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Hristo Stoichkov

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Hristo Stoichkov
Христо Стоичков
Personal information
Full name Hristo Stoichkov Stoichkov
Date of birth (1966-02-08) 8 February 1966 (age 58)
Place of birth Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s) Striker, winger
Youth career
1976–1982 Maritsa Plovdiv
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1981–1982 Zavod "Yuri Gagarin" 16 (3)
1982–1984 Hebros 32 (14)
1984–1990 CSKA Sofia 119 (81)
1990–1995 Barcelona 151 (76)
1995–1996 Parma 23 (5)
1996–1998 Barcelona 26 (7)
1998 CSKA Sofia 4 (1)
1998 Al-Nassr 2 (1)
1998–1999 Kashiwa Reysol 28 (13)
2000–2002 Chicago Fire 51 (17)
2003 D.C. United 21 (5)
Total 473 (225)
International career
1987–1999 Bulgaria 83 (37)
Managerial career
2004–2007 Bulgaria
2007 Celta Vigo
2009–2010 Mamelodi Sundowns
2012- Litex Lovech
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Hristo Stoichkov Stoichkov (Template:Lang-bg), sometimes Stoitchkov; born 8 February 1966 in Plovdiv) is a retired Bulgarian footballer. He is regarded as one of the best footballers of his generation[1] and the greatest Bulgarian footballer of all time.[2][3] Nicknamed The Dagger (Камата), The Dog (Кучето), The Modern Left (Модерния ляв). At Barcelona he earned the Spanish nickname 'El Pistolero' which translates to 'the gunslinger'. He was a member of the Bulgaria national team that finished fourth at the 1994 World Cup. Apart from his footballing talent, he was notable for his on-pitch temper. He was honoured as European Footballer of the Year in 1994. He was named by Pelé as one of the 125 Greatest Living Footballers at a FIFA Awards Ceremony in 2004.

Club career

Dr.H.C.Hr.Stoichkov began his career in his hometown, moving to Hebros in 1984. The next year he went to CSKA Sofia. There, he was involved in a fight during the final of the 1985 Bulgarian Cup which resulted in an original lifelong ban, which was eventually reduced to a month suspension.[4] After he was brought back to football, he managed to win the European Golden Boot with CSKA by scoring 38 goals in 30 games. He then moved on to FC Barcelona, where he was part of Johan Cruyff's 'Dream Team', Stoichkov helped Barcelona to one of the most successful eras of the club, winning the Primera Division four years in a row between 1991 and 1994 and the European Cup after defeating Sampdoria in 1992. During his stay in Barcelona, he had become an idol for the club's fans, and was Barça's most popular player at the time, having earned a place in the supporters' hearts much like Johan Neeskens and Diego Maradona in the past. In Barcelona Stoichkov played in tandem with Romário.

In his first season with the club Stoichkov was suspended for two months for stomping on a referee's foot,[5] but he still netted 14 league goals and six more in the Cup Winners' Cup. Stoichkov then had short spells with Parma, Al-Nassr, and finally finishing his career in Japan with Kashiwa Reysol and the United States with the Chicago Fire and D.C. United.

In 1994, he was named European Footballer of the Year after leading his national side to the 1994 World Cup semi-finals.

International career

At the 1994 World Cup, Stoichkov was awarded the World Cup Golden Boot as the joint top goal scorer of the tournament (with Oleg Salenko), with six goals, as well as earning the Bronze Ball award. He led Bulgaria past Germany to the semi-finals, where they lost 2–1 to Italy. They subsequently lost the third place play-off to Sweden, 4–0.

Bulgaria finished second in the qualifying group for Euro 1996 after the first place was taken by the eventual winners, Germany. Stoichkov scored 10 goals for his team during the qualifiers, as Bulgaria qualified as one of the best 6 runners-up. In the first match against Germany in Sofia, Bulgaria were 2–0 down at half-time. Stoichkov equalized with two goals from penalties and Emil Kostadinov also scored for a 3–2 win. Bulgaria lost the second match in Germany 3–1.

During the finals, Bulgaria lost 3–1 in the decisive group match against a very strong France side (the future World Champions); at the same time, in the other match, Spain won 2–1 late on against Romania and so the Bulgarians went out. In that tournament, Stoichkov scored 3 goals in 3 matches, and another goal against Spain was disallowed for offside, though action replays show that he was actually on-side. Stoitchkov was the only player to score from a free kick (against France) in this tournament.

He was also part of the squad that was eliminated in the first round of the 1998 World Cup. Bulgaria was not nearly as strong as in previous years, earning only one point in a 0–0 draw against Paraguay and scoring only one goal through Kostadinov in a 6–1 defeat by Spain in the so-called "Group of Death".

Stoichkov retired from internationals in 1999 with 37 goals in 83 appearances. Subsequently he was the coach of the Bulgarian national team from 2004 to April 2007.

