Warren Feeney: Former Northern Ireland striker parts company with Bulgarian side Pirin

Feeney made 46 appearances for Northern Ireland

Warren Feeney has parted company with OFC Pirin Blagoevgrad after two years as manager of the Bulgarian club.

The former Northern Ireland striker led the side to promotion to the Bulgarian top flight last season after being appointed in November 2019.

Pirin are currently second bottom of the First League table, with the club saying Feeney left "by mutual consent".

"I loved my time there, I learnt a lot about new cultures and styles of play," Feeney said.

"The club and my boss were great with me. It was the first time the club had ever won the league, so to manage in a foreign country and achieve that was very satisfying.

"Last season we were a lot more attacking but this year in the top flight we had to think about it a lot more and be a bit more defensive - though we were still the fourth highest goalscorers in the league.

"It was more difficult this season, of course, because we were coming up against clubs with much bigger budgets than ours who were playing in the Champions League and Europa League."

Feeney, whose playing career included spells at Luton Town, Bournemouth, Cardiff City and Dundee United, left his post as manager of Championship side Ards to take over at Pirin.

The former Linfield player-manager, 40, has now moved home to live with his family in Northern Ireland and hopes to return to management after taking a break.

"There aren't too many managers from the UK managing throughout the world and I wouldn't rule out working abroad again if an opportunity arose," he continued.

"For now, though, I'm going to take a break, enjoy Christmas and catch up with the Irish League by getting out to as many games as possible. It's very exciting at the moment with five or six teams up there battling for the title, so I'm looking forward to seeing how that title race develops."