|
Football in Swiss sportsmen were invited to become teachers of gymnastics at the high schools and pedagogical schools in Bulgaria in 1893-94. One of these Swiss was George De Regibeaus, who introduced a game with a big ball to the male high school in Varna, and after that the Bulgarians began referring to it for a short period of time as a 'ritnitop' (in Bulgarian, 'ritni!' means 'kick!', and 'top' was most probably an abbreviation of 'topka', meaning 'ball'). Afterwards, the game made a step forward as the Swiss Carl Champeau made the students of the First Sofian High School aware of the game. The teachers from Switzerland, Allois Buhnter and Jacques Fardel, published the rules of the game in 1897 in the 'Uchilishten pregled' magazine ('Review of the school' in Bulgarian).
In the meantime, the first gymnastic societies were established in 1895 and 'Yunak' ( in Bulgarian, 'hero' ) was the result of their union in 1898. In the early years of the 20th century, the popularity of the game was growing amongst the Bulgarian adolescents. There were a lot of young Bulgarians, who went to the lycea of 'Galatasaray' and 'Robert College' in Istanbul so as to continue their education there, and the Bulgarian football organiser Blagoi Balakchiev was one of the founders of the football club 'Galatasaray'. On the other hand, Sava Kirov was the originator of the 'Football Club' in the summer of 1909 in Sofia, and it is considered that this is when Bulgarian football became official. The societies Botev and Razvitie united on April 10, 1913 and the result was the establishment of FC Slavia. One of the most popular football teams, FC Levski, was set up on May 24, 1914. The Bulgarian national sport federation, which controlled and headed the football in Bulgaria until September 9, 1944, was founded on December 16-17 1923.
The Bulgarian national team made its debut on May 21, 1924 at the Olympic Games in Ireland the result was 0-0. Unfortunately, the referee did not allow this to happen and did not react as he should have when the Irishmen scored the winner from an obvious off-side. The national team won the Balkan Cup in 1932 in Beograd and again in 1935, this time in Sofia.
At this time, the Bulgarian national team had to experience its biggest defeat: the disastrous 0-13 loss in Madrid against Spain.
There were a lot of brilliant footballers in Bulgaria before the WWII like the two brothers Mutafchievi: Nikola and Dimitar, Todor Mishtalov, Aleksandar Hristov, Asen Peshev, Asen Panchev, Mihail Lozanov, Lyubomir Angelov - Staroto, Georgi Pachedzhiev - Chuguna.
After the war, Bulgarian football did not stop developing and on May 5, 1948 the most successful Bulgarian football team was born - PFC CSKA Sofia, and when Krum Milev was the coach of the team, they became champions eleven times. CSKA has reached the semi_finals of the European Cup twice, and on one occasion the semi-finals of the European Cup Winners Cup.
There were also many spectacular footballers in the 1950s like Ivan Kolev, Krum Yanev, Manol Manolov, Stefan Bozhkov, Georgi Naidenov, Panayot Panayotov - Gatzo, Kiril Rakarov, and most of them were part of the 'Bronze' olympic team, who came third in the Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956.
Twenty years later the Bulgarian national team was again very close to the top, but lost 1:4 from Hungary in the final. In the same year (1968) Bulgaria played two quarter-finals for the Euro '68 and although they couldn't manage to do anything against the future European champion, they came 5th in Europe.
One of the greatest Bulgarian footballers, Georgi Asparuhov, played in the 1960s and he became a legend very fast. He died in 1971, and was voted posthumously the Best Bulgarian footballer of the century.
Bulgaria participated in the 1962 World Cup in Chili but they had to leave the competition very fast because they couldn't get to the next stage. The same thing happened in England in 1966, Mexico, and at the WC 1974. The Bulgarian national team managed to pass the first stage in Mexico 1986 although they didn't manage to win a game, and they were then beaten in the quarter-finals by the host of the World Cup.
Meanwhile, Bulgaria became the U21 Euro champions in 1959, 1969, and 1974.
A new star was shining, this time in the late 80s and the early 90s, and it was called Hristo Stoitchkov, the most successful Bulgarian footballer. He won the European Cup with his team FC Barcelona in 1992.
Probably the most important date for Bulgarian football is November 17, 1993, when Emil Kostadinov scored two goals against France in Paris and that's how Bulgaria managed to qualify for the World Cup in the USA in 1994. Under the management of Dimitar Penev - Stratega, the Bulgarians made a furore and eliminated the world champion, Germany with a shocking 2-1 win. There were really a lot of people celebrating the win in Sofia, Italy in the semi-finals, but with the score 2-1 for the Italians the referee from Cameroon stayed perfectly still when there was an obvious foul against the Bulgarians in the Italian penalty area. Hristo Stoichkov became the joint top scorer of this World Cup by scoring 6 goals along with the Russian Oleg Salenko.
In 1996, the team qualified for the Euro '96 for the first time in history, and they beat the future European champion Germany with 3-2 in Sofia on June 7, 1995.
The end of this glorious generation of these football magicians came in France `98, when the Bulgarians didn't manage to beat anyone and got back in Bulgaria with a disappointing series of 1 draw and 2 defeats. Football in Bulgaria had its golden years back in the early 1990s, when the Bulgarian national team won the Bronze medal in the USA in 1994, beating the Germany in the quarter-finals 2-1.
Honours of the national team:
They also took part in all the World Cups from 1962 to 1998 except for WC '78 and WC '82, and the results from these tournaments look like this:
26 matches, 3 wins, 8 draws, 15 losses, 22_53.
Bulgaria participated also in the Euro '96 playing 3 matches: 1 win, 1 loss, 1 draw.
Other facts:
- Biggest win:
- Biggest loss: 0-13 against Spain on May 21, 1933 in Madrid
- Appearances record holder: Borislav Mihailov, 102 ( 60 as a skipper )
- Biggest number of goals: Hristo Bonev, 47
- Biggest stadia:
- Vassil Levski, capacity: 55 000
- Georgi Asparuhov, capacity: 30 000
- Plovdiv, capacity: 35 000
- Yuri Gagarin, capacity: 35 000
- Balgarska armiya, capacity: 25 000
- The football federation of Bulgaria was founded in 1923, and has been a member of F.I.F.A. since 1924 and of U.E.F.A. since 1954.
- The first league championship was held in 1924, but it didn't finish.
- The first league champion team of the country was Vladislav Varna in 1925.
See also
|
Feeds |
Contact