2024-02-13 10:16:43
The great Hristo Stoichkov honored the memory of another huge football legend of Bulgaria – Trifon Ivanov, with a post on Facebook. The Iron Defender passed away on February 13, 2016.
“It’s been 8 years and it’s like you never left! I’m still waiting for your number to ring to say one of your great catchphrases!
Tuño, you are not forgotten and you never will be! You were the heart and soul of our team! And a nightmare for world champions that we beat regularly! Rest in peace my friend! And protect us from where you are now!” Stoichkov wrote.
The two were main figures first in CSKA, and then in the Peneva squad, which reached 4th place in the world in 1994.
Ivanov was Bulgaria’s #1 player in 1996. With CSKA, he became the champion of Bulgaria 3 times, and in 1996 he won the Austrian title with “Rapid” (Vienna).
He has 77 matches and 6 goals for the Bulgarian national team.
His goal against Russia at the Vasil Levski National Stadium on September 10, 1997, with which Bulgaria qualified for the World Cup in France in 1998, will remain unforgettable.
In the last years of his life, the heart defender held the position of chairman of the zonal council of the BFS in Veliko Tarnovo.