"We'll smash the Bulgarians", threatens Nigerian star Okocha before
the match on Friday. "Everybody thought we were doomed against Spain. You
saw what happened. Now it is Bulgaria's turn... I play in the Turkish championship
only for the money... I would never play in the Bulgarian championship,
because it is very bad and poor, says Nigerian national player to the French
daily "Equipe".
Bulgarian ambassador to France, Stefan Tafrov, had dinner with the national
players in their base. He told the footballers that they were Bulgaria's
much more proficient ambassadors than many of the professional diplomats.
But Mr. Tafrov did not specify where he himself ranked on this rating list.
We shall defeat Bulgaria and Paraguay and play in the next round, said
Spanish Prince Philip after Spain's 2:3 loss by Nigeria. Not that elegant
were the terms used by the Spanish press to describe the Bulgarian team:
"aged", "played out", "safety pins".
On his appearance in the game against Paraguay Emil
Kostadinov was hissed by the French spectators. With his last-minute-goal
scored in the match Bulgaria-France on 17 November 1993 in Paris, he was
the one who prevented "les Coqs" from qualifying for the US World Cup '94.
When asked how he is going to respond if the French kept showing their
hostility, Kostadinov replies: "I'm going to play for the Bulgarian fans.
I don't care about the French supporters."
In the match between Spain and Bulgaria Hristo
Stoichkov will demonstrate to the whole world his attachment to Catalonia,
announced the Spanish "El mundo deportivo". Former Barcelona player will
come out to the field in a shirt agitating in support of the secession
of the region from Spain, affirms the newspaper. He is even said to have
promised to join the Party for Catalonian Independence. Provided Stoichkov
engaged in political agitation, i.e. if he realized his alleged intentions,
this would provoke a scandal inconceivable even for an eccentric
person like him.
A blond model is holding two footballs while known Bulgarian painter
Ivan Yahnadzhiev is decorating them. The balls will be sent, as talisman,
to the Bulgarian team in France before their contest with Nigeria. While
the Nigerians are trying to charm their good luck with the help of shamans,
it seems that the Bulgarian side relies on painting combined with... eroticism.
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Photo:
Meridian Match newspaper, Sofia. |
Bulgaria is a record-holder in the World Cup finals at least by one
characteristic. With his monthly salary of 5000 DM, Hristo
Bonev, is the worst paid trainer in the championship. According to
the German agency DPA, however, he has already received at least four offers
for employment in Western Europe.
Paraguayan goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert known for his "hand to hand"
discussions with the journalists is now willingly giving interviews to
Bulgarian newsmen. In most of them he says that he is going to make his
best to... score in the Bulgarian goal. This is an too unusual ambition
for a goalkeeper but as the Russian saying goes, the devil makes games
of what not.
On the eve of the Bulgarian match against Paraguay on Friday, the British
"Times" described the Bulgarian team with a typical English sense of humour.
The Bulgarian's advantage is that they have large experience, and their
disadvantage is that this experience is too large, wrote the newspaper,
alluding to the fact that most of the players were at the football age
limit. According to the French "Equipe", Bulgaria's chance to overcome
the preliminary group is 30 per cent. The respective percentage for her
rivals in the group, Nigeria, Spain and Paraguay, are 60, 70 and 40. In
the same time, the Bulgarian footballers are engaged in some other calculation.
As reported by the German agency DPA, they have asked 100 thousand DM each
for their eventual participation in the World Cup Final, thus counting
their chickens before they are hatched.
If, on the one hand, the attitude of the French media to Bulgaria is
explicitly hostile (Bulgarian football players have more than once
proved to be a stumbling-block for the French national team), on
the other, coach Aime Jacquet has said: "Many of the prognoses fail to
be materialized.... It should be taken into account that a team can progress
as the championship advances. I have in mind the next appearances of the
Bulgarians."
Popular showman Slavi Trifonov in his latest political satire TV show:
"Although we ended up in 0:0 with Paraguay, the situation has not yet been
reduced to the "two zeroes" /W.C./. The first half-time Bulgaria played
with Paraguay and won, the second time Bulgaria played against Bulgaria
- and, it was good luck that she failed to beat."
