Stiliyan Petrov

Stilian Petrov (2011)

Alyoshew Stilian Petrov ( Bulgarian Стилиян Альошев Петров; born July 5, 1979 in Montana ) is a former Bulgarian football player.

Career

The midfielder was captain of the Bulgarian national team and since 2006 also captain of his employer Aston Villa. Petrov joined in summer 1999 from his hometown club CSKA Sofia for a then-record sum of 4.5 million euros to Celtic Glasgow. There he soon became the master and finally to guide players through to the Team Captain. His greatest successes in Glasgow were the Scottish Championships in 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2006 and the respective Scottish Cup win in 2001 and 2004. Moreover, he won in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2006, four editions of the Scottish League Cup.

In August 2006, Petrov was transferred for a basic fee of six and a half million pounds sterling - which could grow in case of success to over eight million - for English club Aston Villa, where he signed a four year contract. He succeeded his former manager Martin O'Neill, who had also hired for the season 2006 /07 in Birmingham.

His biggest international success was the participation of Bulgaria in the Euro 2004 football championships in Portugal.

Disease

After the league game against Arsenal on March 23, 2012 Petrov complained of fever and nausea. A week later, acute leukemia was diagnosed. On May 9, 2013 Petrov announced his final career end. He was inducted into the sequence in the Hall of Fame of the Association.