Valeri Bojinov

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Valeri Bozhinov
Personal information
Full name Valeri Emilov Bozhinov
Date of birth February 15, 1986 (1986-02-15) (age 22)
Place of birth    Gorna Oryahovitsa, Bulgaria
Height 1.77 m (5 ft 9+1⁄2 in)
Playing position Striker
Club information
Current club Manchester City
Number 29
Youth clubs
1999–2001
2001–2002		 Pietà Hotspurs F.C.
Lecce
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
2002–2004
2005–2007
2006–2007
2007–present
 Lecce
Fiorentina
→ Juventus (co-owned)
Manchester City
 65 (16)
36 0(8)
18 0(5)
03 0(0)   
National team2
2004– Bulgaria 21 0(5)

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only and
correct as of 18:03, 20 August 2007 (UTC).
2 National team caps and goals correct
as of 31 October 2006.
* Appearances (Goals)

Valeri Emilov Bozhinov (Bulgarian: Валери Емилов Божинов, IPA: [və.'lɛ.ri bo.'ʒi.nov]), (born February 15, 1986) is a Bulgarian football striker who plays for Manchester City of the English Premier League.

Contents

[edit] Name

Valeri Bozhinov is the correct English language transliteration of his birth name Валери Божинов, yet his current club, Manchester City, use the name "Bojinov", which is the French and Portuguese transliteration.

[edit] Biography

Born in the Bulgarian town of Gorna Oryahovitsa, Bozhinov moved to Malta at the age of 12 with his mother; Pepa, a former Bulgarian national basketball team player and stepfather Sasho Angelov, who had played for the Bulgarian national football team during the 1990s.

Bozhinov was discovered at the age of 14 by U.S. Lecce sports director Pantaleo Corvino, while playing for Pietà Hotspurs, and signed for just 30,000,000 ITL (around €15,000).

[edit] Club career

[edit] Lecce

A promising youngster, Bozhinov settled in Lecce and continued his studies there while playing for U.S. Lecce youth teams. He debuted in Italian Serie A on January 22, 2002, at the age of 15 years and 11 months for U.S. Lecce, becoming the youngest foreign player to make an appearance in the top level of Italian football. His first goal in the top division came on January 6, 2004 in a home 1-2 defeat against Bologna and becomes the youngest non-national to score in Serie A.

Bozhinov showed shades of his potential with Lecce under the guidance of coach Zdeněk Zeman, tallying 16 goals.

[edit] Fiorentina

Bozhinov was soon picked up by Fiorentina in January 2005, in a transfer worth approximately €13 million (9 million pounds), he was just 18 years old at the time.[1]

During January 2006, Bozhinov was rumoured to be joining Italian giants Inter Milan on a 6 month loan deal, with Internazionale goalkeeper Francesco Toldo rumoured to be going in the opposite direction. However, he remained in Florence and was re-introduced into Fiorentina's squad after a period of exclusion. He built up a partnership with Luca Toni during the 2005-06 season, with Toni scoring the most Serie A goals in one season, since.

In July 2006, he moved to Italian powerhouse Juventus in a deal which included Adrian Mutu's transfer to Fiorentina. Bozhinov said that he would be happy to stay with Juve and that they do have the option. Viola sporting director Pantaleo Corvino has stated that Juve can complete the signing of the striker for a fee of £4 million; "There is a written clause with Juventus which allows them to keep him by paying £4m".[2]

[edit] Manchester City

On August 3, it was reported that Bozhinov completed his move to Manchester City, signing a four-year contract in an undisclosed fee deal, thought to be £5.75m.[3][4] Bojinov was ruled out for five months after suffering a knee ligament injury against Manchester United in August.[5] He returned to full training on the 22nd of January scoring five goals in a bounce game. On the 11th of February Bojinov played in a Manchester City reserve game, where he came on as a subtitute and scored a header from cross by Emile Mpenza. Manchester City manager Sven Goran Eriksson told Valeri Bojinov that he would not be ready to play in the game against Everton on the 25th of February. Valeri Bojinov’s comeback has been put on hold for at least another two weeks. He did not manage to make a come-back to the first team squad in the 2007/08 season, but he did make some appearances for the Reserve squad and was included in City's tour of Asia

[edit] International career

While with Lecce, Bozhinov had previously played at various youth levels for his country. On his under-21 debut for Bulgaria, Bozhinov scored an impressive over-head kick against Greece.

He was called up to the full Bulgaria national side, at Euro 2004. Bozhinov made one appearance in the tournament (his first team debut), against Italy (Which Bulgaria lost 2-1) in June 2004. Against the Republic of Ireland later that year in August, he scored his first goal for the national side.

To date, he has played 21 times for his country, netting five times and is a first team regular in Dimitar Penev's squad.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Football Italia - Player of the Week: Born-again Bojinov
  2. ^ Football Italia - Viola reveal Bojinov price
  3. ^ "Bojinov seals switch to Man City", BBC Sport, 2007-08-03. Retrieved on 2007-08-03. 
  4. ^ "Bojinov signs for City", Manchester City FC official site, 2007-08-03. Retrieved on 2007-08-03. 
  5. ^ "Man City rocked by Bojinov injury", BBC Sport, 2007-08-20. Retrieved on 2007-08-20. 

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Manchester City F.C. – current squad

1 Isaksson • 2 Richards • 3 Ball • 4 Onuoha • 6 Johnson • 7 Ireland • 8 Geovanni • 9 Mpenza • 11 Elano • 12 Vassell • 14 Dickov • 15 Petrov • 16 Ćorluka • 17 Sun • 20 Caicedo • 21 Hamann • 22 Dunne • 24 Garrido • 25 Hart • 27 Benjani • 28 Fernandes • 29 Bojinov • 30 Castillo • 34 Williamson • 36 Sturridge • 37 Etuhu • 38 Logan Manager: Hughes