A charm chosen by the Bulgarian national team to bring them luck in
the World Cup '98 is Bulgaria's first gold medal winner, Ekaterina Dafovska
- Nagano Olympic champion in biathlon. Dafovska will keep her fingers crossed
in support of the "tricolour" national squad in their combat with the teams
of Spain and Nigeria. The travelling expenses of the biathlonist will be
covered by the football players themselves.
A sum of one thousand and two hundred dollars is being "worn" by each
Bulgarian player on the national team while training. This is the cost
of the new outfits furnished by their sponsor, the German mega-concern
"Puma".
The odds that the Bulgarian national football team becomes world champion
are minimal, as estimated by the London bookmakers. This is the reason
why they have raised the bets for the Bulgarian squad from 50:1 in May
to 80:1 in June. According to experts in the bookmaking business, Bulgaria
ranks as low as the sixteenth place in the line of candidates for the World
Cup. Two of their rivals in Group D rank higher - Spain (12:1) and Nigeria
(25:1). Only the Paraguayan players rank lower - their stakes are 100:1.
Bulgaria's representative team will play in the
quarterfinal of the World Cup ‘98 - this has been estimated by Deep Blue
computer, U.S. chess champion. It has analysed all the contests-to-be of
the world tournament, based on data submitted by the headquarters of the
teams having qualified for the final phase. According to the evaluation
made by Blue's microchips, Bulgaria, in its Group D, is going to defeat
Nigeria (1:0) and Paraguay (3:0), and lose its game with Spain (3:0). In
the pre-quarterfinal round, the Bulgarian football players are going to
win a 2:1 victory over Denmark. They will surrender, with the same result
and after extra-times, to the Norwegians in the quarterfinal. However,
the Bulgarian football authorities have not informed the computer that
Yordan Lechkov, who is designed to score a goal in the contest with the
Paraguayans, is not on the team for the present.
In Bulgaria's six participations in World Cup Finals, 81 football players
have worn the national T-shirt. Other 17 players were on the country's
team, but did not come out on the field. To the list of 98 men coach Hristo
Bonev has added 14 new names.
Under the guidance of Hristo Bonev the Bulgarian
national team has played 18 matches. Ten of them are victories, seven -
losses. The score ratio is 30:16. During the 22 months of Bonev’s leadership
he made use of 42 football players. Radostin
Kishishev played in 17 matches, followed by the goalkeeper Zdravko
Zdravkov and Emil Kostadinov with 16 contests.
So far, the Bulgarian national team has played six control games in
preparation for the World Cup Final in France.
On 23 December it played against a combined team of Catalonia.
The contest ended in a 1:1 tie after an own goal of the hosts.
On 10 March Argentina won a 2:0
victory in its match with the Bulgarian team, the goals being scored by
Batistuta and Lopez.
Bulgaria lost 1:0 by Macedonia
on 25 March in Skopje, the hosts' victory being achieved by a goal scored
by Georgi Hristov.
Salahedin Basir attained a goal of honour for Morocco's
national team, after a penalty kicked by Lyuboslav Penev and a goal of
Stoicho Stoilov in the game on 22 April won by Bulgaria.
In their last but one control game, the Bulgarian national team defeated
by 4:0 the German champion Kaiserslautern
on June 1 in Homburg. The goals were scored by Ilian Iliev (in the 25th
and the 54th minute) and by Emil Kostadinov (in the 81st minute). The fourth
kick in the German goal was Schaffer's, in the 35th minute.
Before leaving for France, the Bulgarian team had its last control
match with the Algerian national team
on 5 June, in Sofia. The two goals in the game were scored by Hristo
Stoichkov and Ivailo Yordanov after free kicks.
The official suits of the players in the Bulgarian national team for
the World Cup Finals in France have been designed by Evegeniya Zhivkova,
granddaughter of the former Communist Party leader of Bulgaria, Todor Zhivkov.
The designers working for her company “Zheni style” have already devised
the accessories.
