Yanko Valkanov

Club

Early career in Bulgaria

He started his professional football career with CSKA Sofia in the 1999/2000 league season and was quickly loaned out to Beroe Stara Zagora to gain more playing time. The following season he was loaned out once more to Naftex Burgas, however he was unable to establish himself and returned to CSKA Sofia during the league season. At the beginning of the 2002/2003 league season he would transfer to Marek Dupnitsa and during his time with them he would attract the interests of Slavia Sofia and would join them before the start of the 2003/2004 where after several seasons he would establish himself as an integral member of their team.

Belarus and Lithuania

Yanko Valkanov joined reigning Belarusian Cup winners MTZ-RIPO Minsk during the 2006 league season and while he was a squad regular he could not establish himself as a first team regular. By the following season he would move to Lithuanian football club FBK Kaunas during the 2007 league season, however his time with them was not the most productive and halfway through the 2008 league season in July he would return to MTZ-RIPO Minsk.

Move to China

At the beginning of the 2009 China Super League season he transferred to Shanghai Shenhua. At first he was criticized for poor performances by both fans and the media, but he began to gain popularity on the other end of the pitch; he has so far scored 5 goals (3 in Chinese Super League, 2 in AFC Champions League),…

International

Statistics accurate as of 11 November 2015

International goal