Dimitar Penev

In this Bulgarian name, the patronymic is Dushkov and the family name is Penev.

Dimitar Penev

Penev with Bulgaria
Personal information
Full name	Dimitar Dushkov Penev
Date of birth	(1945-07-12)12 July 1945
Place of birth	Mirovyane, Bulgaria
Date of death	3 January 2026(2026-01-03) (aged 80)
Position	Central defender
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1962–1964	Lokomotiv Sofia	35	(1)
1964–1977	CSKA Sofia	329	(24)
Total		364	(25)
International career
1964–1977	Bulgaria	90	(2)
Managerial career
1977–1979	Dimitrovgrad
1983–1985	Al-Yarmouk
1985–1990	CSKA Sofia
1989	Bulgaria
1991–1996	Bulgaria
1997	Al-Nassr
1998	Spartak Varna
1998–2000	CSKA Sofia
2003	Liaoning
2007	Bulgaria
2008–2009	CSKA Sofia
2011–2012	CSKA Sofia
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Dimitar Dushkov Penev (Bulgarian: Димитър Душков Пенев, 12 July 1945 – 3 January 2026) was a Bulgarian football player and coach who played as a central defender for CSKA Sofia. He was regarded as one of his country's best ever defenders, winning Bulgarian Footballer of the Year in 1967 and 1971. He played 90 games for the Bulgaria national team and scored two goals, participating in three FIFA World cups for his national team in 1966, 1970 and 1974. He was Honorary President of CSKA Sofia and semi-professional side Nottingham United FC.

Coaching career

Penev was manager of the Bulgaria national team during the 1994 FIFA World Cup, where his team reached the semi-finals and then lost the bronze medal game with Sweden. Throughout his career as manager he demonstrated excellence in both tactics and team psychology. Penev's most notable quality was his ability to work well with young players. During his career at CSKA Sofia he discovered a lot of previously unknown or little-known talented youths and used them as a basis for a domestically and internationally successful squad. Amongst them Hristo Stoichkov, Emil Kostadinov, Lyuboslav Penev, Martin Petrov, Stiliyan Petrov and Dimitar Berbatov.

On 30 July 2007, he was appointed manager of the Bulgaria national team for the second time. Last he was the manager of CSKA Sofia, but on 6 March 2009 CSKA fired the coach – the Bulgarian team decided to substitute him with his nephew Lyuboslav Penev.

Relevant statistics

As of April 2007, Penev had been in charge of the Bulgaria national team for 55 matches in total (25 wins, 15 draws, 15 losses, with a goal difference of 88:60).

Personal life and death

Penev died on 3 January 2026, at the age of 80.

Bulgarian Presidents Petar Stoyanov and Georgi Parvanov are among the thousands who came to the Vasil Levski National Stadium on January 5, 2026 to pay their last respects to Dimitar Penev.

He was the uncle of former Bulgarian international and national team coach Lyuboslav Penev.

Honours

Player

Lokomotiv Sofia

• A Group: 1963–64

CSKA Sofia

• A Group (7): 1965–66, 1968–69, 1970–71, 1971–72, 1972–73, 1974–75, 1975–76
• Bulgarian Cup: 1964–65, 1968–69, 1971–72, 1972–73, 1973–74

Manager

Bulgaria

• FIFA World Cup: fourth place 1994

External links

• Dimitar Penev at WorldFootball.net
• Dimitar Penev at IMDb