Celebrating 30 years since the football summer when God was Bulgarian

The date is November 17, 1993. It is the last minute of the match between Bulgaria and France at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris, which should determine the team participating in the World Cup in the USA next year. The score is 1:1 (where France would have qualified), everyone is waiting for the final whistle, when Bulgaria's Emil Kostadinov scores a fantastic goal in the net of Bernard Lama, qualifying Bulgaria for the sixth time in the world finals, and on the air of the Bulgarian National Television, viewers could hear the memorable line of sports commentator Nikolay Kolev aka Michmana - "God is Bulgarian!". An exclamation that has remained in the history of sports and has been included in the dictionary of world football, written by the British journalist Tom Williams in 2018.

Thus began the magical football fairy tale of a nation, and its culmination was in the summer of 1994 in the stadiums of the USA, when the success of the Bulgarian national team surpassed even the wildest dreams of every Bulgarian. Already in the group stage, the 4-0 victory over Greece was the first such victory ever scored by the Bulgarian team at a world championship. A 2-0 victory over Argentina followed. The Bulgarians eliminated Mexico 4:2 after penalty kicks (1:1 in regular time and overtime) in the eighth round. Next came the memorable quarter-final, in which Dimitar Penev's squad faced the world champion Germany. After 0:0 in the first half the Germans took the lead with a goal by Lothar Matthäus from a penalty, but in just 3 minutes, in the 75th and 78th, our players turned the score to 2:1 with goals by Hristo Stoichkov and Yordan Lechkov. The winning momentum was halted by Italy in the semi-final 2-1, followed by a 4-0 loss to Sweden in the third place match. But the Nation rejoiced!

"You have done as much for Bulgaria as all diplomats and politicians have failed to do in this century", then Bulgarian President Zhelyu Zhelev said in his address to the players.

It has been 30 years since those sleepless July evenings when the squares and boulevards of Bulgaria were full of people not because of political protest and discontent, but out of pride and gratitude that "God is Bulgarian". And today we continue to ask ourselves - what was the super power of the 22 chosen men in the team of head coach Dimitar Penev?

The answer emerges just on the eve of the football anniversary in the comic edition "94th. The Legend!", the brainchild of the Maina Town platform.

"Generally speaking, the publication is a comic ode to this triumph, not only of Bulgarian football, but of the Bulgarian people in general," one of its authors, writer and director Todor Karagyaurov, tells Radio Bulgaria. The story in the book contains heroism, feats and character development, intertwining historical events and fiction from the world of comics, he adds.

We are absolutely faithful to the history of our football team in the USA. We catch them right from the last legendary match against France that qualified us for the finals and then, match by match in America, we follow in comic book style, with graphic novels, each match that appears as a chapter in our book.

Along with the documentary part, in which we are absolutely rigorous about the players, the goals, the opponents, we bring an artistic touch to the story - we turn the players into characters with very specific gifts. And that's already ours, an artistic appendage to this story. Separately, for each of our great footballers - Hristo Stoichkov, Trifon Ivanov, Krassimir Balakov, we elaborate on 8 of them together with the coach - we make a background story in childhood, when each one got his superpower, which in turn is then activated in the matches themselves. In the power of each of them we have tried to weave an element of Bulgarian folklore, such as Hristo Stoichkov's dragon left foot or like Balakov's inexhaustible energy.

Trifon Ivanov himself, who was actually remembered by international fans back then as the bad defender with a harsh look and wolf bait, we have also tied in such a legend that he was bitten by a small wolf when he was young and gained his strength, which then on the field turned him into an uncompromising defender."

One of Trifon Ivanov's own nicknames was the Wolf.

The comic book edition "94th. The Legend" was made in less than six months. In the first weeks Todor Karagyaurov and his colleague Milen Antiokhov wrote the story, invented the legends, then the baton was taken by the artists - Yordan Brankovski, Diana Naneva, Dimitar Petrov, Ivan Domuschiev and Desislava Brankovska.

Also included are several "priceless interviews" in the words of the team, done by Milen Antiokhov with some of Bulgaria's golden boys, including Krasimir Balakov, goal scorer Hristo Stoichkov, the national team administrator at the time Alexander Dinev and of course the commentator whose voice marks all the successes - journalist Boris Kasabov. "They give a lot of interesting additional, insider information, which corresponds very nicely with the fiction that we also bring in, because it backs it up with documentary credibility," admits Todor.

Woven into the story is an interesting moment of conflict between Stoichkov and Balakov during the match against Germany.

That's the real situation where the two of them are fighting at halftime of the match with Germany when things aren't going well for us, and they are one of our most important players. Yet, by resolving this conflict, they unite the whole team. In reality it goes slightly unnoticed by all the fans, but then in their interviews and stories it turns out to have been a key moment in the team's performance. With their reconciliation, shortly after half-time, our team rallied and made that turnaround that we all remember and which took us to the historic semi-final," explains Todor Karagiaurov.

Stoichkov and Balakov remain the only Bulgarians included in the 1994 World Cup Ideal Team.

This Monday, July 1, 2024, the two will be special guests at the Euro-2024/USA-94! outdoor stage in Veliko Tarnovo, where the matches of the European Championship in Germany are broadcast for a month, as well as the memorable matches of Dimitar Penev's team from the American summer of '94.

Krasimir Balakov and Hristo Stoichkov after the first goal against the German team

The main cause for the event is to raise funds to erect a monument to the legend Trifon Ivanov, who left us in 2016. Stoichkov and Balakov delivered a special video message in which they describe the initiative as wonderful and announced many surprises in the meet-and-greet with fans in front of the monument of Asenevtsi in the old capital.

"Team spirit" turns out to be the superpower of the best Bulgarian national football team in our history. A spirit that is tempered even by scandals and vicissitudes, but always subordinated to one goal - collective success. Todor Karagyaurov is optimistic about the future and believes that with some changes and a dose of luck we can once again experience football intoxication as a nation. Until then - we will continue to watch the European finals in Germany and support others.

''Thank you and forgive us'' - a song of Georgi Minchev dedicated to Bulgaria's 1994 football team

Read also:

Rumen Paytashev: There is always hope for Bulgarian football to bounce off the bottom

Photos: mainatown.bg, futbol94.com, archive

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Celebrating 30 years since the football summer when God was Bulgarian

New comic novel "94th. The Legend" tells about the super powers of Dimitar Penev's team

''Thank you and forgive us'' - a song of Georgi Minchev dedicated to Bulgaria's 1994 football team

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