THE IMMORTAL HRISTO STOICHKOV
An extremely large dose of a larger than life character today as we celebrate the birthday, number 46 to be precise, of Hristo Stoichkov.
‘El Pistolero’ was already a goalscoring legend in Bulgaria and a hero in Sofia for his 81 strikes in 119 games for CSKA when he arrived at Barcelona in 1990. However things didn’t get off to a great start at the Camp Nou following the striker’s petulant stamp on a referee’s foot during his first season. Following a two month ban and widespread criticism, things quickly turned around in Catalonia and Stoichkov was an inspirational figure in Barca’s early 90’s domination of La Liga, cutting quite the dash alongside Romario. He was also exceptional at the 1994 World Cup leading Bulgaria to the semi-finals and a fourth place finish.
Those magical days harnessed between 1990 and 1995 were never quite repeated at any of Stoichkov’s other clubs after he left Barcelona in 1995. A fairly underwhelming time at Parma led to a slightly jaded return to Barca in 1996 and subsequent forays to the US, Japan and the Middle East highlighted a great player for whom time had not stood still.
Recently returning to club management with Bulgarian outfit Litex Lovech, Stoichkov is best remembered for doing his thing at Barcelona and we’ve a video fest for you here.
We’ve got a nice compilation of goals on the first video, but we’ve also included the excellent Spanish documentary from the Duelos de Oro series featuring Stoichkov. It’s in three parts and there are no subtitles, but even if your Spanish is not so good, there’s still plenty to enjoy so do give it a go.
Click the imageS to watch.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Reader Comments (3)
You do know that those 81 goals in 119 games were for CSKA Sofia, not Moscow! Indeed here he is scoring an audacious lob for CSKA Sofia against Barcelona in 1989 that could have brought him to Cruyff's attention if he didn't already know about him:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2v66x_barcelona-cska-1989-stoichkov-1_sport?ralg=meta2-only#from=playrelon-1
Erm, the 'hero in Moscow" part is a bit incorrect to say the least - he played for CSKA Sofia and not CSKA Moscow.
@anyone
Gah! Yes, our bad, Bulgarian icon and we send him to Moscow for no good reason! Apologies.