Transformed Levski live in hope

The Bulgarian season resumes on Sunday with a dramatically reshaped PFC Levski Sofia side looking to take a third successive title at PFC CSKA Sofia's expense.

Stalwarts leave
Levski went into the winter break 13 points adrift of CSKA, who dropped just four points in the opening 15 rounds of the season. Their response was radical. During the winter, coach Stanimir Stoilov sold Cédric Bardon, Hristo Yovov, Elin Topuzakov, Dimitar Telkiyski and Valeri Domovchiyski to foreign clubs while the likes of Milan Koprivarov and Emil Angelov were shipped off to domestic rivals.

Lone signing
Having already signed three Brazilians before the winter break, Stoilov chose to take on just one more new player during the winter – striker Eniyo Krastovchev from PFC Marek Dupnitza. However, with such a huge gulf to close in the remaining rounds of the season, it may be that Levski's promising young squad have no chance of changing their destiny.

CSKA refreshed
CSKA will return from the winter break even stronger, with coach Stoytcho Mladenov bringing former captain Emil Gargarov back after a spell in France with RC Strasbourg. He has also signed former Cameroon goalkeeper Daniele Bekono from PFC Beroe Stara Zagora and defender Nenad Nastić from Serbian side FK Vojvodina.

Sole focus
Nigerian winger Kevin Amuneke has left the club for IFK Norrkoping while Morocco midfielder Abderahman Kabous has signed for Spain's Real Murcia CF. Forward Georgi Chilikov, meanwhile, has joined Chinese side Dalian Shide, but with CSKA already out of the Bulgarian Cup, they have nothing else to focus on but their 31st title, which should coincide with their 60th anniversary in May.

European places
PFC Lokomotiv Sofia are second in the table, ten points behind CSKA, but have made no major changes in the winter, with coach Stefan Grozdanov just signing defender Vanja Dzaferović and forward Daniel Mitev from cash-strapped Beroe. A point behind Loko, PFC Slavia Sofia may struggle to maintain the pace after selling striker Zdravko Lazarov to Russian side FC Shinnik Yaroslavl.

Beroe survive
Finally, while most of their players left when the club's major shareholder Nikolai Banev cut off financial support in January, Beroe are back in business thanks to a consortium of local businessmen. After taking over in February, the new bosses have managed to recruit a number of players and former Bulgarian international Ilian Iliev has returned to the helm as coach.