Velizar Popov

Velizar Emilov Popov (Велизар Емилов Попов; born 7 February 1976) is a Bulgarian former professional player and current manager of V.League 1 club Thanh Hóa FC.

He is known for an aggressive attacking high intensity football style which brings in results and development to his players and teams.

As a player, Popov appeared for Lokomotiv Plovdiv, Hebar Pazardzhik and Spartak Plovdiv.

Popov has managed abroad 10 different teams in 8 different countries including 2 national teams.

On 16 September 2009, Popov was appointed the manager of Cherno More Varna, replacing Nikola Spasov after two years as his assistant.

He made his managerial debut in the Bulgarian A PFG on 20 September against Minyor Pernik.

The youngest manager in the Bulgarian League, he led Cherno More in 36 league appearances and three Bulgarian Cup matches.

Popov remains in history as the coach who reached the most expressive win of Cherno More against the leader in Bulgarian Championship Levski Sofia.

In December 2009 the sailors defeated the blue team 4–1 in the Bulgarian Cup.

In June 2010 Popov attracted Mário Jardel to the team, who was arguably the most famous name to have played in the Bulgarian league.

In October 2010, Popov moved to Danish side Liberika Horsens, with which he won promotion in 2011.

New Radiant broke the league points record of 53 set by VB Sports in 2010 by taking the Blues league points to 57, becoming the first team in history to finish off the league with a perfect season.

New Radiant won all 19 matches they played, scoring 73 goals and conceding only 5 goals.

In the Asian AFC Cup Popov got to impressive results for the first time in the history of Maldivian football.

The team scored the biggest win ever in the AFC Cup 7–0 against Indonesian team Persib.

New Radiant finished on the top of the group stage with the best attacking record of 20 goals in 6 games and second best defensive record of the tournament receiving 4 goals in 6 games.

The club won the group with 15 points in 6 games —the best score ever in Maldivian football history— and qualified for the quarterfinals, where they beat Selangor from Malaysia 2–0 after extra time.

For the 2011–2012 season Popov led Moldovan FC Costuleni in the Premier League Moldova.

He is the one and only Bulgarian football manager to win abroad a treble with a 100% winning record in 2013 and also the Group Stage in AFC Cup, reaching the quarterfinals for the first and only time in the history of Maldives football in international competitions.

In January 2013, Popov headed the Maldivian champion New Radiant and won the Maldivian championship with a 100% winning record.

He also won the Maldives FA Cup and the Supercup Milo Charity Shield, winning the treble.

This was the third time New Radiant won the league.

Popov won 2013 Maldives Haveeru Awards - Best Coach of the year award and also The Special Excellence Award of New Radiant SC for the historic season.

On 7 October 2013, two days after winning the FA Cup for historic treble with New Radiant, Popov left to take on Omani club Sur Sports Club, signing a one-year contract until the end of the 2013/2014 season.

Popov debut in one of the most attractive derby matches in Omani League defeating local rivals Al-Oruba 3–0.

In 3 months Popov managed to climb Sur Club from 10 to 3 position in the standings and registering the best attack in the league.

As a consequence, five Sur Club players were called up to the Oman Olympic national team.

For the 2014 season, Popov was appointed as the new manager of Suphanburi F.C. of the Thai Premier League.

Popov led the team to the 6th position from 20 teams in the final league table and led Suphanburi to their first FA Cup semi final appearance in club history.

In January 2015, Popov was unveiled as the new manager of Maldives national team, in a ceremony held before the kick off of POMIS Cup Final, returning to the country where he led New Radiant to an unprecedented domestic treble in 2013.

Popov embarks on his first foray into national team coaching.

Popov was close to making one of the biggest surprises ever in the Asian football in the world cup qualifiers against Qatar.

The favourite Qatar needed 9 minutes of added time to beat the Maldives in a World Cup qualifier with the lone goal coming in the ninth minute of added time, even though there was only supposed to be eight minutes of added time.

In the Indian Ocean Islands Games Maldives with Popov won their first match ever in this competition after 3 participations so far beating the old rival Seychelles 2–1.

On 12 August 2015, Popov resigned as the Maldives national football team coach.

National team captain Ali Ashfaq ‘Dhagandey’ and keeper Imran Mohamed had criticized FAM following Popov's decision to resign.

In 2019 Popov won a bronze medal from the Southeast Asian Games with Myanmar.

In 2023 under the guidance of Velizar Popov FC Dong A Thanh Hoa won the National Cup of Vietnam for the first time ever and the Vietnamese Super Cup as well, becoming the first and only manager in the club's history with two trophies in one year 2023, also reached another historic achievement for the club and Vietnam League 1 as the only one undefeated team in 13 consecutive away games during the whole year 2023.

Popov has over two decades of experience across the world with extensive stints in Europe and Asia, managing more than 200 official games in Bulgaria, Denmark, Moldova, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Oman.

As manager of the Maldives Senior national team and Myanmar Olympic national teams, he participated in international competitions such as World Cup Qualifiers, AFC Cup, AFF Championship and Southeast Asian Games.