Lyuboslav Penew

Lyuboslav Penew
Lyuboslaw Penew in 2014
Personnel
Surname	Lyuboslav Mladenov Penev
birthday	August 31, 1966
place of birth	Dobrich ,  Bulgaria
position	striker
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1984-1989	CSKA Sofia	101 (80)
1989-1995	Valencia CF	167 (67)
1995-1996	Atlético Madrid	37 (16)
1996-1998	SD Compostela	69 (32)
1998-1999	Celta Vigo	32 (14)
2000-2001	CSKA Sofia	22 0(8)
2002	Locomotive Plovdiv	4 0(0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1987-1998	Bulgaria	62 (13)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
2009-2010	CSKA Sofia
2010-2011	Litex Lovech
2011-2014	Bulgaria
2014	Botev Plovdiv
2015	CSKA Sofia
1 Only league games are given.

Lyuboslaw "Lubo" Mladenow Penew ( Bulgarian Любослав Пенев ; born August 31, 1966 in Dobrich ) is a former Bulgarian football player and former coach of the Bulgarian national football team .

Career as a player

Penew's first professional team was CSKA Sofia from the Bulgarian capital. Dimitar Penew's nephew made his first-team debut in 1984 at the age of 18. CSKA of the late 1980s was the home club for some Bulgarian soccer players who went world class in the 1990s. During this time Penew played together with players such as defender Trifon Ivanov , winger Emil Kostadinow and striker Christo Stoitschkow . With CSKA, Penew won the Bulgarian league twice (1987 and 1989) and won the Bulgarian Cup three times (1987, 1988 and 1989). He was also voted Bulgarian Footballer of the Year in 1988.

After gaining 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 Penew 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 championship title and the cup. Penew was the most efficient player in the championship team: in 44 games he scored 22 goals (both in the league and in the cup). In 2001 he ended his career in Bulgaria.

Penew also represented Bulgaria at the 1996 European Championship in England and at the 1998 World Cup in France, where he was tragically noticed when he scored an own goal against France .

Penew's favorite position on the field was that of the center forward. With his impressive stature of almost 190 centimeters, the right-footer was often the target of his teammates' flanks. In addition to his skills as a goalscorer, he is known for his fighting spirit both on and off the pitch. He suffered the biggest setback of his career in 1994 when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. He was unable to take part in the 1994 World Cup with what is probably the best Bulgarian team of all time, and the end of his career, if not his life, was looming. Penew, however, recovered very quickly and was again a key player in the Atlético double next season . Christo Stoitschkow described his close friend as a true fighter. According to Stoichkov, a weaker man would have given up, but Penew simply gritted his teeth and defeated the disease.

Career as a coach

Penev worked as a coach in Bulgarian club football from 2009, initially for almost a year at CSKA Sofia . In September 2010 he hired Litex Lovech and led the team to the 2011 championship title. A few months later, he resigned in order to immediately take over the position of Bulgarian national coach in October 2011. Penev was allowed to work in this position for a good three years before he was given leave of absence in November 2014 due to a lack of success. Before that, he prematurely extended his expiring contract on November 1, 2013 for another two years, helping the team to participate in the 2016 European Football Championship in France .

On June 6, 2014, Penew was introduced as the new coach of Botev Plovdiv , emphasizing not to neglect his work with the Bulgarian national team. Due to the club's sudden financial problems, his contract was terminated after just one month and one game, a 4-0 win over AC Libertas in the first qualifying round for the 2014/15 Europa League . After his departure, Penew concentrated more on his work with the Bulgarian national football team. But even this he had to leave in November 2014 after outstanding successes and a series of bad results, most recently a 1-1 draw against Malta . He then hired his former club CSKA Sofia at the end of April 2015 and looked after it until the end of the 2014/15 season after replacing interim coach Galin Ivanov , who had replaced the departed Stojtscho Mladenow .

Sporting successes

As a player

with CSKA

• Bulgarian champion: 1986/87 and 1988/89
• Bulgarian Cup Winner: 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989
• Bulgarian Super Cup: 1989

with Valencia

• Spanish runner-up: 1989/1990

with Atlético Madrid

• Spanish champion: 1995/1996
• Spanish cup winner: 1995/1996

As a trainer

Litex Lovech

• Bulgarian champion 2010/11

Web links

• Brief description of Penews with photo

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Head coach of CSKA Sofia resigned ( Memento from August 1, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
2. ↑ Penev in Bulgaria on leave. In: fussball-em-total.de. FOOTBALL EM-total, November 21, 2014, accessed on November 21, 2014 . 
3. ↑ Любо Пенев: Работата ми в Ботев ще помогне на националния отбор (Bulgarian), accessed August 17, 2015
4. ↑ Причините, поради които Пенев и Ботев Пд се разделят (видео) (Bulgarian), accessed August 17, 2015
5. ↑ Penev leaves Botev to focus on Bulgaria , accessed on August 17, 2015
6. ↑ Bulgaria sack coach Penev , accessed on August 17, 2015
7. ↑ Въведоха нови правила в съблекалнята ( Memento from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (Bulgarian), accessed on August 17, 2015