Ivaylo Yordanov
Bulgarian footballer
Ivaylo Stoimenov Yordanov (Bulgarian: Ивайло Стоименов Йорданов; born 22 April 1968) is a Bulgarian retired professional footballer who played mainly as a striker.
During his career, he represented mainly Sporting in Portugal, appearing in more than 250 official games in one full decade and winning two major titles.
A Bulgaria international for nine years, Yordanov represented the nation in two World Cups and Euro 1996.
Club career
Born in Samokov, Yordanov began his career at local Rilski Sportist, where he first appeared professionally at not yet 15, moving to Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa in 1989. In the last of his two seasons, he topped the First Professional Football League scoring charts, at 21 goals, helping lowly Lokomotiv to a comfortable ninth place.
In 1991–92, Yordanov joined Sporting CP, signing alongside compatriot Boncho Genchev – who had been his predecessor at Lokomotiv GO – where he would play in a variety of positions (including central defender, due to injuries to teammates). Persistent injury problems and the 1997 diagnosis of multiple sclerosis led to a 2001 retirement, still with the Lisbon club (he contributed with 11 matches and one goal in the team's Primeira Liga conquest the previous year).
International career
Yordanov was capped 51 times and scored four goals for the Bulgaria national team, including seven FIFA World Cup games in the 1994 and 1998 championships.
In the former, in another display of "team-first" attitude – and first discovering his versatile qualities – during the round-of-16 tie against Mexico (as Bulgaria prevailed in a penalty shootout) he filled in at centre-back, due to the absence of Trifon Ivanov (suspension) and Nikolay Iliev (injury). During the match, he set up Hristo Stoichkov's goal in the 1–1 draw.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ivaylo Yordanov” is bulgarian footballer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Ivaylo, Yordanov and Bulgarian, not as a finished interpretation.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2550318. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1968, 1996, 1989 and 1991.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ivaylo Yordanov” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.