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Sport in Bulgaria |
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Sport in Bulgaria
Football has become by far the most popular sport in Bulgaria. Many Bulgarian fans closely follow the top Bulgarian league, the Bulgarian "A" Professional Football Group;as well as the leagues of other European countries.The Bulgaria national football team achieved its greatest success with a fourth-place finish at the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States.Dimitar Berbatov currently ranks as the most popular Bulgarian footballer.Hristo Stoichkov has arguably become the best-known Bulgarian footballer of all time.His career peaked between 1992 and 1995,while he played for FC Barcelona,winning the Ballon d'Or in 1994.Additionally,he featured in the FIFA 100 rankings.Two Bulgarians have won the European top scorers'Golden Boot award:Stoichkov and Petar Jekov.Georgi Asparuhov-Gundi (1943-1971),also became extremely popular at home and abroad,having had offers from clubs in Italy and Portugal,and having won the Bulgarian football player №1 award for the twentieth century.
PFC CSKA Sofia(champion of Bulgaria 30 times, National cup holder 23 times,European Cup semi-finalist 2 times,Cup Winners' Cup semi-finalist),PFC Levski Sofia (25 times champion of Bulgaria and (as of 2007) 26 times National Cup holder),PFC Slavia Sofia (8 times football champion of Bulgaria and 12 times holder of the National Cup,Cup Winners' Cup semi-finalist) and PFC Botev Plovdiv (officially the oldest football club in Bulgaria,established in 1912,2 times football champion of Bulgaria,3 times holder of the National Cup and once Balkans Cup) have become the most successful Bulgarian football-clubs.
Hristo Stoichkov
Other popular clubs include PFC Lokomotiv Sofia,PFC Litex Lovech,PFC Cherno More Varna and PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv.PFC Levski Sofia became the first Bulgarian team to participate in the modern UEFA Champions League group stage,having achieved this by qualifying for the 2006/2007 competition.Apart from football, Bulgaria boasts great achievements in a great variety of other sports.Maria Gigova and Maria Petrova have each held a record of three world-titles in rhythmic gymnastics.Other famous gymnasts include Simona Peycheva and Neshka Robeva (a highly successful coach as well).Yordan Yovtchev ranks as the most famous Bulgarian competitor in Artistic Gymnastics.Bulgarians also dominate in weightlifting,with around 1,000 gold medals in different competitions,although cases of doping have occurred among Bulgarian weightlifters,which led to the expulsion of the entire Bulgarian team from the 2000 Summer Olympics,and their voluntary withdrawal from the 1988 Summer Olympics.
Boyan Radev ,Stefan Botev, Nickolai Peshalov, Demir Demirev and Yoto Yotov figure among the most distinguished weightlifters.In wrestling,Serafim Barzakov, Armen Nazarian,Plamen Slavov,Kiril Sirakov and Sergey Moreyko rank as world-class wrestlers.Dan Kolov has became a wrestling legend in the early 20th century after leaving for United States.Bulgarians have made many significant achievements in athletics.Stefka Kostadinova,who still holds the women's high jump world record, jumped 209 centimetres at the 1987 World Championships in Athletics in Rome to clinch the coveted title. Presently,Bulgaria takes pride in its sprinters,especially Ivet Lalova and Tezdzhan Naimova.Volleyball recently experienced a big resurgence.The Bulgarian national volleyball team,one of the strongest teams in Europe,currently ranks fifth in the FIVB ranklist.At the 2006 Volleyball World Championship, they won the bronze medal.Chess has achieved great popularity.One of the top chess-masters and a former world champion,Veselin Topalov, plays for Bulgaria. At the end of 2005,both men's and women's world chess-champions came from Bulgaria,as well as the junior world champion.Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski have won the ISU world figure skating championships twice in a row (2006 and 2007) for ice-dance.
Dimitar Berbatov
Bulgaria also has strengths in shooting sports.Maria Grozdeva and Tanyu Kiriakov have won Olympic gold medals,and Ekaterina Dafovska won the Olympic gold in biathlon in the 1998 Winter Olympic games.Petar Stoychev set a new swimming world record for crossing the English Channel in 2007.The country has strong traditions in amateur boxing and in martial-arts competitions.Bulgaria has achieved major success with its judo and karate teams in European and World championships.Kaloyan Stefanov Mahlyanov,best known as Kotoōshū Katsunori,has become well-known worldwide for his sumo prowess.
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