2024-04-16 05:35:49
The first six teams in the Bulgarian First League are now managed only by Bulgarian coaches.
This became a fact after the owners, the financial benefactors, the majority holders of shares or whatever they call those from CSKA,
sacked Serbian coach Nestor El Maestro,
born as Nestor Yevtych, and at one time went astray as John Smith.
This is probably really a precedent in recent years, because at least one, and sometimes several, foreign coaches determine which way Bulgarian club football should go.
At the moment the situation is as follows.
First place in the First League is “Ludogorets” with head coach Georgi Dermendzhiev. He is in this position for the third time, and it is with him that the two rankings in the groups of the Champions League are connected. He was also the coach of “Levski” and the national team.
Second in the ranking is “Black Sea”, where the coach is two in one – an unexpectedly good combination. Ilian Iliev was also the coach of the “blues” at one point, but then he returned to his native Varna and is currently fighting tooth and nail to prevent “Ludogorets” from winning the 13th championship title of Bulgaria. But at the same time, he is also the senior coach of the Bulgarian national team, although he failed to lead the team to the European finals, which would have been the first major championship for us after 2004.
It was here that Nestor el Maestro, mentioned at the beginning, could break the slender structure of the Bulgarian coaching hegemony in the top 6. However, after another failure – 1:2 as the host of the supposedly modest “Pirin”, the mentor became famous mostly for changing his names , was still fired, and Stamen Belchev was appointed in his place. He became famous as the new Ferrari Spasov – when a coach is fired from CSKA, Belchev comes in his place.
In “Loko” (Plovdiv) both there are no and there are dramatizations. Either the owner Hristo Krusharski will say that he is not satisfied with the coach, or the coach Alexander Tomas will express dissatisfaction with the management.
But nevertheless the two are in some strange symbiosis,
which at this point pleases the fans of probably the most likable team right now.
Levski is fifth in the top six, although it is not known how long Nikolay Kostov will be coached. After the 1:5 loss against Ludogorets, he was rechristened 5Kolio, and the “blues” fans immediately demanded his resignation.
But judging by the recent actions of all the club’s management, the new coach will certainly be Bulgarian. The last foreigner in this position was Slavisa Stojanovic, who was replaced in 2021 by Zivko Milanov. After that, Todor Simov was the coach very briefly and temporarily, then Stanimir Stoilov, and then temporarily Elin Topuzakov, in order to arrive at the second appointment of Nikolay Kostov.
On Monday night, there was a playoff for sixth place, but it was not going to change the trend anyway. Before the victory of CSKA 1948 over “Loko” (Sf) with 2:1, there was “Krumovgrad” with coach Stanislav Genchev. But now
Valentin Iliev’s boys returned to the first six
– former national defender and son of the famous goalkeeper Iliya Valov.
Stamen Belchev held his first training session as head coach of CSKA. He was presented to the players by executive directors Filip Filipov and Stoyan Ormandzhiev.
“It is extremely positive that Stamen Belchev is well acquainted with the team, given the short time we have until the next important match. He is a person from the “kitchen” of CSKA, he also trained many of the young guys in the second team”, said Stoyan Ormandzhiev.