Lyubomir Angelov

Lyubomir Angelov
	Lyubomir Angelov in 1943
Personal information
Date of birth	4 October 1912
Place of birth	Sofia, Kingdom of Bulgaria
Date of death	24 December 1984 (aged 72)
Place of death	Sofia, PR Bulgaria
Position(s)	Forward
Youth career
1922–1923	Atletik Sofia
1923–1924	Slava
1924–1926	Shipka Sofia
1926–1928	Shipka Sofia
Senior career*
Years	Team
1928–1944	AS-23 Sofia
1944–1947	Chavdar Sofia
International career
1931–1940	Bulgaria
Managerial career
1948	Bulgaria
1949–1959	Bulgaria B
1949–1956	Spartak Sofia
1950	Bulgaria
1953	Bulgaria
1957	Lokomotiv Sofia
1960–1962	Bulgaria U21
1964	Lokomotiv Sofia
1966–1968	Spartak Sofia
1969–1972	Levski-Spartak Sofia (assistant)
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Lyubomir Angelov (Bulgarian: Любомир Ангелов; 4 October 1912 – 24 October 1984) was a Bulgarian footballer and manager who played as a forward for the Bulgaria national team.^[1] With 26 goals in 44 caps for Bulgaria, he ranks as the nation's fifth-highest all-time top goalscorer.

Club career

He began to play football in his hometown clubs in Sofia such as Atletik, Sława and Szypce.^[2] At the age of 14, he moved to AS-23 Sofia, where he was nicknamed Старото (Bulgarian: Staroto), which he received from his schoolmates from the gymnasium.^[2] He was Champion of Bulgaria in 1931, when on the final matchday, they defeated FK Szypczenski Sokol by walkover.^[3] In 1941, he won the Tsar's Cup, scoring twice in the final against Napredak Ruse to help his side to a 4–2.

After the seizure of power by the communist regime in the 1944 Bulgarian coup d'état, AS-23 Sofia was dissolved, while the main activists were subjected to repression for political reasons. Angelov, along with other leading AS-23 players, Spartak Podujane and Szypki Sofia, founded the band Czawdar Sofia, in which he performed until the end of 1947.^{[citation needed]}

International career

He played in 44 matches for the Bulgaria national football team from 1931 to 1940, nine of which as its captain, scoring a then-national record of 26 goals.^[4] He was part of the Bulgaria team that won two back-to-back Balkan Cups in 1931 and in 1932, contributing with 1 and 2 goals respectively, but the highlight of his international career came in the 1935 Balkan Cup, where he was the top goal scorer with 6 goals which came in the form of two hat-tricks against Greece and Yugoslavia.^[5] With 14 goals in the Balkan Cup, he is the second-best top goal scorer in the competition's history, only behind Iuliu Bodola of Romania, who has 15. Angelov was also part of Bulgaria's team for their qualification matches for the 1938 FIFA World Cup.^[6]

Managerial career

After completing his competitive career, he became a coach, graduating from the State Coaching School (1948).^[2] Angelov took charge of the Bulgaria national team three times, first in 1948, then in 1950, and finally in 1953, leading the nation in 8 games.^[7] He also served as the head coach of the Bulgaria B team in 23 games between 1949 and 1959 and the youth (junior) team in 13 games between 1960 and 1962.^[2]

He was the coach of Spartak Sofia twice (1949–1956, 1966–1968) and again twice with Łokomotiv Sofia (1957, 1964), and was also employed in the training staff of Spartak-Levski Sofia, where he was assistant to Rudolf Vytlačil and Yoncho Arsov.^[2] Between 1964 and 1966, he worked in Syria, creating the structures of the local football league and the player training system.^[2]

International goals

Bulgaria score listed first, score column indicates score after each Angelov goal.

List of international goals scored by Ljubomir Angelov^[8]^[4]
No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	4 October 1931	Yunak Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria	Yugoslavia	2–2	3–2	1931 Balkan Cup
2	25 October 1931	Yunak Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria	Greece	2–1	2–1	1929-31 Balkan Cup
3	27 March 1932	Leoforos Alexandras Stadium, Athens, Greece		2–1	2–1	Friendly
4	30 March 1932	Leoforos Alexandras Stadium, Athens, Greece		2–2	2–2	Friendly
5	30 June 1932	Beogradski SK Stadium, Belgrade, Yugoslavia	Yugoslavia	1–0	3–2	1932 Balkan Cup
6	2 July 1932	Beogradski SK Stadium, Belgrade, Yugoslavia	Greece	1–0	2–0	1932 Balkan Cup
7	4 November 1932	Taksim Stadium, Istanbul, Turkey	Turkey	3–2	3–2	Friendly
8	18 March 1934	Stadion Balgarska Armia, Sofia, Bulgaria	Yugoslavia	1–2	1–2
9	1 April 1934	Beogradski SK Stadium, Belgrade, Yugoslavia	Yugoslavia	1–0	3–2
10	30 December 1934	Leoforos Alexandras Stadium, Athens, Greece	Romania	1–3	2–3	1934–35 Balkan Cup
11	30 December 1934	Leoforos Alexandras Stadium, Athens, Greece	Romania	2–3	2–3	1934–35 Balkan Cup
12	26 May 1935	Stadion Balgarska Armia, Sofia, Bulgaria	Germany B	2–0	2–0	Friendly
13	16 June 1935	Yunak Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria	Greece	2–1	5–2	1935 Balkan Cup
14				3–1
15				4–1
16	24 June 1935		Yugoslavia	1–2	3–3
17				2–2
18				3–2
19	21 May 1936	Stadionul ONEF, Bucharest, Romania	Greece	3–1	5–4	1936 Balkan Cup
20	24 May 1936	Stadionul ONEF, Bucharest, Romania	Romania	1–1	1–4	1936 Balkan Cup
21	11 July 1937	Yunak Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria	Yugoslavia B	1–0	4–0	Friendly
22	11 July 1937		Yugoslavia B	4–0	4–0
23	12 September 1937		Poland	2–1	3–3
24	2 October 1938		Germany B	1–1	1–3
25	24 May 1939		Latvia	2–0	3–0
26	20 October 1940	Grünwalder Stadion, Munich, Germany	Germany	3–6	3–7