Ivan Tsvetkov

Born in Blagoevgrad, Tsvetkov took up football with local side Pirin. At the age of 18, he joined Dutch SC Heerenveen's youth academy. In 1998 Tsvetkov started his senior career and during his two seasons at Abe Lenstra Stadion, he scored 2 goals in 16 matches. In summer of 2000, Tsvetkov joined BV Veendam. After 18 goals in his first season, he was named as the Eerste Divisie top scorer at the close of the following 2001–02 season with a total of 22 goals in the league. In July 2002, Tsvetkov transferred to Zwolle after Veendam accepted an undisclosed bid. He spent two years at Zwolle, where he capped 41 times and scored 1 goal, before moved to Helmond Sport. In January 2007 after making 41 appearances for Sparta Rotterdam, Tsvetkov was transferred to Turkish side Sivasspor. He scored his first Süper Lig hat-trick on 30 March 2007, scoring four in a 4–0 win over Kasımpaşa. On 27 August 2008, Tsvetkov signed for Azerbaijani club Khazar Lankaran. During that season, Ivan became a topscorer of his team, scoring 15 goals, and the second best goalscorer of the league.

Return to Pirin

On 4 March 2011, Tsvetkov returned to Bulgaria and signed for Pirin Blagoevgrad on a rolling contract until the end of the season. On 2 April, in a 3–0 home victory over Montana, he netted his first goal in an A PFG match and assisted Krum Bibishkov and Anton Karachanakov. Four days later Tsvetkov scored his first Bulgarian Cup goal as he netted the first in a 2–1 away victory over…

Tsvetkov was part of the Bulgaria U21 roster for one game. In November 2012, Tsvetkov was called up to the Bulgaria national team by head coach Lyuboslav Penev for a friendly match against Ukraine. He earned his only cap on 14 November, playing 27 minutes in the 0–1 defeat against the Ukrainians.

Pirin Blagoevgrad

In January 2017, Tsvetkov returned to Pirin Blagoevgrad as player and assistant to manager Milen Radukanov.

Tsvetkov also holds Dutch citizenship. In 2003, he had to give up his Bulgarian nationality in order to acquire a Dutch passport, but in November 2012 Tsvetkov reclaimed his Bulgarian citizenship.