- Valeri Bojinov
Infobox Football biography
playername = Valeri Bozhinov
fullname = Valeri Emilov Bozhinov
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1986|2|15
cityofbirth =Gorna Oryahovitsa
countryofbirth =Bulgaria
currentclub = Manchester City
clubnumber = 9
height = height|metres=1.78
position =Striker
youthyears = 1999–20012001–2002
youthclubs =Pietà Hotspurs F.C. Lecce
years = 2002–2004 2005–2007 2006–2007 2007–present
clubs = LecceFiorentina → Juventus "(co-owned)"Manchester City
caps(goals) = 65 (16) 36 0(8) 18 0(5) 03 0(0)
nationalyears = 2004–
nationalteam = Bulgaria
nationalcaps(goals) = 17 0(3)
pcupdate = 18:03, 20 August 2007 (UTC)
ntupdate = 31 October 2006Valeri Emilov Bozhinov ( _bg. Валери Емилов Божинов, IPA2|və.'lɛ.ri bo.'ʒi.nov), (born February 15, 1986) is a
Bulgaria n footballstriker who plays for Manchester City of theEnglish Premier League .Name
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.Biography
Born in the Bulgarian town of
Gorna Oryahovitsa , Bozhinov moved toMalta 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.Bozhinov was discovered at the age of 14 by
U.S. Lecce sports director Pantaleo Corvino, while playing forPietà Hotspurs , and signed for just 30,000,000 ITL (around €15,000).Club career
Lecce
A promising youngster, Bozhinov settled in
Lecce and continued his studies there while playing forU.S. Lecce youth teams. He debuted in ItalianSerie A onJanuary 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 onJanuary 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.Fiorentina
Bozhinov was soon picked up by Fiorentina in January 2005, in a transfer worth approximately €13 million (9 million pounds), he was just 18 years old at the time. [ [http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/w27spotlight.html Football Italia - Player of the Week: Born-again Bojinov] ]
During January 2006, Bozhinov was rumoured to be joining Italian giants
Inter Milan on a 6 month loan deal, with Internazionale goalkeeperFrancesco Toldo rumoured to be going in the opposite direction. However, he remained inFlorence and was re-introduced into Fiorentina's squad after a period of exclusion. He built up a partnership withLuca 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 includedAdrian Mutu 's transfer to Fiorentina. Bozhinov said that he would be happy to stay with Juve and that they do have the option. 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". [ [http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/oct19m.html Football Italia - Viola reveal Bojinov price] ]Manchester City
On August 3, it was reported that Bozhinov completed his move to Manchester City, signing a four-year contract in an undisclosed fee deal, thought to be £5.75m.cite news
title = Bojinov seals switch to Man City
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_city/6926412.stm
publisher = BBC Sport
date =2007-08-03
accessdate = 2007-08-03] cite news
title = Bojinov signs for City
url = http://www.mcfc.twiihosting.net/default.sps?pageid=115&pagegid=%7BDBD12D53%2D8346%2D431D%2DA04F%2D5D0F8664DE80%7D&newsid=449628&siteid=&pageno=&newscategory=&frommonth=6&fromyear=2007&tomonth=8&toyear=2007
publisher = Manchester City FC official site
date =2007-08-03
accessdate = 2007-08-03] Bojinov was ruled out for five months after suffering a knee ligament injury against Manchester United in August.cite news
title = Man City rocked by Bojinov injury
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_city/6955790.stm
publisher = BBC Sport
date =2007-08-20
accessdate = 2007-08-20] He returned to full training on the 22nd of January scoring five goals in a bounce game. On the 11th of February Bojinov played in a Manchester City reserve game, where he came on as a subtitute and scored a header from cross by Emile Mpenza. Manchester City managerSven Goran Eriksson told Valeri Bojinov that he would not be ready to play in the game against Everton on the 25th of February. 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 August 9th 2008. On the 17th 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. Bojinov could miss another season of football at Manchester City. He has been labelled 'unlucky' as this is his second long term injury.International career
While with Lecce, Bozhinov had previously played at various youth levels for his country. On his under-21 debut for Bulgaria, Bozhinov scored an impressive over-head kick against Greece.
He was called up to the full Bulgaria national side, at Euro 2004. Bojinov made one appearance in the tournament (his first team debut), against Italy (Which Bulgaria lost 2-1) in 22 June 2004. Against the Republic of Ireland later that year in 18 August, he scored his first goal for the national side.
To date, he has played 21 times for his country, netting five times and is a first team regular in
Dimitar Penev 's squad.References
External links
*soccerbase|id=29965|name=Valeri Bojinov
* [http://www.juventus.com/uk/team/detailPlayer.aspx?lml_language_id=0&trs_id=1488000&ID=2738 Juventus.com - Profile and Stats]
* [http://www.footballdatabase.com/site/players/index.php?dumpPlayer=6130 FootballDatabase.com - Profile and Stats]
* [http://www.goal.com/en-us/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=370745 Goal.com profile]
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