Career
Forward with remarkable ball control, imagination, dribbling skills and feints, Sokolov is regarded as one of the talanted Bulgarian football players of all time. Sokolov spent the majority of his playing career with, winning two A Group titles and two Bulgarian Cups. Club career Sokolov started his career with Spartak Plovdiv (under his father"s Apostol Sokolov management).
On 1 December 1957, he made his debut against Spartak Pleven to become the A Group"s youngest ever player at the age of 15 years, 5 months and 12 days old.
In early 1958, Sokolov joined. He made his debut for the club in a friendly against Chelsea in Sofia on 17 August 1958.
Two weeks later, he made his league debut for Levski in a 0–0 draw against Spartak Varna at the age of 16 years, 2 months and 12 days old. Sokolov spent 11 seasons with Levski, scoring 83 goals in 239 matches in all competitions.
On 12 September 1965, he scored the club"s first ever goal in the European Cup in a 2–1 away loss against Djurgårdens IF. International career Sokolov played a key role in Bulgaria winning the 1959 Union of European Football Associations European Under-18 Championship on home soil.
He scored goal in the team"s opening group stage match against the Netherlands. Sokolov also scored against East Germany in the semi-finals. One month later, Sokolov received his first call-up to the senior Bulgaria squad.
He participated in the 1962, and scored Bulgaria"s first ever World Cup goal, in a 6–1 loss against Hungary.