Krasimir Balakov

Balakov began his club career at the local Etar Veliko Tarnovo, before transferring to Sporting Clube de Portugal in 1990, playing alongside future Ballon d'Or recipient Luís Figo, his compatriot Yordanov, and future two-time Champions League winner Paulo Sousa. Though Sporting Clube de Portugal had a quality squad, Balakov only won the 1994–95 Portuguese Cup during his time at the club. In 1995, he transferred to Germany's VfB Stuttgart where he won two UEFA Intertoto Cups (2000 and 2002) and a DFB-Pokal (1997), before retiring in 2003 - the same year that he called time on an international career which had spanned 15 years and 92 caps. As an attacking midfielder Balakov formed a successful attacking partnership with strikers Fredi Bobic and Giovane Élber at Stuttgart. The trio were known as the "magic triangle". He stayed at Stuttgart until retiring as a player in 2003, although he did make a comeback as a player two years later when he made a single appearance as player-manager of VFC Plauen.

The year after he retired, Krasimir became assistant coach of the club he had just retired from, VfB Stuttgart. He stayed in this position for two years before deciding to become a player-manager at VFC Plauen, where he remained for just a short time. He had been appointed on 16 January 2006 as a manager of Grasshopper Club Zürich to replace Hanspeter Latour who left for 1. FC Köln. Balakov won the Intertoto Cup, thus qualified the club to the UEFA Cup for 2006–07 season. He had been appointed on 29 October 2007 as a manager of FC St. Gallen to replace Rolf Fringer. Three days before the season ended, he was fired by the club management. In December 2008, he became manager of PFC Chernomorets Burgas in his homeland, taking over from Dimitar Dimitrov, after also having considered an offer to coach the national team of his country. On 6 December 2010, he was released from PFC Chernomorets Burgas after mutual consent, following a change in the long-term vision for the club by the owner Mitko Sabev. On 27 May 2011, it was announced that Balakov would take over the helm of Croatian club Hajduk Split. On 22 March 2012, Balakov was appointed the manager of 1. FC Kaiserslautern. He was sacked on 17 May 2012, after being unable to prevent Kaiserslautern's relegation to the 2. Bundesliga. He subsequently continued his career as manager in his country. On 4 January 2018, he was announced as the new manager of Etar Veliko Tarnovo with Stanislav Genchev, Iliyan Kiryakov and Kaloyan…

Balakov made 92 appearances for Bulgaria, between 1988 and 2003 (one of the best totals in national history) and scored 16 goals. He made his debut on 2 November 1988, in the 1–1 draw with Denmark in a qualifying match for the 1990 FIFA World Cup, coming on as a late second half substitute for Hristo Stoichkov. At the 1994 FIFA World Cup, he finished in fourth place with Bulgaria after losing 2–1 to Italy in the semi-finals and 4–0 to Sweden in the bronze medal match, completing the most dribbles throughout the tournament (31). Other than that, he also played for his country at Euro 1996 and the 1998 FIFA World Cup. At age 37 he played in the qualifications for Euro 2004 to help his teammates qualify but retired from football before the final stage in Portugal.

International goals

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

Etar Veliko Tarnovo

A Group: 1990–91 Sporting CP

Portuguese Cup: 1995 VfB Stuttgart

DFB-Pokal: 1996–97 UEFA Intertoto Cup: 2000, 2002 DFB-Ligapokal finalist: 1997, 1998 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup finalist: 1997–98 Bundesliga runner-up: 2002–03 Bulgaria

FIFA World Cup fourth place: 1994 Individual

FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1994 Bulgarian Footballer of the Year: 1995, 1997 kicker Bundesliga Team of the Season: 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98 World XI (Reserve): 1996