FRANCE98 – Bulgaria Team Page

10^th Qualifier
Confederation: U.E.F.A. (Europe)

Land area: 111,000 kmē

Population: 8,100,000

Capital: Sofia

Main cities: Varna, Plovdiv

System of government: Republic

Head of state: Petar Stoyanov

Currency: Lev

Time difference: one hour ahead of Paris

1 September 96 Israel – Bulgaria 2-1

8 October 96 Luxemburg – Bulgaria 1-2

14 December 96 Cyprus – Bulgaria 1-3

2 April 97 Bulgaria – Cyprus 4-1

8 June 97 Bulgaria – Luxemburg 4-0

20 August 97 Bulgaria – Israel 1-0

10 September 97 Bulgaria – Russia 1-0

11 October 97 Russia – Bulgaria 4-2

1^st in Group 5:

18 points

18 goals scored

9 goals conceded

Goalkeeper: ZDRAVKOV (age 27 , 11 caps)

Defenders: NANKOV (age 29, 7 caps) IVANOV (age 32, 70 caps) GUINTCHEV (age 27, 8 caps)

PETKOV (age 21, 5 caps)

Mid-field: YANKOV (age 31, 63 caps) LETCHKOV (age 30, 43 caps) BALAKOV (age 31, 63 caps)

STOITCHKOV (age 31, 67 caps)

Striker: KOSTADINOV (age 30, 63 caps)
L. PENEV (age 31, 55 caps)

Number of players used during the qualifying rounds: 24

National team colours: white, green and red

FIFA ranking (on 16 October 1997): 18th

World Cup: participated 2 times (1986 and 1994)

1986: eliminated in the round of sixteen

1994: 4th place

European Nations Cup: 1/4 finalist in 1968

Hristo BONEV
Hristo Bonev, the greatest goalscorer in Bulgarian football history (47 goals in 96 games), took over at the helm of the Bulgarian national team shortly after EURO 96. His first task was to weld together a team which, until then, had been too dependent on certain star players. Exacting professionalism is now the order of the day in a team which plays an efficient 4-3-1-2 system