Vladimir Nikolaev Nikolov

Vladimir Nikolov's biggest night for Bulgaria came in a single match. On 27 March 2026, in a 2026 FIFA Series fixture against the Solomon Islands that finished 10-2, he scored all three of his international goals to date. Before that game he had made his senior debut in 2025, and by June 2026 he had 13 caps and those three goals, including one in five World Cup qualifying appearances and two goalless outings in the UEFA Nations League.

Nikolov came through the Slavia Sofia academy before moving on to DIT Sofia and Septemvri Sofia, where he broke into the first team in 2018 and went on to play 35 league matches, scoring six goals. That form took him to Germany in September 2020, when Würzburger Kickers signed him, though he managed only 18 appearances there without a goal. In January 2022 he was swapped to Austrian side Admira Wacker in a deal involving defender Marco Hauschell, and made 11 appearances before returning to Slavia Sofia as a free agent on 1 January 2023.

The second spell at Slavia was his most productive: over two seasons he played 79 matches and scored 16 goals. In the summer of 2025, he signed for Korona Kielce in a deal worth around €100,000 that runs to 30 June 2028, with an option to extend by a further 12 months. Settling into Polish football, he made 28 appearances in his first season, 25 of them in the Ekstraklasa, adding three cup outings, though his output there has been modest: one goal and one assist.

He also has a run of youth international appearances behind him, from Bulgaria's under-17s through to the under-21s, scoring in each age group along the way. No team honours or individual awards have been recorded in his career so far.