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

Grigor Dimitrov

Tennis: Grigor Dimitrov advances to Round of 16, will play vs. Carlos Alcaraz at Indian Wells

Grigor Dimitrov has advanced to the Round of 16 in the prestigious tennis tournament in Indian Wells after defeating Gael Monfils, France by 7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-6 (2) in over three hours of play. The game was riddled with mistakes and was a war of..

published on 3/11/25 9:29 AM

Bulgaria wins silver and bronze at the European Shooting Championship 10 m in Osijek

Bulgaria won a silver and a bronze medal on the first day of the European Shooting Championship 10 m in Osijek, Croatia. In the team competition, Antoaneta Kostadinova, Miroslava Mincheva and Adiel Ilieva finished second in the 10 metre air..

published on 3/9/25 5:29 PM
Yoana Ilieva

Yoana Ilieva wins silver medal at the Heraklion Women's Individual Sabre World Cup

Yoana Ilieva won silver at the Heraklion Women's Individual Sabre World Cup. At the end of last year, she won bronze at the Women’s Sabre Grand Prix in France. In January she earned bronze at the 2025 Tunis Women’s Sabre Grand Prix. She also made..

published on 3/9/25 10:02 AM