About 400 000 DM is the total cost of the cars owned by the three most
celebrated Bulgarian football players - Hristo Stoichkov, Emil Kostadinov,
and Trifon Ivanov. The stars of the team representing this country, who
returned to the Sofia CSKA club for this season arrived to their native
country with brand new cars.
The most expensive is Stoichkov’s metallic grey “Audi S8”, as reported
by the “7 dni sport” daily. The price of this model is 180 000 DM, and
Hristo’s car has all extras available. The winner of the “Golden Ball”
had bought his Audi before he left Spain and he travelled in it across
Europe back to Sofia.
The Mercedes S350 of Trifon Ivanov ranks lower in price compared with
the Audi. It cost its owner “only” 150 000 DM. Emil Kostadinov’s car is
one of the least often found on the roads of the Old Continent. For the
present, his jeep Mercedes MLK 320 is manufactured only in the USA.
The youngest Bulgarian football player who participated in a world cup
final was Georgi Asparukhov, known as Goundi. Born on 4 May 1943, he made
his debut in the tournament at the age of 19 years and 1 month in the match
against Hungary. He was also the player who scored the first goal for Bulgaria
in a world championship.
The most efficient player in the team representing Bulgaria during the
qualifications for the World Cup Championship in France was Emil Kostadinov.
He scored 6 of the 22 “Bulgarian” goals, show statistics. He is followed
immediately by the half-back Krasimir Balakov with 5 scores. Marian Hristov
and Daniel Borimirov have 2 successful shots each in their rivals’ goal.
Seven more players have “signed” as goal-scorers in the qualifications
games - Hristo Stoichkov, Yordan Lechkov, Ivailo Yordanov, Trifon Ivanov,
Lyuboslav Penev, Iliyan Iliev and Iliya Gruev.
An average of 8.6 goals have been shot by the Bulgarian national players,
conclude statisticians analysing ten of the contests of the representative
Bulgarian team coached by Bonev. This makes less than 1 shot per each 10
minutes. Nevertheless, in their first half-times the Bulgarians were more
aggressive and scored 4.8 shots on the average. Their overall time of ball
possession, however, is very short - only 27.37 minutes. The Bulgarian
players succeeded to win only 3.9 corners per game, while they had to meet
a penalty kick in every 2.5 contests. The merit for 3 of all 4 penalties
went to Emil Kostadinov, and 1 of them to Lyuboslav Penev. Bonev’s players
are not ruffians, but they fail to keep themselves from fouls. At an average,
they are given 1.54 yellow cards and 0.23 red cards per match.
The Bulgarian Football Association turned down the national players'
pretension to receive bonuses for each point scored in the World Cup Final
in France. According to unofficial information, they will be allotted 250
thousand US$ each if they take part in the game for the gold. In case they
overcome the preliminary group their remuneration will run to 40 thousand
US$.
The players and the assistant staff of the national team have already
shared 1 400 000 US dollars for winning the second place in the qualification
group.
The Bulgarian team will be granted a bonus of 330 000 by PUMA
if they win the world cup. The official sponsor of the Bulgarians has promised
130 000 for a place in the second phase and 180 000 - for participation
in the round before the semi-finals and 230 000 - for contesting in the
semi-final game.
The German concern has already paid the team 75 000 dollars for its
qualifying for France.
The Mercure Park Hotel, 25 km south of Paris, will be the main base
of the Bulgarian national team in the World Cup Finals. The group which
chose this site included the team coach Bonev, as well as representatives
of the players themselves. Their disappointment with the accommodation
they had in Britain for the European Championship lied behind their wish
to make sure that they would have good conditions for rest and training
in France. A sum of 750 000 Swiss franks has already been transferred
to prepay the hotel accommodation, and the remaining amount will be paid
after the end of Mondial ‘98.
The Bulgarian people approve of the list of players on the national team selected by Hristo Bonev. According to a representative survey, 60 per cent of the Bulgarian population over 16 years of age share a fully positive attitude to the trainer's choice. His election is regarded with a moderate criticism by 20 per cent, and only 6 per cent are the persons who firmly believe it is not good.
