Stiliyan Petrov

Early career

Born in Montana, Petrov started to play football in the local team FC Montana. At the age of 18 he was spotted by scout and coach Dimitar Penev and signed with CSKA Sofia for fee of €30,000. With his new club, he won the Bulgarian Championship in 1997 and the national cup in 1997 and 1999.

Celtic

Petrov was signed in the summer of 1999 by John Barnes for a fee of £2.8 million. The teenager featured prominently in a season where he won the League Cup with Celtic, his second major honour and the first of many with Celtic. Despite the happy end to the season Petrov had a very hard time starting with the club. He was homesick and lonely at the start, and could not speak English. This was made worse by the manager playing him out of position at right back. Eventually, he improved his English by working in a friend's burger van. This hard work and determination to fit in showed in his performances for the club. After a good first season with Celtic he enjoyed a brilliant second season under Martin O'Neill's treble winning side, becoming a regular scorer netting 7 league goals in 28 appearances, one of which was in Celtic's 6–2 victory over Rangers. He also became the first foreign player to win the SPFA Young Player of the Year award. However he missed the end of the season after breaking his leg in a league game against St Johnstone and missed both the Scottish League Cup and Scottish Cup finals as a result. The following season, 2001–02, Petrov…

Stilyan Petrov made his debut as a 52nd minute substitute for Bulgaria on 24 December 1998 in a friendly match against Morocco. The match was played in Agadir, Morocco and finished with a 4–1 win for the North Africans. He scored his first goal (80th minute) for the national side in another friendly match against Belarus (4–1) on 29 March 2000. In 2003, he won the Bulgarian Footballer of the Year award, when he was playing for Celtic and he captained the national team at Euro 2004 where he was sent off during a match against Denmark. On 12 October 2006, Petrov, then captain of Bulgaria, announced his decision to retire from international football at the age of 27 as long as Hristo Stoichkov manages the Bulgaria national team. However, on 20 March 2007, he made amends with Hristo Stoichkov and made himself available for selection again. However, he did not recover his position as national captain because it was decided that Dimitar Berbatov would retain the captain's armband. On 14 January 2010, it was announced that Petrov had come second in Bulgaria's Player of the Year. Petrov was renamed captain of the Bulgarian side again following the retirement of Berbatov from international football in 2010. On 26 March 2011, Petrov earned his 100th cap for Bulgaria in the 0–0 home draw with Switzerland in a Euro 2012 qualifier. He received a flower bouquet from Borislav Mihaylov and was applauded by the spectators prior to the start of the match. During his career Petrov was chosen…

Club

International

Scores and results list Bulgaria's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Petrov goal.

In 2005, Petrov wrote his autobiography with the assistance of Sunday Mail sports journalist Mark Guidi entitled You Can Call Me Stan, in reference to his nickname "Stan", a shortened form of his given name. In the book, he describes how "Stiliyan" is the correct spelling, rather than "Stilian", as it is sometimes spelled in the press. He and his wife Paulina have two sons, Kristiyan and Stiliyan Jr. The latter announced in April 2025 that he was standing as a candidate for Reform UK. In response, the elder Petrov said he had no interest in politics and that his son was "his own man".

Leukaemia

On 30 March 2012, Petrov was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. The condition was diagnosed following tests after Petrov developed a fever following Aston Villa's 3–0 defeat to Arsenal. Because of this, Petrov told Bulgarian press that he planned to retire from club and international football; his agent later denied any reports of retirement: "It is not true that Stiliyan has said he is retiring from football. What he did say was that he was fighting for his life and that he will fight to recover." He visited Villa Park for the match against Chelsea and in the 19th minute, the number of his shirt, the crowd gave him an ovation. The tribute caught the imagination of fans, and home and away fans repeated the ovation at every Villa game that season. On 10 June 2012, Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert announced that Petrov would remain Aston Villa's club captain for the…