Valeri Bojinov

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Valeri Emilov Bozhinov (Bulgarian: Валери Емилов Божинов, pronounced [vəˈlɛri boˈʒinof]; born February 15, 1986) is a Bulgarian football striker who plays for Manchester City of the English Premier League.

Valeri Bozhinov is the correct English transliteration of his birth name Валери Божинов; 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, Bojinov 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.

Bojinov 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), 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. Bojinov said that he would be happy to stay with Juventus and that they do have the option to keep him. 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 3 August, 2007, it was reported that Bojinov 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 2007.^[5] He returned to full training on 22 January, 2008, scoring five goals in a bounce game. On the 11 February, 2008, Bojinov played in a Manchester City reserve game, where he came on as a subtitute and scored a header from a 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 25 February, 2008. 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.

He scored his first goal for the club over a year after joining in a pre-season friendly against Stockport County. He also scored the winning goal in a friendly against AC Milan on 9 August, 2008. On the 17 August, 2008, Bojinov was ruled out for six months after suffering an Achilles injury as he was running on to the pitch to warm up against Aston Villa. He has been labelled 'unlucky' as this is his second long term injury^{[citation needed]}. By mid-January 2009 the club announced that Valeri was nearing full training^{[citation needed]}.

In mid-February 2009, Manchester City manager Mark Hughes declared that Valeri Bojinov was going to play a practice match "Behind closed doors" as he was nearing his return to first team football. Valeri Bojinov played 65 minutes for the reserves on 17 February, 2009. He even scored a penalty against rivals Manchester United in a reserve game while regaining match fitness.

Bojinov made his long-awaited return to Premier League football by coming on as an 89th minute substitute against West Ham on the 1 March 2009. Bojinov then appeared again as a late substitute for Manchester City by coming on as an 83rd minute substitute in place of Elano against Aston Villa.^[6] Valeri made his first start since 2007 in the 1-0 home win over Sunderland FC on March 22 2009, but was substituted in the 65th minute which saw the return of injured Craig Bellamy. He finally scored his first league goal in the 2-1 loss against Tottenham on 16 May 2009, 4 minutes after coming on as a substitute for compatriot Martin Petrov in the 61st minute.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Valeri Bojinov career stats at Soccerbase
• Juventus.com - Profile and Stats
• FootballDatabase.com - Profile and Stats
• Goal.com profile

v • d • e Bulgaria squad – UEFA Euro 2004 1 Zdravkov • 2 Ivanov • 3 Kirilov • 4 Ivaylo Petkov • 5 Zagorčić • 6 Kotev • 7 Borimirov • 8 Milen Petkov • 9 Berbatov • 10 Dimitrov • 11 Lazarov • 12 Kolev • 13 Peev • 14 Chilikov • 15 Hristov • 16 Manchev • 17 M. Petrov • 18 Pažin • 19 S. Petrov • 20 Bojinov • 21 Janković • 22 Stoyanov • 23 Ivankov • Coach: Markov