Luboslav Penev

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Luboslav Penev (Bulgarian: Любослав Пенев) (born August 31, 1966) is a former Bulgarian footballer. Penev's first professional team was CSKA Sofia of the Bulgarian capital. He made his first team debut in 1984, when he was only 18 years old. CSKA of the late 1980s was a footballing "alma mater" to several Bulgarian players who made it to the international top in the 1990s. During those days Lubo's teammates included defender Trifon Ivanov, winger Emil Kostadinov, and striker Hristo Stoichkov. With CSKA Penev won the Bulgarian League twice (1987 and 1989) and the Bulgarian Cup thrice (1987, 1988 and 1989). He was also voted as the Bulgarian footballer of the year in 1988.

In 1989, after reaching stardom in the Bulgarian game, he took an important step in his career by moving to the Spanish League. In Primera Penev played for four different clubs: Valencia CF, Atlético Madrid, SD Compostela and Celta Vigo. The highlight of the Spanish years was the 1995-1996 season with Atlético, when the club conquered both the league championship and the Spanish Cup. Penev was the most efficient player of the "double squad" by scoring 22 goals in 44 games (including both league and cup matches).

Penev represented Bulgaria in the EURO '96 in England and in the 1998 World Cup in France.

Penev's favourite position on the pitch was centre forward. With an impressive stature of almost 190 cm, he roamed as a target man dominating in air battles. In addition to his abilities as a goalscorer, Penev was also known for his fighting spirit both on and off the pitch. The worst setback of his career took place in 1994, when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. He could not take part in the 1994 World Cup with probably the best Bulgarian squad of all time and the end of his playing career, if not life, was looming. However, Penev recovered speedily and in the following season he was already in a key role winning the double for Atlético. Stoichkov, the current Bulgarian national coach, has described his close friend as a real fighter. According to Stoichkov, a weaker man would have given up, but Lubo just clenched his teeth and overcame the disease.

	Bulgaria squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup
1 Zdravkov | 2 Kishishev | 3 T. Ivanov | 4 I. Petkov | 5 Yordanov | 6 Yankov | 7 Kostadinov | 8 Stoichkov | 9 Penev | 10 Balakov | 11 Iliev | 12 Mikhailov | 13 Ginchev | 14 Hristov | 15 Zafirov | 16 Nankov | 17 Stoilov | 18 Borimirov | 19 Bachev | 20 G. Ivanov | 21 Kirilov | 22 M. Petkov | Coach: Bonev