zlatinov Petar Zlatinov (; born 13 March 1981) is a Bulgarian former footballer who played as a midfielder. Career In early 2000, at 18 years old, Zlatinov signed with CSKA Sofia. On 1 April 2003, Zlatinov was loaned to Belarusian Premier League side D ...

in the club squad.

Slavia Sofia

At the end of the 2010–11 season, Zhelev returned to Bulgaria and joined

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 ...

on a free transfer. He made his comeback league debut at the start of the 2011–12 season in a 1–0 defeat 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 ...

on 8 August. Zhelev was frozen out of the first team in October 2013 (after Asen Bukarev had been replaced as coach) and in December 2013 joined Vereya Stara Zagora in the third division of Bulgarian football.

Vereya Stara Zagora

In March 2015, Zhelev took over from

Radostin Kishishev Radostin Prodanov Kishishev (; born 30 July 1974) is a Bulgarian former professional footballer who works as director of youth/U19 coach of Chernomorets 1919. Kishishev earned 88 caps for Bulgaria, representing them at Euro 96 and the 1998 FI ...

as head coach of Vereya Stara Zagora. However, his assistant Vladislav Yanush was officially registered as the manager, as Zhelev had not yet obtained the coaching license to manage in the

B PFG The Bulgarian Second Professional Football League (), also known as Second League () or Vtora liga, is the second level of the Bulgarian football league system, below First Professional Football League (Bulgaria), First League and above the Third ...

Litex Lovech

In July 2016, Zhelev became the manager of

and coached them in the third tier of Bulgarian football.

Honours

Player

;

* Bulgarian A Group: 1998–99 *

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 ...

(2):

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

Head coach

;

* Third League: 2016–17

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zhelev, Zhivko 1979 births Living people Footballers from Stara Zagora Bulgarian men's footballers Bulgaria men's international footballers Men's association football defenders PFC Beroe Stara Zagora players FC Lovech players PFC Litex Lovech managers ASC Oțelul Galați players FCSB players Shamakhi FK players PFC Slavia Sofia players FC Vereya players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Liga I players Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Azerbaijan Bulgarian football managers Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Azerbaijan