Introduction
Dimitar Dushkov Penev (Bulgarian: Димитър Душков Пенев, born 12 July 1945) is a Bulgarian football coach and former player and central defender of CSKA Sofia. He played 90 games for Bulgaria national football team and scored 2 goals. He is regarded as one of his country's best ever defenders, winning Bulgarian footballer of the year in 1967 and 1971, he also participated in 3 world cups for his country in 1966, 1970 and 1974. He is currently the Honorary President of CSKA Sofia and semi-pro side Nottingham United FC.
Personal life
Penev is uncle of former Bulgarian international and national team coach Lyuboslav Penev.
Coaching career
Penev was manager of the Bulgaria national football team during the 1994 FIFA World Cup, where his team reached the semi-finals and then lost the bronze medal game with Sweden. Throughout his career as manager he demonstrated excellence in both tactics and team psychology. Penev's most notable quality was his ability to work well with young players. During his career at CSKA Sofia he discovered a lot of previously unknown or little-known talented youths and used them as a basis for a domestically and internationally successful squad. Amongst them Hristo Stoichkov, Emil Kostadinov, Lyuboslav Penev, Martin Petrov, Stiliyan Petrov and Dimitar Berbatov.
On 30 July 2007 he was appointed manager of the Bulgaria national football team for the second time. Last he was the manager of CSKA Sofia, but on 6 March 2009 CSKA fired the coach – the Bulgarian team decided to sub him with his nephew Lyuboslav Penev, former player of CSKA Sofia, Celta Vigo, Valencia CF and Atlético Madrid.
Relevant statistics
As of April 2007, Penev has been in charge of the Bulgaria national football team for 55 matches in total (25 wins, 15 draws, 15 losses, with a goal difference of 88:60).
Honours
Player
- Lokomotiv Sofia
- A Group: 1963–64
- CSKA Sofia
- A Group (7): 1965–66, 1968–69, 1970–71, 1971–72, 1972–73, 1974–75, 1975–76
- Bulgarian Cup (5): 1965, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974