When people talking about football, the most popular sports in the world, the first thing comes to our mind are those famous football clubs like F.C. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, Manchester United etc. and those best players in these club such as Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar JR etc. Many people may not really familiar with the circumstance of Bulgarian football, but during its football history, there were plenty of football stars appearing in this country.
The most famous one would be Hristo Stoichkov(Христо Стоичков), who is regarded as one of the best players of his generation and is widely considered the greatest Bulgarian footballer of all time. As a striker, he has made many achievement for himself. He was runner-up for the FIFA World Player of the Year award in 1992 and 1994, and received the Ballon d’Or in 1994. In 2004, Stoichkov was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world’s greatest living players.
As for the club level, Stoichkovspent six years at CSKA Sofia and became the top goalscorer in Europe in 1990, receiving the European Golden Shoe. In 1990, he joined Barcelona and started his highlight of a career. In Barcelona he earned the Spanish nickname “El Pistolero” (“The Gunslinger”), and was part of Johan Cruyff’s “Dream Team” that won four consecutive La Liga titles and one UEFA Champions League. Therefore, he got plenty of fans all around the world. His fans from China gave him another nickname “Pi Li Huo” which means Thunderbolt Fire in English.
Then there came the greatest memory for Bulgarian football, 1994 USA World Cup and Stoichkov was the leader of that Bulgarian national team.
In the 1994 World Cup, Sweden, Bulgaria and Romania all played the role of black horse. Bulgaria eliminated France in the preliminary contest and finally reached the top four. although it lost to Sweden in the final three or four. But the fairy tales they created that summer are still very popular.
First of all, Bulgaria’s elimination of France in the qualifying tournament was full of drama. They defeated France in the last minute and finally entered the World Cup Final Circle, while France, the traditional strong team, did not even enter the 1994 World Cup Final Circle. After entering the World Cup, they began to shine brilliantly after the thrilling pass in the group tournament.
Bulgaria won 1-1 overtime with Mexico in the last 16 games, then entered the penalty shoot-out, when Bulgaria passed 3-1 successfully. In the last eight, they faced the defending champion Germany. Before the match, everyone thought that Germany would win without doubt, but Bulgaria was the final winner. Bulgaria lost the first goal against Germany, but with Stoichkov and Lechekov scoring two goals in three minutes, they helped the team win the game. In this way, Bulgaria became one of the black horses in the World Cup after winning the powerful German team.
After reaching the semi-finals, Bulgaria will challenge the veteran Italian team. In the game, fans witnessed Bajome’s two excellent performances and Bulgaria’s penalty kick turned the score to 1-2, but the score remained at the end. Despite losing to Italy and ending in the final, Bulgaria’s Golden Generation deserves praise. In the 34 finals, they lost 4-0 to Sweden and failed to win the podium. However, Stoichkov became the gold boot winner of the World Cup with six goals.
Later, when people talk about Bulgaria’s performance in 1994, they will miss that golden generation. The famous British magazine “442” gave Bulgaria a high evaluation of its performance in the World Cup: “In the 1994 World Cup in the United States, Bulgaria’s adventure began with a 3-0 defeat to Nigeria, and ended with a 4-0 defeat to Sweden. Between these two disastrous games, they created the greatest story of the World Cup.
Besides Stoichkov, players like Barakov, Kostadinov, Lechekov and the recent famous Bulgarian football star Valeri Bozahinov all contributed a lot to Bulgarian football development. Although they could not be qualified in to 2018 Russian World Cup, I believe a country that have born so many talented football stars will have its another highlight and golden generation soon!
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