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Football has deep roots in Bulgaria.
About ten Swiss sportsmen were invited to become teachers of gymnastics at the high schools and pedagogical schools in Bulgaria in 1893-94. One of these individuals was George De Regibeaus, who introduced a game with a big ball to the male high school in Varna, and after that the Bulgarians referred 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'). The game made a step forward as the Swiss Carl Champeau made the students of the First Sofian High School aware of the game. 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 among Bulgarian adolescents, including many young Bulgarians who went to the lycea of 'Galatasaray' and 'Robert College' in Istanbul to continue their educations. The Bulgarian football organiser Blagoi Balakchiev was one of the founders of the football club 'Galatasaray'. Sava Kirov was the originator of the 'Football Club' in the summer of 1909 in Sofia -- this is when Bulgarian football became "official." The societies Botev and Razvitie united on April 10 1913 and established 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 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 Paris, where it lost the game against the Austrian Wonderteam by 0-6. The team was involved in controversy the following week, when 15 minutes before the end of a match between Bulgaria and Ireland the result was 0-0. The referee 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.
The Bulgarian national team then experienced its biggest defeat: a 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 continued improving and on May 5 1948 the most successful Bulgarian football team was born - PFC CSKA Sofia. With Krum Milev as the coach\, the team won 11 championships. 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 many spectacular footballers in the 1950s like Ivan Kolev, Krum Yanev, Manol Manolov, Stefan Bozhkov, Georgi Naidenov, Panayot Panayotov - Gatzo, and Kiril Rakarov. 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 to Hungary in the final. In the same year (1968), Bulgaria played two quarter-finals for the Euro '68 and although the team couldn't manage to do anything against the future European champion, it placed 5th in Europe.
One of the greatest Bulgarian footballers, Georgi Asparuhov, played in the 1960s and quickly became a legend. 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 the team had to leave the competition early because it couldn't get to the next stage. The same thing happened in England in 1966, 1970 in Mexico, and at the WC 1974. The Bulgarian national team managed to pass the first stage in Mexico 1986 although it didn't manage to win a game and was 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 he 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. 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 caused a furor and eliminated the world champion, Germany with a shocking 2-1 win. Multitudes of people celebrated the win in Sofia, Varna, and some other cities in Bulgaria. The people were very happy with their golden boys. Then the Bulgarians played the 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 beat the future European champion Germany by a score of 3-2 in Sofia on June 7 1995.
The end of this glorious generation of football magicians came in France `98, when the Bulgarians didn't manage to beat anyone and returned to 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:
The team 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 were:
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:
See also
