He made his name playing for CSKA Sofia in the Bulgarian A Professional Football Group,[1] making a brief jump to the MLS in 2003.

[2] Ivanov started his career in 1992 at his local side FC Dobrudzha Dobrich before being acquired by Bulgarian First League giants CSKA Sofia in 1996.

[4][5] In March 2004 he returned to the Bulgarian First League signing with Marek Dupnitza, where he made a total of 12 appearances until the end of the season.

[3] He managed to appear in 7 Alpha Ethniki matches before suffering a knee injury that kept him out for the rest of the tournament, which saw the club finish in 15th place and return to the Greek Second Division.

[8] He was replaced by Luboslav Penev in late April 2015 due to CSKA's continued poor run of games in the A PFG.