Style of play

File:Hristo Stoichkov - Balón de Oro (1994).jpg
The Golden Ball won by Stoichkov in 1994

Stoichkov played as a left winger who was known for his explosive acceleration and speed dribbling, and for taking unpredictable shots on goal. He was also notable at taking free kicks and penalties as well as being among the best crossers in the world at his prime. He gained infamy because of his aggressive temper on the pitch. He could often be seen arguing with the referee, or with his opponents. In 2006, he was sued by a former American University college student whose leg he broke in a violent tackle during a match against D.C. United in 2003. The case was settled out of court in 2007 for undisclosed financial terms.[6] The student's coach called Stoichkov's challenge "criminal". Ray Hudson, who coached D.C. United for whom Stoichkov played at the time, called it a "rash tackle". Following an investigation by MLS, Stoichkov was suspended two games and fined $2,000.[7]

Career statistics

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1982–83||rowspan="2"|Hebros||||11||4|||||||||||||||| |- |1983–84||||21||10|||||||||||||||| |- |1984–85||rowspan="6"|CSKA Sofia||rowspan="6"|A PFG||11||0||||||||||||||11||0 |- |1985–86||19||2||||||||||||||19||2 |- |1986–87||25||16||2||0||colspan="2"|-||7||1||34|||17 |- |1987–88||27||20||4||4||colspan="2"|-||7||5||38|||29 |- |1988–89||26||28||7||3||colspan="2"|-||8||8||41|||39 |- |1989–90||30||38||5||7||colspan="2"|-||3||2||38|||47 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1990–91||rowspan="5"|FC Barcelona||rowspan="5"|La Liga||24||14||6||2||colspan="2"|-||8||5||38|||21 |- |1991–92||32||17||2||1||colspan="2"|-||9||4||43|||22 |- |1992–93||33||20||6||2||colspan="2"|-|||6||2|||45|||24 |- |1993–94||34||16||6||1||colspan="2"|-|||8||7||48|||24 |- |1994–95||26||10||4||5||colspan="2"|-||8||3||38|||18 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1995–96||Parma||Serie A||23||5||2||0||colspan="2"|-||5||2||30|||7 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1996–97||rowspan="2"|FC Barcelona||rowspan="2"|La Liga||22||7||6||1||colspan="2"|-||6||0||34|||8 |- |1997–98||4||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||3||1||8|||1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1997–98||CSKA Sofia||A PFG||4||1||||||||||||||4||1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1997–98||Al-Nassr||||2||1||||||||||||||2||1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1998||rowspan="2"|Kashiwa Reysol||rowspan="2"|J. League Division 1||16||8||1||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||17||8 |- |1999||11||4||colspan="2"|-||1||1||colspan="2"|-||12||5 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2000||rowspan="3"|Chicago Fire||rowspan="4"|Major League Soccer||18||9||3||1||||||||||21||10 |- |2001||17||6||3||2||||||||||20||8 |- |2002||16||2||0||0||||||||||16||2 |- |2003||D.C. United||21||5||3||1||||||||||24||6 Template:Football player statistics 3174||119||18||14|||-|||||25||16||218|||149 Template:Football player statistics 4 175||83||31||12|||-|||||48||22||254|||117 Template:Football player statistics 423||5||2||0||||-||5||2||30|||7 Template:Football player statistics 42||1||||||||||||||2||1 Template:Football player statistics 427||12||1||0||1||1||colspan="2"|-||29|||13 Template:Football player statistics 472||22||9||4|||||||||||81|||26 Template:Football player statistics 5473||268||61||30||1||1||78||49||594||313 Template:Football player statistics end

[8] Template:Football player national team statistics |- |1987||3||0 |- |1988||12||4 |- |1989||8||1 |- |1990||4||0 |- |1991||3||2 |- |1992||5||2 |- |1993||6||4 |- |1994||11||9 |- |1995||7||7 |- |1996||5||5 |- |1997||4||1 |- |1998||10||1 |- |1999||5||1 |- !Total||83||37 |}

Honours

CSKA Sofia
1987, 1989, 1990
1985, 1987, 1988, 1989
1989
Barcelona
1990–91, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1997–98
1992, 1994, 1996
1991–92, Runner-Up 1993–94
1992, 1997
1996–97
1996–97
Al-Nassr
1998
Chicago Fire
2000
Individual
Top Scorer 1989, 1990
1989
1989
1992
1994
1994
1994
1994
1996
1999
2007

In November 2003, to celebrate UEFA's Jubilee, he was selected as the Golden Player of Bulgaria by the Bulgarian Football Union as their most outstanding player of the past 50 years.[9]

Mamelodi Sundowns
Coach of the Month: December 2009[10]

References

  1. ^ http://www.fcbarcelona.com/web/english/club/historia/jugadors_de_llegenda/stoichkov.html
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ [2]
  4. ^ http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story/_/id/968067/first-xi:-a-burning-hatred?cc=5901
  5. ^ The singular genius of the mad boy Hristo
  6. ^ Goff, Steven. "AU Player Settles With Club, MLS, Stoitchkov". The Washington Post. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  7. ^ Goff, Steven (February 27, 2007). "Player Hurt in United Scrimmage in '03 Seeks Damages". The Washington Post.
  8. ^ http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/stoichkov-intlg.html
  9. ^ Golden Players take centre stage
  10. ^ "Hristo Stoichkov and Katlego Mphela were awarded PSL Coach and Player of the month". 2009-10-09. Retrieved 2010-01-15.
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Bulgarian Footballer of the Year
1989–1992 		Succeeded by
Preceded by European Golden Boot
alongside Mexico Hugo Sánchez
1989–1990 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Bulgarian Footballer of the Year
1994 		Succeeded by
Preceded by European Footballer of the Year
1994 		Succeeded by
Preceded by FIFA World Cup Golden Shoe
1994
Shared with:
Russia Oleg Salenko 		Succeeded by
Preceded by FIFA World Cup Bronze Ball
1994 		Succeeded by
Sporting positions
Preceded by Bulgaria Captain
1998–1999 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Bulgaria national football team manager
2004–2007 		Succeeded by

Template:Persondata

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