Qingdao Hainiu Football Club officially announced on December 25th that Yasen Petrov will become the head coach of Qingdao Hainiu. Domestic fans should already be very familiar with Yassen, who once led Shijiazhuang Yongchang to a successful promotion and also played for Jiangsu during his playing days.
Born in June 1968, Yassen, a midfielder for the Bulgarian national team, has also played for Wuhan Yaqi, Jiangsu Jiajia and Chengdu Wuniu Football Club in the Chinese league.
Speaking of Yassen, Jiangsu fans undoubtedly have a deep impression of him. Because when he played for Jiangsu in 1998, it was the year when Jiangsu Jiajia created the "home dragon" record in A B. During his time, he was the top penalty kicker of the team. During his time with Yasen, he was the team's top penalty taker. The most popular story is that he received a pass from Wu Jun from the right side of the road in the match against Henan Jianye, and showed a textbook fish leap over the top, hitting the ball into the opponent's goal, and finally ended the match with a 4:0 victory.
During his time in China, Yassen has also managed to turn the Yutong Sports Center, the home of Shijiazhuang Yongchang, into a "Devil's Home Stadium". 2014 saw him lead Yongchang to the Super League, and in 2015 Yongchang drew consecutive home games against Shanghai Shanghai Gang, Shandong Luneng, Guangzhou Evergrande and Beijing Guoan, all of which were ranked fourth in the top four that year. In 2015, Yongchang won consecutive home draws against Shanghai SIPG, Shandong Luneng, Guangzhou Evergrande and Beijing Guoan, all of which were ranked in the top four that year, and against another powerful team, Shanghai Shenhua, Yongchang won at home and drew on the road. Shijiazhuang Yongchang also became the dark horse of that season, eventually ranking seventh.
Yassen ended his second stint at Shijiazhuang Yongchang in July 2019 and in January 2021 became the head coach of the Bulgarian national team. Unfortunately, he was ultimately unsuccessful in leading the team to the World Cup.
