 In August 2006, Nikolov signed a three-year contract with Serbian club FK Partizan at the request of the manager, Miodrag Ješić, who noticed his talent while working in Bulgaria.Yet, on 20 September 2006, just one month after the transfer was made and with only several games played for the club, Nikolov was substituted in the 38th minute of the Serbian Cup game against FK ČSK Pivara, because of "extremely low performance, physical capacity of an aged man and being a bad influence on the team spirit".Ješić has also said that it was "definitely the last game Nikolov had played for Partizan".