Bulgaria have appointed Ilian Iliev as their new coach, the national football association (BFU) said on Wednesday.

The 55-year-old former Bulgarian international succeeds Serb Mladen Krstajic, who was sacked last week as coach of the Bulgarian men's team due to "unsatisfactory results."

Iliev, who will continue to coach first-division Cherno More Varna until the end of the season, signed a contract until May 2026, the BFU said in a statement.

Bulgaria sit bottom of their Euro-2024 qualifying with two points from six games.

Iliev's first games will be Euro qualifiers against Hungary on November 16 and Serbia on November 19.

"I want to give the players more confidence when they go out on the pitch and also the right tactics," Iliev said in the BFU statement.

Iliev an attacking midfielder, Iliev had played for Bulgarian, Turkish, Greek and Portuguese clubs, including Benfica.

He scored three goals in 35 games for Bulgaria in the 1990s.

Before Cherno More Varna, he coached the Bulgarian clubs Beroe, Levski, Lokomotiv Plovdiv and Vereya and had a short coaching stint at Interclube of Luanda in Angola.