Velko Yotov

Velko Yotov
Personal information
Full name Velko Nikolaev Yotov
Date of birth (1970-08-26) 26 August 1970
Place of birth Sofia, Bulgaria
Height 1.79 m (5 ft 10 in)[1]
Position Forward
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1988–1993 Levski Sofia 113 (31)
1993–1995 Espanyol 42 (14)
1995–1999 Newell's Old Boys 106 (35)
1999 Olimpik Teteven 6 (0)
2000–2001 Charleston Battery 29 (9)
2002–2005 Atlanta Silverbacks 72 (20)
Total 368 (109)
International career
1991–1995 Bulgaria 7 (0)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Velko Nikolaev Yotov (Bulgarian: Велко Никола́ев Йотов; born 26 August 1970) is a Bulgarian retired professional footballer who played as a forward.

Career

After coming through the ranks in Levski Sofia,[2] Yotov signed for Botev Plovdiv in spring 1993.[3] Botev Plovdiv paid a transfer fee of $400,000, which was an exceptionally high sum for Bulgarian football.[3]

After protracted negotiations during which Spanish clubs Espanyol and Lleida attempted to sign him,[3][4] Yotov moved to Espanyol.[5] Yotov signed a three-year contract while the transfer fee of $1.25 million was paid by Espanyol club member José Manuel Lara Bosch,[5] who introduced him as being better than Hristo Stoichkov and faster than Paco Gento.[6] He helped the club win Segunda División with his 13 goals from 26 games in the 1993–94 season, and scored once in 16 La Liga games the following season.[6]

Yotov was an unused member of the Bulgaria national team that reached the semi-finals of the 1994 World Cup.[7] His international appearances were limited by sharing a position with Stoichkov.[8]

In 1995, Yotov moved to Argentina with Newell's Old Boys; he was the first Bulgarian in the Argentine Primera División.[8] He spent four seasons there and notably scored in a win against River Plate in November 1995.[7] He suffered further injuries including two meniscus tears, an anterior cruciate ligament injury and a heel injury, and president Eduardo López did not renew his contract in 1999.[8] In 2001, he alleged that the club owed him $1.3 million in unpaid wages.[8] He finished his career in the USL A-League with Charleston Battery and Atlanta Silverbacks.[9] In 2019, he was coaching children in Atlanta.[6]

Legacy

A group of people from Rosario supporting Yotov's former club Newell's Old Boys named their supporters club "Peña Leprosa Velko Iotov" after him.[10]

Honours

Levski Sofia

Espanyol

References

  1. ↑ Velko Yotov at WorldFootball.net
  2. ↑ Totev, Kamen (22 July 1993). "Compás de espera en el 'caso Yotov'" [A waiting game in the "Yotov case"] (PDF). Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 July 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 Canovas, M. C. (30 July 1993). "Velko Yótov, la trárna de todas lás tramas" [Velko Yotov, the plot of all plots] (PDF). Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 July 2026.
  4. ↑ López, José Luis; Moncayo, Carmelo (30 July 1993). "Paris y Torcal explican su versión del "caso Yotov"" [Paris and Torcal explain their version of the "Yotov case"] (PDF). Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 July 2026.
  5. 1 2 Juárez, Carmen (11 August 1993). "Perelló presenta Velko Yotov" [Perelló presents Velko Yotov] (PDF). Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 July 2026.
  6. 1 2 3 Martínez, Alberto (6 November 2019). "Iotov: "El fútbol búlgaro nos preparaba para sufrir"" [Yotov: "Bulgarian football prepared us for suffering"]. Diario AS (in Spanish). Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  7. 1 2 "Georgi Kinkladze at Boca? European stars who played in South America". The Guardian. 5 February 2025. Retrieved 23 July 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Velko Iotov, el primer búlgaro en la liga argentina" [Velko Yotov, the first Bulgarian in the Argentine league]. Kodro (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 July 2026.
  9. ↑ "Silverbacks Fall to Battery After Late Winner". OurSports Central. 22 June 2002. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  10. ↑ "La historia de la "Peña Leprosa Velko Iotov"" [The story of the "Peña Leprosa Velko Iotov"]. TyC Sports (in Spanish). 27 April 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  11. 1 2 "Велко Йотов". levskisofia.info (in Bulgarian). Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  12. ↑ Velko Yotov at BDFutbol
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