Dimitar Ivankov Bulgarian footballer (goalkeeper) Date of Birth: 30.10.1975 Country: Bulgaria

Biography of Dimitar Ivankov

Dimitar Ivankov is a Bulgarian footballer who is best known for his goal-scoring abilities, particularly from penalties. As of April 2011, he ranked third in the list of the world's top-scoring goalkeepers with 42 goals. He was born in Sofia and began playing football in the youth division of Levski Sofia. Over nine seasons, Ivankov played in 275 matches and scored 25 goals. His team was crowned champions of Bulgaria in 2000, 2001, and 2002, and won the national cup in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2005.

In June 2005, Ivankov signed a contract with the Turkish team Kayserispor, where he played for three years. On May 7, 2008, thanks to Ivankov's performance, Kayserispor won the Turkish Cup by defeating 8 penalties and scoring 2. In total, Ivankov played 94 matches in the Turkish Super League for Kayserispor and scored 6 goals. On June 9, 2008, he signed another contract with the Turkish team Bursaspor, where he also played for three years.

One of his most significant achievements with Bursaspor was scoring a goal against Fenerbahçe in the 95th minute of a match, leading to a final score of 2-1 in favor of Bursaspor. In 2010, Ivankov scored his 42nd professional goal, placing him third on the list of the world's top-scoring goalkeepers. The same year, Bursaspor won the Turkish Super League championship.

On June 23, 2011, Ivankov signed a contract with the Cypriot team Anorthosis Famagusta, but the contract was mutually terminated on August 8 when the team was eliminated from the Europa League. Ivankov started playing for the Bulgarian national team in 1998 and has saved the team's goal from a total of 64 shots. In 2004, he was part of the national team for the UEFA European Championship, although he didn't play in any matches as Zdravko Zdravkov was the first-choice goalkeeper at the time. After the championship, Ivankov became the main goalkeeper for the Bulgarian national team. His last international match was on March 3, 2010, in a friendly game against Poland.