Good that he's scoring when he needs to impress. I wonder if Amirgy Pineda got any time with the Nike squad. I googled it and it said it was a closed door match so who knows.
Premier League Free Transfer List 2013-14 http://www.premierleague.com/conten...emier-league-free-transfer-list-2013-2014.pdf See PDF page 3 under Liverpool.
United States soccer media overlooked Villyan Bijev's status, where it reported four days ago from overseas that the former Liverpool player joined Slavia Sofia. Keep in mind, sportal.bg originally broke this news story on May 16th, less than one week after Liverpool released Mr. Bijev. Check out @LFCSCN's Tweet: Reservelagspiller Villyan Bijev har skrevet under for Slavia Sofia -http://t.co/YjjdKXEC4G— LFCSC Norway (@LFCSCN) June 11, 2014 Need to use Google Translate below. BIJEV SLAVIA SOFIA Villyan Bijev has signed a contract with Bulgarian Slavia Sofia, after the 21-year-old attacker has been released by Liverpool. [June 11, 2014] http://touch.liverpool.no/nyheter/bijev-til-slavia-sofia.aspx Slavia took Liverpool player [May 16, 2014] http://mobile.sportal.bg/news.php?id=487784 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PFC_Slavia_Sofia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_A_Football_Group
Well that's.....an odd move. Slavia isn't regarded as one of the top three clubs in Sofia for the most part and definitely not top two. If he went to Levski/CSKA, I'd find that odd too, but they're two of the biggest clubs in BG with deep history so he'd at least be signing with one of the two bigger clubs in a not so good league. My guess is this is as much about experiencing Bulgarian culture, learning the language, given he grew up here in CA but is likely drawn to that part of his heritage. If he does well, Slavia wouldn't hesitate to sell either. Ovcha Kupel stadium where Slavia plays is also the home of their U21's, so that likely played into this. Not the best part of Sofia though.
I used to have two of my offshore programming centers in Sofia and Ruse back in the day so I know a bit about Bulgarian soccer. Like you said, strange that he didn't at least end up at CSKA or Levski.
What has Bijev ever done to show he belongs at CSKA or Levski? I think the kid has played two professional first team games (one at Fortuna Dusseldorf and one at IK Start). The kid has a nice opportunity to go to the Bulgarian league and establish himself as a pro. If he does that, then maybe a "bigger" team will come calling.
He needs games at his age. If he can get them in the first division, he will move up. Better to take a perceived step back at this point than languish further. (This of course presumes he will get a chance to contribute with his new team; I guess we'll see.)
Came on in the 88th minute of his 1st game and made it 4:1- http://www.transfermarkt.com/spielbericht/index/spielbericht/2470794 Not for nothing, their starting striker is a Brazilian who wears #99 and goes by Michel Platini.
He also came on in the 90th minute of their 2nd game, but didn't get a goal this time. http://us.soccerway.com/matches/201...c-lokomotiv-plovdiv/pfc-slavia-sofia/1703147/
Didn't play the third game: http://us.soccerway.com/matches/2014/08/03/bulgaria/a-pfg/pfc-slavia-sofia/pfc-cska-sofia/1703161/ Came on in the 76' in the fourth match (1-0 loss): http://www.flashscore.com/match/AgvMsIkC/#match-summary
Came on in the 65' in the fifth match (2-0 loss): http://www.flashscore.com/match/Gf7raJKn/#match-summary
Bijev has played 79 minutes total this season over 6 games. Latest appearance came on Aug. 30, when he played 21 minutes. http://us.soccerway.com/matches/2014/08/30/bulgaria/a-pfg/pfc-slavia-sofia/pfk-litex-lovech/1703205/ Is he Olympics-eligible? Is he good enough?
I don't think he'd be eligible for the US. He's played for Bulgaria's U-21 team in UEFA qualifiers, so he'd be cup-tied at this age level, no? Similar to Julian Green not being able to play for the US U-20s after his experiences with the German U-19s. In any case, I suspect it's academic. I doubt Bizhev would make the US team.
Others can comment on his eligibility but, based on his record at Liverpool and the caliber of the club where he's (struggling to) get on the field, I'd say he's a long, long way from being good enough for a USA team in 2014. 15 years ago, maybe, but not today.
Most recently played 10 minutes in Oct. 19 game. Slavia Sofia, his team, is 10th out of 12th in the Bulgarian league. http://us.soccerway.com/matches/201.../pfc-marek-dupnitsa/pfc-slavia-sofia/1703271/
What do you mean no change? He's at Cherno More Varna in North East Bulgaria. Shitty club, great place to meet smokin' hot women though.
He played in a couple of winter friendlies for them but didn't feature in their first competitive game this year, a Cup game. Transfermarkt has him moving on a free.
20 Vilian Bijev Birth day: 3/01/1993 Nationality: Bulgarian Height: 187 cm Weight: 75 kg Position: FORWARD http://chernomorepfc.bg/eng/ The Bulgarian Riviera should suffice: Vilian Bijev at Cherno More Varna? @bungadiri
Scored the 4th goal in the 0:5 Cup win at Gorna Oryahovitsa (or Горна Оряховица in Cyrillic), which Cherno More Varna (черно море варна) won 0:6 on aggregate. The goal is at 1 min .... what you didn't think they had video cameras in Bulgaria?
Varna! What a great town. I once flew from Sofia to Varna in a Russian Antonov 24 ...on Friday the 13th.