Ivan Penev

Central Defender - Yantra
24 Oct 2026
Saturday
Process
Overview Personal Contract News 3 Transfers Relations Events 33 Awards Matches History

Marked for Ivan Penev

10 Edition

The Yantra Post

5 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings5 Oct 2026

Georgi Babaliev was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Squad5 Oct 2026

Renato Hyshmeri pulls a muscle — 17 days out

The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.

Squad5 Oct 2026

Tempers go at Yantra

Kristiyan Malinov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad5 Oct 2026

Martin Yankov is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Boardroom5 Oct 2026

Wages swallow 115% of the Yantra income

Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.

The dugout5 Oct 2026

The form table has caught Ivan Penev

Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.

The dugout5 Oct 2026

The manager makes an example of Emiliyan Gogev

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

The dugout5 Oct 2026

The manager’s verdict

“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Aleksandar Tonev was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Yantra dressing room was either.

Squad5 Oct 2026

Martin Yankov is no longer first choice

The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Martin Yankov has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.

In brief

Back issues
8 Edition

The Yantra Post

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match19 Sep 2026

The wait goes on for Yantra

7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Match19 Sep 2026

The goals have deserted Yantra

7 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Yantra can tell you which week it ends in.

Transfer targets21 Sep 2026

Criciúma tell Yantra: Thales is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

The dugout21 Sep 2026

Gennadiy Ganev gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Squad21 Sep 2026

22 new faces, and Yantra are still learning each other

A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.

Squad21 Sep 2026

A falling-out at Yantra

Boris Todorov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

The dugout21 Sep 2026

Ivan Penev dropped after a run of poor form

The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.

The dugout21 Sep 2026

Half-satisfied: Aleksandar Tonev on the draw

“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.

Match19 Sep 2026

No goals between Yantra and Dunav Ruse

Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Dunav Ruse will be the happier side with the point.

In brief

5 Edition

The Yantra Post

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Transfer targets31 Aug 2026

$1.4M settles it between the clubs for Federico Rose

Tabor Sežana have accepted the money. What Yantra do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.

Match29 Aug 2026

The wait goes on for Yantra

5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Match29 Aug 2026

The goals have deserted Yantra

5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Yantra can tell you which week it ends in.

Squad31 Aug 2026

Petko Ganev in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Yantra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets31 Aug 2026

Door shut on Duje Korač

Yantra asked and Rudes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Player ratings31 Aug 2026

Georgi Babaliev runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad31 Aug 2026

Lachezar Iliev out for 42 days

The medical room confirms 42 days on the sidelines for Lachezar Iliev, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

The dugout31 Aug 2026

Somebody else is better right now than Gennadiy Ganev

The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.

Squad31 Aug 2026

No place for Preslav Georgiev in the new shape

He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Yantra are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.

In brief