The 18-year-old youth of Botev (Plovdiv) Dimitar Papazov was transferred to the Italian elite Bologna, the Plovdiv football team officially announced club, BTA reported.
The Italian club showed interest in the full-back in the winter and now the transfer has been completed.
The young footballer's contract is for 4 years with an option to extend it for another year, BTA learned from people close to the player, and Botev's coffers will receive more than one million euros with the bonuses. Papazov is expected to go to camp with the representative team of Bologna on July 21.
During the past season, Papazov took part in a total of 18 matches in the championship and the Cup, starting 8 of them. With the “yellow-black“ team defender also has one hit.
In addition, he played 13 more matches for the backup team of the “Canaries” in the Southeast Third League.
Papazov's strong games also secured him matches for Bulgaria's youth teams. In the 23/24 season, he made his debut for the youth national team, and for his homeland, the defender has already appeared in the under-18 and under-20 squads.
Bologna had an extremely strong 23/24 season. Papazov's new team finished the last campaign in fifth place in Serie A, thus securing their debut participation in the Champions League groups.
For Botev, this is another strong transfer of the club's youth. Earlier in the current summer transfer window, goalkeeper Stefan Smerkalev was sold to German elite Werder Bremen.