Lyuboslav Penev
Ljuboslaw Penev in 2010
Ljuboslaw " Lubo " Mladenov Penev ( Bulgarian Любослав Пенев; born August 31, 1966 in Sofia ) is a former Bulgarian football player and current coach of the Bulgarian national football team.
Career as a player
Penews first professional team was CSKA Sofia of the Bulgarian capital. His debut in the first team was the nephew Dimitar Penews 1984 as a 18- year-old. The CSKA of the late eighties was the rest of the club of some Bulgarian football player that should be world-class in the nineties. During this time, Penev played together with players like defender Trifon Ivanov, winger Emil Kostadinov, and striker Christo Stoichkov. With CSKA Penev won the Bulgarian League twice (1987 and 1989 ) and took three times the Bulgarian Cup (1987, 1988 and 1989). Even he was in 1988 elected Bulgarian Footballer of the Year.
After he had acquired great fame in Bulgarian football, he left the country in 1989 and made an important step in his career by moving to Spain. In the Primera División Penev played for four different clubs: Valencia CF, Atlético Madrid, SD Compostela and Celta Vigo. The highlight of his time in Spain was the 1995/96 season with Atlético, when the club was able to secure both the Spanish league title and the Cup. Penev was the most efficient player of the championship team: In 44 games he scored 22 goals (both in the league and in the Cup ). In 2001, he finished his career in Bulgaria.
Penev represented Bulgaria at Euro 1996 also in England and at the 1998 World Cup in France, where he noticed tragically when he scored against France an own goal.
Penews favorite position on the field was that of the center-forward. With its impressive stature of nearly 190 centimeters, the Right was often the target of the flanks of his teammates. In addition to his skills as a scorer was and he is known for his great fighting spirit both on and off the field. The biggest setback of his career he suffered in 1994, when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. At the 1994 World Cup with probably the best Bulgarian team of all time, he was unable to attend, and the end of his career, if not his life, became apparent. Penev but recovered very quickly and was in the next season already again a key player in the Double Atlético. Christo Stoichkov described his close friend as a true fighter. According Stoichkov a weaker man would have given up, but Penev just gritted his teeth and beat the disease.
Sporting successes
As a player
- Bulgarian champion: 1986/87 and 1988/89
- Bulgarian Cup winner: 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989
- Bulgarian Super Cup: 1989
- Spanish runner-up: 1989/1990
- Spanish champion: 1995/1996
- Spanish Cup Winners: 1995/1996
As a coach
- Bulgarian Champion 2010/11