Marian Georgiev Hristov (born 29 July 1973) is a Bulgarian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Since his retirement from playing, he has worked as an assistant manager.

Club career

Hristov started his professional career at PFC Balkan Botevgrad in 1993. He then went on to play at Slavia Sofia (1994–95) and Levski Sofia (1995–97) before joining Kaiserslautern in 1997. During his tenure at the german club, he achieved notable success, winning the Bundesliga title in 1998, reaching the UEFA Champions League quarter-final in 1999 as well as the UEFA Cup semi-final in 2001. He was also runner-up for the DFB-Pokal in 2003. In 2004, Hristov joined VfL Wolfsburg, but missed most of the 2004–05 season due to a serious knee injury. He was able to return successfully towards the end of the 2005–06 season. Unfortunately, he was again out of the team for almost the entire 2006–07 season due to another injury, as a result of which his contract with VfL was not renewed in 2007.

International career

For Bulgaria, he played at the 1998 World Cup where he appeared in two of the three games of the team, against Nigeria and Spain. He was also part of the Bulgarian squad that reached the 2004 European Championship, and started in all three group stage matches. By 27 March 2007, Hristov had retired from international football, earning 45 caps and scoring four times for the national team. He has also expressed an interest in coaching his country.

International goals

Honours

1. FC Kaiserslautern