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

Tervel Zamfirov

Tervel Zamfirov wins gold at the FIS Snowboard Junior World Championships in Poland

Tervel Zamfirov became junior world champion in the parallel giant slalom at the FIS Snowboard Junior World Championships in Poland. This is the second medal for Bulgaria today after the silver won by his sister Malena. In the final of the..

published on 3/4/25 5:18 PM
Malena Zamfirova

Malena Zamfirova comes second in Snowboard World Cup in Krynica

Malena Zamfirova won second place in the parallel giant slalom event of the Snowboard World Cup round in Krynica, Poland. This is the first time the 15-year old is taking part in a world cup contest after clocking 13 th in the qualifications...

published on 3/2/25 5:28 PM

Tennis: Isabella Shinikova wins singles title at Sharm el Sheikh tournament

Isabella Shinikova, Bulgaria, won the singles title at the Sharm el Sheikh hard court tennis tournament with USD 15,000 in prize money. In the final, the No.4 seeded player defeated Chenting Zhu, China by 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. This is the 10 th..

published on 3/2/25 3:26 PM