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CSKA fans are upset by the choice of Dimitar Iliev as the best Bulgarian soccer player for 2020. Led by Valentin Antov. The Reds still have three awards. It was Antov who was chosen as the best defender, Tiago as the number 1 midfielder and Ali Sow as the best foreigner. The recognition for CSKA is great, because the team’s footballer was not the first only in the position of goalkeeper and forward. The joy of the “army” would have been complete, but it did not happen. Due to the fact that the most important individual award did not go to Antov. The 20-year-old defender could be only the second to become footballer of the year at this age. So far only Georgi Milanov has done it, with the Litex team.
I don’t want to belittle Dimitar Iliev’s second win in a row. But Antov also deserved the top, which sooner or later he will climb. Because his talent has been visible since he was a child. He is the youngest captain in CSKA history, he only put the tape on at 14. He works hard and develops, month and year. And his character and attitude are not typical of a Bulgarian footballer. Especially a young one. Antov is unique. He respects the regime, he does not get into any scandal, he has always been an example. CSKA’s child prodigy has grown into a man who evokes sympathy and respect.
“Now Antov, in a few years Brilliantov” – that was the title of my comment on Valio after his first matches for the 31-time champion. He justified it. It is a diamond for CSKA and our football, it is the future.
Well, the future didn’t start today. And he could. This award would have a great effect on the defender’s even better development. Which is good for our national team. We can’t remember Mitko Iliev there, for one reason or another.
Probably many people will weigh the two cups that the forward won with Lokomotiv (Plovdiv), one only against CSKA. But the “Footballer of the Year” is an individual award, not a team award. And did Iliev score a goal in regulation time and in extra time in the final? No! So Valentin Antov did a perfect job in this direct collision on the field.
You will say that Mitko brought the Super Cup with his goal to Ludogorets. That’s right, and with a great goal. But is this more than CSKA’s breakthrough in Europe, achieved in large part thanks to Antov, who was excellent in his performances against BATE, Basel and especially Rome 0-0 at Olimpico? Remember what forwards he played against and how this 20-year-old boy played. And the victory over Roma in Sofia? Two goals for CSKA in the middle of the fall season … They are the least. Besides being a defender, Valentin Antov is also at the level of a supporting midfielder. One of the leaders of the “reds”, of the players with the most minutes on the field. He did not delay the interest in him from the great European teams, such as Roma and Arsenal.
Valyo Antov deserved an award right now. If you continue in the same spirit, it is a sin not to give it to you in the years to come. But, going back to the past, the award was not won by Dimitar Yakimov, Petar Zhekov, Georgi Denev … And at the same time it went to Ivelin Popov 3 times (nothing personal for Popeto, only the level of our football dropped so much that it was not real there was a competitor at the time). What is the value of this award? Increasingly insignificant. Do we give way to the young? Very often only in words. I put Valentin Antov first. I would do it again. Because it deserves it. And it will continue to prove it.
Updated
Dimitar Iliev is a Bulgarian soccer player България1 for the second time in a row
His runners-up were Valentin Antov and Anton Nedyalkov
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