Hristo Stoichkov: The Bold Bulgarian

Ozren Podnar reports...

The Bulgarian national team coach Hristo Stoichkov barely survived the recent tremendous thrashing by Croatia in the World Cup qualifiers. The 1-3 disaster at Vasil Levski in Sofia means that Bulgaria are practically out of the race for 2006 World Cup, but the FA refused to remove Stoichkov just yet, giving him "another chance" - even though Bulgaria has run out of chances to qualify for the next big event.

So, Stoichkov as a coach has not quite made it yet to the highest levels he reached as a footballer. The Bulgarian athlete of the century became a sort of a celebrity at 19 during the infamous Bulgarian Cup finals between his CSKA Sofia team and the local rivals of Levski Spartak.

He entered the "black book" of soccer by taking part in a mass brawl between the players, which had powerful repercussions on the local football scene. The Communist party punished the clubs by ordering their names to be changed to Sredetz and Vitosha, respectively, and banning several players for life, including Stoichkov.

Kind people as they were, a year later the communist leaders reduced all sentences allowing Stoichkov to return to Sredetz/CSKA, and return he did in style. With his amazing performances, he made the national team in 1987, winning trophy after trophy at club level.

Europe got acquainted with him in the spring of 1989, when he scored three goals against Barcelona in the Cup Winners' Cup semifinals. Barca went through, but Johan Cruyff marked Stoichkov's name as a future reinforcement for the moment he was allowed to emigrate.

Barca's golden era signed by Stoichkov

Soon communism was overthrown and in 1990 many great Bulgarians like Penev, Kostadinov and Balakov headed west. Stoichkov came to Barcelona as the leading European goal scorer, with 38 goals in 30 games, equal to Hugo Sanchez, and debuted in the Spanish league with a goal.

Not incidentally, the most successful era of the Catalan club coincided with Stoichkov's stay. Even though he was banned for eight matches early into his first season for stepping on a referee's foot, he still scored a cool 14 goals in the Primera división and six more in the Cup Winners' Cup.

An injury ruled him out of the finals against Manchester United, which Barca lost by 1-2, but he received his European medal just a year later. Already recognized as Barca's most important player, he scored 17 times in the League and lifted the European Cup after beating Sampdoria at Wembley.

France Football voters scandalously awarded him only the Silver ball for his displays in 1992, but two years and two more Spanish League titles later, he collected the Golden ball, as the only Bulgarian player in history to do so. The Bulgarians had their golden generation, and lead by Hristo they reached the 1994 World Cup semifinals, but Stoichkov clashed with Cruyff and left for Parma.

After a mediocre season in Serie A, Barca brought him back to Nou Camp, having banished Cruyff, and Stoichkov signed a new deal with tears in his eyes. New coach Bobby Robson used him considerably in another great season for the Catalans, but in 1998 Louis van Gaal largely ignored him, ending his tenure in Barcelona in spite of the fans' opposition.

A fierce competitor, Stoichkov went on to play for five and a half years more in clubs from four countries, and when he hung up his boots in 2003, he entered the Bulgarian FA, preparing for the national team job.

When he took over Bulgaria, there was widespread euphoria, that lead the "yunatzi" (heroes - the national team's nickname) to a fine draw in Croatia, but the joy subsided this spring with heavy home defeats to Sweden and Croatia themselves. This must have depressed Stoichkov, but who would bet against the resurrection of this hard-nosed survivor?

Stoichkov's best "goals"

If Stoichkov did not exist, perhaps he should be invented. Here are some of his most prominent "numbers", some of them perhaps exaggerated, as sometimes happens with myths.
* When he first stepped into the CSKA dressing room, the authoritative club and country skipper Georgi Dimitrov asked him: "Who are you?". Then anonymous 18-year old Hristo replied: "I am Hristo Stoichkov, and who are you?"
* After successfully kicking a few Levski players during the 1985 Bulgarian Cup finals, he was banned for life, but his suspension was lifted a year later.
* During the Spanish Supercup game against Real Madrid in 1990 he stepped on referee's Urizar Azpitarte's foot and slightly pushed him on the turf, earning himself a two-month ban.
* He punched an annoying Barca fan who pulled him by the sleeve asking him for an autograph.
* Having scored against Mexico in Sofia in 1992, he started to drag his feet and after a while the fans booed him. Not amused by this reaction from the crowd, he walked off the field.
* Before one big game, he learned that the reserve keeper Jaro would be in goal for Real Madrid. "Jaro is very bad, we'll score ten goals, for sure," he said. It turned out just 2-1 for Barca, though.
* Asked by French reporters what he thought about a forthcoming Monaco vs. Barca game in the Champions League, he replied: "Recently I kicked out your national team from the World Cup, and now I'll kick out your team from the Euro-cup." It finished 1-0 to Barca, goal by Stoichkov.
* He refused to let Ronaldo take a penalty against Logrones in 1997, insisting on taking it himself. After a long struggle, he shot and scored. The score line at the time was 6-0 for Barcelona.
* When he was at odds with Bulgarian journalists, he spoke to them only in Spanish (not a frequent subject in Bulgarian schools).
* During a practice at Washington of Major League Soccer, he spotted a fan sporting Real Madrid replica shirt. He yelled at him to go away because the Real shirt was offending him.

Fact file

Name: Hristo Stoichkov
Nicknames: Pit Bull, Dagger
Date of birth: February 8th 1966
Place of birth: Plovdiv
Height and weight: 179 cm, 75 kg
Playing position: forward, inside-left
Marital status: married, two daughters

Playing career (appearances and goals)

1982/83 Hebros Harmanli 11 - 4
1983/84 Hebros Harmanli 21 - 10
1984/85 CSKA Sofia 11 - 0
1985/86 CSKA Sofia banned
1986/87 CSKA Sofia 25 - 6
1987/88 CSKA Sofia 27 - 14
1988/89 CSKA Sofia 26 - 23
1989/90 CSKA Sofia 30 - 38
1990/91 Barcelona 24 - 14
1991/92 Barcelona 32 - 17
1992/93 Barcelona 34 - 20
1993/94 Barcelona 34 - 16
1994/95 Barcelona 27 - 11
1995/96 Parma 23 - 5
1996/97 Barcelona 22 - 7
1997/98 Barcelona 2 - 0
1998 CSKA Sofia 4 - 1
1998 Al-Nassr (Saudi Arabia) 2 - 1
1998 Kashiwa Reysol (Japan) 12 - 5
1999 Kashiwa Reysol (Japan) 16 - 8
2000 Chicago Fire 18 - 9
2001 Chicago Fire 17 - 6
2002 Chicago Fire 16 - 2
2003 Washington 21 - 5

National team:
1984-87 Bulgaria U-21 20 - 10
1987-99 Bulgaria "A" 84 - 38
Coach:
2004- Bulgaria "A"

Honours
21 team trophies!

3 Bulgarian championships (1987, 1989 and 1990)
3 Bulgarian cups (1987, 1988 and 1989)
5 Spanish championships (1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1998)
1 Spanish cup (1997)
4 Spanish supercups (1991, 1992, 1994 and 1996)
1 American Open Cup (2000)
1 European Champions' Cup (1992)
1 European Cup Winners' Cup (1997)
1 European Supercup (1993)
1 Asian Cup Winners Cup (1998)
1 World Cup semifinals (1994)

1 Golden ball (1994)
1 Silver ball (1992)
2 FIFA Silver globes (1992 and 1994)
1 Golden boot (1990)
1 time World Cup top scorer (1994)
5 times best Bulgarian player (1989, 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1994)
Bulgarian footballer and athlete of the century.

Ozren Podnar

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