Iliev, Ilian

Born in Varna, Iliev began his football career at the local Black Sea Club. After good results for the youth team of the club, he was included in the main team of "Black Sea" in 1986. For five seasons, from 1986 to 1991, Iliev spent 123 matches for the club and scored 31 goals. Before the 1991/92 season, he moved to the Sofia Levski , with whom he became the champion of Bulgaria three times over the next five years and won the Bulgarian Cup once. In 1995, Iliev became a footballer of the Portuguese Benfica , a year later becoming in its composition the winner of the Portuguese Cup . He then played for the Bulgarian Slavia , the Turkish Bursaspor , the Greek AEK , as well as the Portuguese Maritimo and Salgeyush . Iliev completed his career as a football player in his first club "Cherno More" in 2004.

On September 22, 1991, Ilian Iliev made his debut for the Bulgarian national team in a friendly match with Turkey , held in Stara Zagora . In total, he spent 35 matches for the national team and scored three goals. Iliev was included in Bulgaria for the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, where he played in three matches ^[2] .

After completing his football career in 2004, Iliev immediately switched to coaching. In June 2004, he was appointed head coach of his native club, the Black Sea . On March 3, 2006, Iliev resigned after a home defeat (0: 1) from the Rodopa Smolyan team. Since 2006 ^[3] he headed the Bulgarian Beroe ^[4] . Under his leadership, the club won the Bulgarian Cup in the 2009/10 season for the first time in its history, which allowed him to also participate in the UEFA Europa League qualification 2010/11 . Iliev, on the other hand, was recognized as the best coach of the Bulgarian Championship 2009/2010 by the association of Bulgarian players.

On April 6, 2012, it was announced that Iliev would become the new head coach of the Sofia Levski . He was supposed to finish the season at the head of Beroe, and in the new position he would start working with the start of the 2012/13 season. His contract was calculated until June 2015, but on April 12, 2013, the Levski management dismissed him and replaced him with Nikolai Mitov .

In mid-May 2014, Iliev reached an agreement with the Angolan club Interclub . He was appointed head coach, and his compatriot Peter Kostadinov - his assistant ^[5] . In 2016, Iliev returned to his homeland, leading the Plovdiv-based Lokomotiv . The team took the fifth place in the championship of Bulgaria in the 2015/16 season , losing to the fourth European Cup line of Sofia Slavia only in face-to-face meetings. On October 17, 2016, after the defeat (1: 2) from Lokomotiv from Gorna-Oryahovitsy, Iliev announced that he was leaving Lokomotiv, Plovdiv ^[6] . At the beginning of 2017, he signed a contract with the newly formed Kazakhstani club Altai , but it was terminated in February 2017, because the club ultimately did not receive a license to participate in the Kazakhstan Premier League ^[7] .

On June 9, 2017, Iliev was appointed head coach of the Bulgarian First League Vereya team ^[8] . After a successful period in “Vereya” in December 2017, he again headed his own “Black Sea” ^[9] .

As a player

  Levski Sofia

• Champion of Bulgaria ( 3 ): 1992/93 , 1993/94 , 1994/95
• Bulgarian Cup Winner ( 2 ): 1991/92 , 1993/94

  Benfica

• Portuguese Cup Winner ( 1 ): 1995/96

As a trainer

  Beroe

• Bulgarian Cup Winner ( 1 ): 2009/10

The son Iliyan Iliev Jr. (born 1999, in Maritimo ) also became a football player.

• Profile on National Football Teams (English)
• Profile on worldfootball.net (English)