Valeri Bojinov

Valeri Emilov Bozhinov (, ), (born February 15, 1986) is a Bulgarian football (soccer) striker who plays for Manchester City F.C. of the English Premier League.

Name

Valeri Bozhinov is the correct English language transliteration of his birth name Валери Божинов; his current club, Manchester City, use the name "Bojinov", which is the French language and Portuguese language transliteration.

Biography

Born in the Bulgarian town of Gorna Oryahovitsa, Bozhinov moved to Malta at the age of 12 with his mother; Pepa, a former Bulgaria national basketball team player and stepfather Sasho Angelov, who had played for the Bulgaria national football team during the 1990s.

Bozhinov was discovered at the age of 14 by U.S. Lecce sports director Pantaleo Corvino, while playing for Pietà Hotspurs, and signed for just 30,000,000 Italian Lira (around €15,000).

Club career

Lecce

A promising youngster, Bozhinov settled in Lecce and continued his studies there while playing for U.S. Lecce youth teams. He debuted in Italian Serie A on January 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 on January 6 2004 in a home 1-2 defeat against Bologna FC 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 A.C.F. Fiorentina in January 2005, in a transfer worth approximately €13 million (9 million pound (currency)), he was just 18 years old at the time.

During January 2006, Bozhinov was rumoured to be joining Italian giants Inter Milan on a 6 month loan deal, with Internazionale goalkeeper Francesco Toldo rumoured to be going in the opposite direction. However, he remained in Florence and was re-introduced into Fiorentina's squad after a period of exclusion. He built up a partnership with Luca Toni during the Serie A, with Toni scoring the most Serie A goals in one season, since.

In July 2006, he moved to Italy powerhouse Juventus in a deal which included Adrian 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".

Manchester City

On August 3, it was reported that Bozhinov completed his move to Manchester City F.C., signing a four-year contract in an undisclosed fee deal, thought to be £5.75m. Bojinov was ruled out for five months after suffering a knee ligament injury against Manchester United F.C. in August. 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 manager Sven Goran Eriksson told Valeri Bojinov that he would not be ready to play in the game against Everton F.C. 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 F.C.. 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 national football team, Bozhinov scored an impressive bicycle kick against Greece national football team.

He was called up to the full Bulgaria national side, at 2004 UEFA European Football Championship. Bojinov made one appearance in the tournament (his first team debut), against Italy national football team (Which Bulgaria lost 2-1) in 22 June 2004. Against the Republic of Ireland national football team 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.