Association football

Manchester United have confirmed that Louis van Gaal will be their new manager in the next season.

The 62-year-old Dutchman will take over the club after the World Cup, where he is coaching the Netherlands, Manchester United wrote on their official website.

Litex Lovech have sold 20-year-old midfielder Simeon Slavchev to Sporting Lisbon.

The initial contract will be for 3 seasons, with the option of another 2-year extension, Gong.bg quoted Litex manager Stoycho Stoilov as saying.

The Portuguese sports site Record informed that the transfer fee is EUR 2.5 M.

By George Georgakopoulos

In his swan song on the Greece bench, the 2014 World Cup, Portuguese manager Fernando Santos has chosen to add his personal touch to the squad that will travel to Brazil next month: He has added a Brazilian-born Greek amateur player to his 23-man squad, showing how much he appreciates local knowledge.

By George Georgakopoulos

By George Georgakopoulos

PAOK earned the second spot in the Super League play-offs that leads to the playoffs of the Europa League in August as it beat Panathinaikos 1-0 on Saturday in the last round of games of the mini-league.

Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov has signed a one-year extension of his contract with French Ligue 1 club AS Monaco.

Berbatov joined the French football club from Fulham in January under a contract expiring at the end of the season.

Ludogorets Razgrad won the Bulgarian football Cup for a second straight year, beating Botev Plovdiv 1:0 in the final.

Roman Bezjak scored the only goal of the match in the 58th minute to give the Razgrad team its second consecutive double, winning both the league and cup.

By George Georgakopoulos

The Super League play-offs is a four-team round-robin tournament that Panathinaikos wins. Even in this season of austerity for the club.

Fulham striker Costas Mitroglou, who has barely played this year due to a knee injury, was included in a 30-man provisional World Cup squad reluctantly revealed by coach Fernando Santos on Wednesday.

Santos had previously stated that he would not announce his provisional squad, only his final selection of 23 players, on May 19.

Bulgarian footballer Dimitar Berbatov reacted critically to the incident involving the use of his image for political campaigning.