FOOTBALL: FRANCE '98

       HRISTO BONEV
Chief Coach 
Hristo Bonev took the helm of the national football team in July 1996, at a time which could not be considered favourable for him. When his predecessor, Penev, was at the head of the team, Bulgaria achieved success that would hardly be repeated in the near future, but it was conducive to a good deal of overexpectations. On the other hand, the short and colourless performance at the 1996 European Finals in England showed that with coming closer to their football retirement age, the brilliant players had gone over their zenith. The dwindling stars are well aware that Bonev has no capacity of replacing them. This fact is full of contradictions. Experience, ambitions, willfulness... all these meet in the national team. At least by appearance, the chief coach responds with tranquillity and impassiveness, which do not answer the question: is he following some long-term plan of his own, or does he let himself just be carried along.

Apart from this, his qualification of a trainer is beyond doubt. Having graduated from the Sports Academy in Sofia, in 1986 Bonev left for West Germany where, in the course of one year, he trained to be coach, including his attendance at the famous Köln school. After his return, he became assistant-trainer of the national team, and between 1988-1996 he coached three Greek teams ("Panathenaikos", "Ionikos" and "Larissa") and the Cyprus "Apoel". With the Athenian team "Panathenaikos" he doubled his success - winning the championship and the national cup in 1990. In Cyprus, where he also led his squad to the top position, he was declared the best foreign coach for 1996.

"I've always imagined I am going to play football in the hereafter too" - says Hristo Bonev by way of a joke. Born on 3 February, 1947 in Plovdiv, he has "run after" the ball ever since he was nine-year-old. He ended up his career as a player in 1984 with the first benefice match in Bulgaria - of the Plovdiv "Lokomotiv" and the combined team of Europe attended by legends like Lev Yashin and Franz Beckenbauer. An extremely good goal scorer and elegant play-maker, one of the most talented Bulgarian football players of all times, Bonev did not have the good luck of Stoichkov's generation to play in some world famous club. In 1973, for example, "Juventus" wanted to pay for him the then fantastic 3 million dollars, seven years later the US "Cosmos" made an offer of "only" 1 million, but the Bulgarian authorities let him cross the Iron Curtain to join the Greek AEK, when he was already 33 years of age. In the Bulgarian championship Bonev has played 420 matches in all scoring 210 goals. His overall credit as a member of the national team, whose captain he was in 42 contests,  is 96 matches and 47 scored goals. He participated in the World Cup Finals in Mexico in 1970 and West Germany in 1974.

Hristo Bonev is married, he has two sons and a grandchild.

 
 
 
 

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