Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

Kiril Despodov named Bulgaria's Footballer of the Year for the 5th time

Evdokiya Popadinova from Lazio took the award for No. 1 in women's football.

Kiril Despodov
Photo: BTA

The striker of the Greek club PAOK Kiril Despodov has been named Footballer No. 1 of Bulgaria for 2024. He wins the award for the 4th consecutive time and 5th time in total. 

Despodov was honored for the first time in 2018, and in the last 4 years he has been consistently at the top. This brings him level with football legend Hristo Stoichkov in terms of the number of awards. 

Despodov is only behind Bulgarian football star Dimitar Berbatov, who has been elected Footballer of the Year 7 times.

Despodov's runners-up are Iliya Gruev ("Leeds") and Dimitar Mitov ("Aberdeen").

Before the awards were presented, a minute of silence was held to honor the victims of the tragedy at a nighclub in Kocani, North Macedonia.

Evdokiya Popadinova
Evdokiya Popadinova from Lazio was honored for the No. 1 in women's football.

Stanimir Stoilov
Coach of the Year is the former coach of Levski and current coach of the Turkish club Göztepe Stanimir Stoilov.



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Vesela Lecheva

Vessela Lecheva heads the Bulgarian Olympic Committee

Vesela Lecheva is the new chairwoman of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee . At the general meeting of the organization, Lecheva, who is the chairwoman of the Bulgarian Shooting Union, prevailed over the long-time head of the Olympic movement in Bulgaria,..

published on 3/19/25 3:22 PM
Athlete Ivan Vezyuv

Ivan Vezyuv Wins Gold at the Special Olympics in Turin

Ivan Vezyuv won gold in the 100-metre cross-country skiing event at the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Turin. In the same discipline, two other Bulgarian athletes made the podium in different divisions - Asya Todorova and Darina Bogdanova took..

published on 3/16/25 9:26 AM
Milena Todorova

Milena Todorova equals Ekaterina Dafovska's achievement in biathlon

Bulgarian Milena Todorova finished second in the 12.5 km mass start. of the Biathlon World Cup in the Slovenian winter resort of Pokljuka. Todorova shot down all 20 targets and remained 16.4 seconds behind the winner Lou Jeanmonot (France). This is..

published on 3/15/25 9:44 PM