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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.



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Kiril Despodov, a Bulgarian footballer, has been playing for the Greek club PAOK Thessaloniki since 2023.

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