Bulgaria

Shirt badge/Association crest
Nickname(s)	The Lions (Lavovete)
Association	Bulgarian Football Union
Head coach	Hristo Stoichkov, 2004-
Most caps	Borislav Mikhailov (102)
Top scorer	Hristo Bonev (47)
FIFA code	BUL
First colours Second colours
FIFA ranking
Current	37
First international
Austria 6 - 0 Bulgaria File:Bg-1913.gif (Vienna, Austria; 21 May, 1924)
Biggest win
Bulgaria 10 - 0 Ghana Leon, Mexico, 1968) File:Flag of Bulgaria 1971-1990.gif Bulgaria 7 - 0 Malta (Sofia, Bulgaria; 14 October, 1982)
Biggest defeat
Template:Country data Spain old Spain 13 - 0 Bulgaria File:Bg-1913.gif (Madrid, Spain; 21 May, 1933)
World Cup
Appearances	7 (first in 1962)
Best result	Fourth place, 1994
European Championship
Appearances	2 (first in 1996)
Best result	Round 1, 1996 and 2004

Olympic medal record
Men’s Football
	1956 Melbourne	Team
	1968 Mexico City	Team

The Bulgaria national football team is the national football team of Bulgaria and is controlled by the Bulgarian Football Union. Bulgaria's best World Cup performance was in the 1994 World Cup in USA, where they beat Germany to reach the semi-finals, losing to Italy, and finishing in fourth place after a 4-0 defeat to Sweden in the third place play-off.

Bulgaria first participated in the 1962 World Cup in Chile, but failed to progress to the knockout stages. The same thing happened in England in 1966, Mexico in 1970, and West Germany in 1974. They qualified from the first round in Mexico 1986 but they were beaten in the round of 16 by the hosts.

Probably the most important date for Bulgarian football is November 17 1993, when Emil Kostadinov scored two goals against France in Paris, allowing Bulgaria to qualify for the World Cup in the USA in 1994. Under the management of Dimitar Penev, the Bulgarians made a great impression, eliminating the defending world champions, Germany, with a surprise 2-1 win. Huge numbers of people celebrated this win in Sofia, Bourgas and other Bulgarian cities. Having reached the semi-finals, Bulgaria played Italy, but they were knocked out in a controversial match. Hristo Stoichkov won the Golden Boot for top scorer in the tournament, shared with Oleg Salenko: both scored six goals.

In 1996, the team qualified for the European Football Championship for the first time, although they did not manage to progress beyond the group stage: a disappointment repeated in the 1998 World Cup. Bulgaria failed to qualify for Euro 2000 or the 2002 World Cup, but did reach Euro 2004. However, they lost all their matches and once again were eliminated before the knockout stage.

• 1930 - Did not enter
• 1934 - Withdrew during qualifying
• 1938 - Did not qualify
• 1950 - Did not enter
• 1954 - Did not qualify
• 1958 - Did not qualify
• 1962 - Round 1
• 1966 - Round 1
• 1970 - Round 1
• 1974 - Round 1
• 1978 - Did not qualify
• 1982 - Did not qualify
• 1986 - Round 2
• 1990 - Did not qualify
• 1994 - Fourth place
• 1998 - Round 1
• 2002 - Did not qualify
• 2006 - Did not qualify

• 1960 to 1992 - Did not qualify
• 1996 - Round 1
• 2000 - Did not qualify
• 2004 - Round 1

Player	Position	Club	Club Nation
Goalkeepers
Georgi Petkov	GK	Levski Sofia
Dimitar Ivankov	GK	Kayserispor
Stoyan Kolev	GK	Lokomotiv Plovdiv
Defenders
Elin Topuzakov	DC	Levski Sofia
Valentin Iliev	DC	CSKA Sofia
Radostin Kishishev	DR	Charlton
Lucio Wagner	DL/WBL	Levski Sofia
Ivaylo Petkov	DL	Ankaragücü
Yanko Valkanov	DRLC	Slavia Sofia
Stanislav Angelov	DRLC	Levski Sofia
Asen Karaslavov	DC	Slavia Sofia
Zhivko Zhelev	DC	Litex Lovech
Mihail Venkov	DL	Litex Lovech
Kiril Kotev	DRC	CSKA Sofia
Danail Bozhkov	DR/WBR	Botev Plovdiv
Nikolay Domakinov	DC	Botev Plovdiv
Midfielders
Stilian Petrov	DMC	Celtic
Martin Petrov	AML	Atletico Madrid
Chavdar Yankov	AMC	Hanover 96
Blagoy Georgiev	MR	Red Star
Hristo Yanev	AMRL	Grenoble
Georgi Iliev	AMRC	CSKA Sofia
Marian Hristov	MC	Wolfsburg
Dimitar Telkiyski	MR	Levski Sofia
Velizar Dimitrov	AMRC/FC	CSKA Sofia
Forwards
Dimitar Berbatov	SC	Tottenham Hotspur
Valeri Bojinov	SC	Juventus
Svetoslav Todorov	SC	Portsmouth
Emil Angelov	FC	Levski Sofia
Tsvetan Genkov	FC	Lokomotiv Sofia
Manager
Hristo Stoichkov

• Georgi Asparuhov
• Hristo Bonev (coach)
• Dimitar Yakimov
• Nikola Kotkov
• Petar Zhekov
• Bozhidar Iskrenov
• Nikolay Iliev
• Kiril Ivkov
• Pavel Panov
• Stoycho Mladenov
• Tzvetan Yonchev
• Dimitar Penev

The Golden Bulgarian Football Generation

• Hristo Stoichkov (current coach of the Bulgarian national football team)
• Krassimir Balakov (current coach of Grasshopers)
• Yordan Letchkov (current mayor of Sliven)
• Nasko Sirakov
• Trifon Ivanov
• Borislav Mikhailov (current president of the Bulgarian Football Union)
• Emil Kostadinov
• Luboslav Penev
• Daniel Borimirov
• Petar Hubchev
• Zlatko Yankov
• Ivaylo Yordanov

• Dimitar Berbatov
• Valeri Bojinov
• Martin Petrov
• Stilian Petrov
• Georgi Ivanov
• Radostin Kishishev
• Marian Hristov
• Chavdar Yankov

• Bulgarian football - history, teams, stadiums, fan clubs
• RSSSF archive of results 1924-
• RSSSF archive of most capped players and highest goalscorers
• Bulgarian football legends
• Planet World Cup archive of results in the World Cup
• Planet World Cup archive of squads in the World Cup
• Planet World Cup archive of results in the World Cup qualifiers

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